Businesses, customers raise issues with Hope House residents
Hillsdale Daily News
A bulk of the Hillsdale City Council’s discussions Monday night centered around complaints stemming from downtown businesses and their customers with residents of the Hope House.
The Hope House’s Jonesville location was split when male residents were moved to the city of Hillsdale above the former Jilly Beans on the corner of Howell and Bacon streets.
A number of letters included in Monday night’s council packet raised issues with the men loitering around downtown businesses, smoking cigarettes and throwing cigarette butts onto the sidewalks and into the streets. Some customers of those businesses even felt intimidated by the group of men.
City working diligently to re-open Baw Beese Lake park system
Hillsdale Daily News
HILLSDALE The storm systems that wreaked havoc across Hillsdale County late Sunday night into early Monday morning caused a temporary closure of the Baw Beese Lake park systems, including Owen Memorial Park and Sandy Beach.
City Manager David Mackie said on Wednesday that crews had re-opened Waterworks Park and up to the public boat launch at the beginning of the park system, but beyond that remained closed due to a number of large trees that fell during the storm blocking access and creating dangers to would be lake goers.
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City charging forward with street projects
Hillsdale Daily News
HILLSDALE With passage of a 4-mill tax levy by voters in the city of Hillsdale earlier this month, city staff members are transitioning to planning and completing several streets projects in 2021.
City Manager David Mackie said Wednesday the Fayette Street project, which began last fall, should be finished within the next couple of weeks.
After that, the city will focus on street improvements in the Hillcrest and Riverdale neighborhoods with the previous approval of city council in establishing special assessment districts in those neighborhoods, to provide additional funding for street repair. Mackie said work in those neighborhoods should begin in July.
HILLSDALE Many roads in the city of Hillsdale can be described with one word dilapidated.
Road reconstruction and repairs have been a priority of the city council for years, if not longer, with several roads having been completely reconstructed in the last couple of years through a combination of grants and a three mill tax levy enacted by the council specifically for road funding.
However, those grant opportunities for million-dollar road construction projects are few and far between. City Manager David Mackie said those opportunities realistically come about once every five years.
Without grant funding to offset local costs, the city has been discussing road funding options since the beginning of the year in order to continue progress in replacing its aging infrastructure.