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News Photo by Crystal Nelson
Kim Margherio is pictured in her home in Rogers City. Margherio is the community events director with the city’s Downtown Development Authority and is among many residents working to get the city accepted into the Michigan Economic Development Corp.’s Main Street program.
ALPENA Rogers City officials knew the city’s population was declining, Mayor Scott McLennan said, but didn’t know how significant that decline was until a consultant completed an economic development plan last year.
The plan developed by the East Lansing-based firm Place and Main identified population decline as the number-one risk to the city’s future. Since 2000, the city has been on track to lose about 22% of its population or 745 people by 2024