Mulliken council approves larger gas station sign, shifts nearly $62,000 to cover budget shortfalls

The Mulliken village council approved a variance allowing a much larger sign at the local gas station, despite the village's sign ordinance capping signs at 25 square feet. A company representative explained the requested sign — just under 85 square feet — is needed to display the fuel brand and pricing, will replace two older signs in roughly the same spot, and will be protected by bollards. The variance passed, but trustee Will Simon cast the lone no vote, saying he wanted confirmation that the neighboring property owner had been formally notified about the larger, lit sign before it moved forward.

The treasurer reported a rough month on paper: two large, budgeted expenses — a new truck purchase and additional road and utility work — pushed the village to a loss of about $143,000 for the month. Both were anticipated costs but came in over what was budgeted. The board approved the profit-and-loss statement, along with a small reimbursement for parts used in a pavilion soffit repair.

To cover the overages, the council approved two budget adjustments. The first moves $42,000 from the general fund balance to pay for the equipment purchase and a drain-assessment shortfall, the cost of which is hard to predict until specific culvert repairs are identified. A second adjustment shifts $10,000 each from the major and local road fund balances into the major and local road repair budgets, which were running short.

On the sewer lagoon, the council approved spending about $6,150 to buy its own water-testing equipment — including an oxygen probe, pH probe, sampling cup and portable composite sampler — so village staff can perform the daily water-quality checks the state requires, rather than relying on an outside contractor's equipment. Separately, the council approved roughly $3,050 to fix broken valves and raise a manhole at the lagoon's lift station, work identified by the village's infrastructure contractor.

The clerk and treasurer told the board they've been overwhelmed handling a surge in zoning variance requests and asked that a trustee take on distributing applications to residents. A trustee volunteered, though Village President Dennis Kepitis will still have to sign off on each request after the full board reviews it. Separately, a local business is considering adding a large storage structure — described as a tall, tent-like dome — behind its existing building, which would require a height variance; no formal request has been filed, and the board tabled the matter until the company appears before the council.

Village President Kepitis raised concerns about the village's lack of clear parking rules amid resident complaints, and said he'll ask the village attorney for draft ordinance language, possibly modeled on other municipalities. Trustees also discussed problems with untrimmed grass and sidewalks in town, and residents not cleaning up after dogs, floating the idea of adding waste-bag stations around the village. No ordinances were adopted; the topics are expected to return at a future meeting.

In committee updates, sidewalk repairs were completed along Potter Street, but trustees noted continued problems on Trout Street and near another resident's home, along with a request to replace worn topsoil near a repaired section. On equipment, the finish mower needs hydraulic repairs and the village's aging ditch mower is functional but nearing replacement; the board is exploring having the state highway department handle roadside mowing instead of buying new equipment.

During public comment, a resident asked about the long-stalled sidewalk project along the highway; village staff said a bank failure had held up permitting but that they've brought in someone experienced with state road permits to help move it forward. A resident living on Charlotte Street asked about replacing sidewalk squares in front of her home with a concrete pad and was told to coordinate with village staff before doing the work. A candidate for a neighboring school board introduced himself to residents. Eaton County dispatch data for the period included an abandoned vehicle call, a criminal sexual conduct report, an animal complaint, a suspicious situation and several traffic stops.

Looking ahead, the pavilion has rental dates set for July 14 and August 23-24, and the board arranged for two trustees to get keys to the pavilion restroom to help with access on those dates. Trustees expect to take up draft parking, dog-control and sidewalk-maintenance ordinances at a coming meeting, and the possible storage-building addition is expected to come back before the council once the business is ready to seek its variance.

How this report was produced

This article was generated by an automated pipeline, and we think you should know exactly how. First, the audio of the meeting was converted into text by automatic speech recognition — software that infers words from sound, without a human listening along. That machine-made transcript was then read by Willbot, American2Day’s AI reporter, which condensed it into the report above. No human transcribed the meeting, and no human wrote this summary.