Mulliken council votes to remove aging recycling drop-off canopy

The Mulliken village council voted 4-1 to remove the torn canvas covering from the old recycling drop-off canopy, citing repair costs and doubts about how much of the material collected there is actually recycled. One trustee argued the effort "does nothing but cost us money," noting that aside from cardboard and paper, most recyclables end up in the landfill anyway. After the initial vote, the board approved a follow-up motion to remove only the torn canvas and leave the metal frame standing, in case the village wants to reinstall a canopy roof at a later date.

The treasurer reported the village received an unbudgeted state grant of roughly $14,700 for road repairs, split between major and local roads, plus another state grant of about $7,300 and a community stabilization grant of about $8,900 that comes in quarterly. Sewer billing showed roughly $16,000 outstanding as accounts receivable, with the treasurer noting the village typically collects about 70% of sewer bills, with the remainder covered through taxes.

Sewer repair and maintenance costs ran about $6,500 for the period, driven largely by heavy rainfall that forced the village to use roughly double its usual chemical treatment. Generator repair work through Cummins cost about $3,000, and the village also entered a five-year service contract with Cummins running roughly $1,000 a year, with an initial charge of $581.94. Trustee Bob McCausey moved to approve the treasurer's report, with Pam Jenkins seconding; the motion carried.

During public comment, a resident asked about the delay on the village's sidewalk project. Council members said the holdup is with state permits through MDOT, and that a contractor is ready to begin work as soon as the permits are secured. Village President Dennis Kepitis said he is working on getting those permits pulled.

Correspondence included a letter from Matthew Muir, Michigan state director for the Coalition Against Bigger Trucks, addressed to Trustee Brandon Lambrix. The letter asked the village to review a template letter opposing legislation that would allow heavier semi-trucks and offered a call to discuss impacts on local roads and safety. Several trustees pushed back strongly in favor of the trucking industry, and no action was taken on the request.

In new business, the council discussed milling work on a village road where cracking and potholes have reappeared, and plans to trim overhanging branches near traffic for safety, to be done during lighter traffic hours. Trustees thanked Bob McCausey for clearing brush along Eaton Highway. The new playground equipment remains on order and is expected to ship soon; the council plans to hold off on landscaping and mulch around the park until conditions are less dry.

The council also discussed removing a tree near power lines and a heaving curb close to the old Mary Davis property, agreeing to contact Consumers Energy first before seeking a private bid for removal. Separately, a tree-root-related trip hazard on the sidewalk near Potter Street will get a temporary concrete patch until the tree itself can be removed.

In committee reports, maintenance staff noted the extra chemical use tied to rainfall, ongoing curb painting and cleanup, and the start of annual generator servicing. The council also agreed it's time to finally change the oil in the street sweeper used for leaf pickup, which has never been serviced. The zoning administrator reported no village ordinance barring modular homes, as a resident is planning to place one on a lot in the Green Acres area following county specifications.

On code enforcement, the vacant, overgrown property linked to owner Robert Buckley remains in litigation, and the council will follow up on an adjoining lot that has only been mowed once this season. A resident also raised concerns about vehicles parking dangerously near the road at a nearby business and about an overgrown retention pond attracting insects; council members explained that retention ponds are required to retain certain vegetation to absorb stormwater and can't simply be mowed, and said future site-plan approvals could include more specific landscaping requirements.

In limited public comment, trustees relayed questions from residents about whether storage containers are allowed in place of sheds (no ordinance prohibits them) and about keeping chickens, which the village ordinance does not currently limit by number. The council discussed writing a specific cap, leaning toward four to six birds on village lots, with anyone wanting more required to seek a special use permit for review. The playground equipment order was reported still pending, with the vendor keeping the council updated. The meeting was adjourned by motion.

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.