Mulliken council approves roughly $55,000 storm sewer repair after Main Street sinkhole

The Mulliken village council approved a contractor's bid of about $55,400 to repair a collapsing storm sewer line on Main Street after a sinkhole opened in the road. The work will include replacing a manhole, catch basins, and the pipe across the street, along with catch basin and frame repairs on French Street. The council chose the contractor over a smaller roughly $48,000 option covering Main Street alone, saying the more complete fix was worth the extra cost.

A camera inspection shown at the meeting revealed the decades-old clay pipe beneath the sinkhole is cracked and failing, with heavy sediment and gravel buildup so severe that the camera could not run its full length in several spots. Officials warned that if the rest of the village's storm lines were inspected the same way, similar problems would likely turn up.

Trustees discussed how to handle bids for emergency repairs like this one, agreeing that when a problem needs immediate attention the village should go with a contractor known to be reliable and available rather than waiting weeks for competing bids, while routine projects will still go out for multiple bids. Village officials noted they had already reached out to another contractor who was too busy to take the job before turning to the contractor that was hired.

Because of the sinkhole, the council agreed to close that section of Main Street to cars during the upcoming Hot Rods and Harleys event, while allowing motorcycles to pass along the sound side of the road.

The treasurer's monthly report was approved without objection. It included about $10,000 in infrastructure-related spending tied to the village's first lagoon discharge of the year. A trustee asked about a roughly $60 road repair charge, which was identified as street signs, and about new lights for a village truck; the treasurer said no bill had come in yet for the lights.

Also for the Hot Rods and Harleys event, the council approved ordering four portable toilets, at a cost of roughly $400, after last year's event went without enough of them and left a mess.

Looking further ahead, officials discussed putting together a multi-year infrastructure plan, prioritizing camera inspection of storm lines on Main Street before any paving work on French Street. The village's sewage lift station, described as more than 40 years old, may need pump replacement estimated at roughly $50,000 or more. The council also discussed joining the Michigan Municipal League to help pursue infrastructure grants, pointing to a nearby community that recently received a multimillion-dollar grant for water treatment work.

The council approved spending about $1,500 to mow the sewer lagoon area, which the state prohibits from having grass taller than six inches and for which the village has been cited before. A separate, larger tree-trimming and brush-clearing job covering the lagoon and a stormwater retention pond was discussed but held off for next year's budget.

A trustee presented pricing for a radar speed-display sign, with one option around $3,100 and another near $4,000, but after limited public interest in the idea the board opted to table the purchase for now. The council also again tabled a decision on whether to reduce the number of trustees from six to four.

On zoning matters, the council approved a resident's request to add a small addition, roughly 20 by 5 feet, to a home, with the reminder that county building permits and setback rules would still apply. A separate request to add a roof over a back patio was tabled because the paperwork had not been submitted. Residents also raised concerns about vehicles parked improperly near a Main Street corner; officials noted the village currently has no parking ordinance to address it. A review of recent 911 calls included several fireworks complaints, along with reports of a domestic dispute, a missing person, a suspicious vehicle, and a traffic stop.

During public comment, a resident running for a school board seat in a neighboring district asked residents to remember the slate of three candidates on the November ballot and announced an upcoming informational meeting and a fundraiser later in September.

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.