Mulliken seats two new trustees, tables bell and sign decisions until January

Trustees Will Simon and Brandon Lambrix officially joined the Mulliken village council this month, taking their oath of office after Tuesday's meeting following their election to the board. Fellow council members welcomed the pair as the village heads into 2023 budget planning.

In the treasurer's report, Treasurer Kelli Waldo told the council the village had received a "community stabilization" payment — a population-based revenue-sharing check separate from the state's Act 51 road funding — that added about $12,000 to the general fund, an amount she said has grown since the pandemic. Sewer billings went out in October as scheduled, and the treasurer noted the village paid contractor McKenzie roughly $18,000 for demolition work tied to the old salt shed site, with further discussion of that cost planned for next month. The council approved the treasurer's report.

The council had been corresponding with a resident serving as the village's ordinance enforcement officer about continuing in the role, but that person told the board they would decline to stay on, while agreeing to help train a replacement. They explained the position's process: a first 30-day notice goes out to property owners who are out of compliance, followed by a second 30-day notice before any citation is issued, with citations then handled through district court under a case-numbering system coordinated with the court. No trustee volunteered on the spot to take over the post, and the council agreed to let members think it over before revisiting the question in January.

Trustees were asked to compare their actual 2022 spending against budgeted amounts and to begin weighing priorities for 2023, including how much to put toward roads versus sidewalks. On parks and buildings, the council heard that new playground swings have been paid for, with the rest of the equipment order still in progress; because installation won't happen until 2023, the village will pay next year's installation pricing. A trustee asked to carry over unspent funds from this year's playground budget and requested an additional amount to cover the overage and to look into re-roofing the pavilion, which has never been redone since it was built and is in poor shape; a switch to steel roofing was raised as a possibly cheaper option, with a decision expected in January.

Much of the meeting was spent debating whether to relocate a historic bell currently housed outside the village. Trustees weighed the cost of moving it — described as running into the thousands of dollars once concrete work and equipment are factored in — against leaving it in place. Some worried the wood housing around the bell might not survive a move, while others suggested it could be set directly into a new concrete slab. Several noted the bell was originally tied to the building's earlier use as a Methodist church and that its current occupants have been cooperative, with some framing leaving it there as a gesture of goodwill. No decision was made; trustees floated putting the question to village voters at a future election and agreed to gather more cost information before deciding.

In old business, street lighting was reported to be in good condition, and a required study confirmed the proposed sidewalk near Dollar General meets the four-foot-width standard needed to qualify for non-motorized-pathway funding. The salt shed demolition is complete; the project came in over budget after crews uncovered several large old concrete footings — one estimated at about 14 tons — that had to be removed, but the total cost still came in well under the village's next-lowest bid. The site will be reseeded with topsoil in the spring. Until permanent salt storage is set up, the village is trading truckloads of salt evenly with Sunfield. Separately, the recycling/salt barn roof needs sheet-metal repairs; a roofing contractor visited to assess the damage and is expected to follow up with measurements and a quote.

The zoning report noted a request for a variance to keep chickens on a property on Eaton Highway; the applicant did not attend the meeting and will need to apply for a special-use permit and appear before the council before any variance is granted. Separately, the council reviewed quotes for new welcome signs at the village entrances, running from about $1,600 to $1,800 for a pair of signs depending on color choice after a village discount. Before committing, officials want to check whether leftover funds from a now-defunct library committee sign project can help cover the cost, and tabled the decision until January.

On code enforcement, trustees discussed sending two 30-day compliance notices before issuing any citation, a process the village's attorney has confirmed is proper. Several favored requiring the full board to agree before a citation is issued, rather than leaving that call to one person, so decisions are backed by multiple people and documented paperwork. A Potter Street property was cited as an example of a resident cleaning up fully after receiving a notice.

During public comment, Trustee Will Simon asked for a copy of the village's ordinances and reported early trouble with the new online sewer-payment system: some users who navigated away and returned to the payment screen ended up being charged multiple times, an issue he said other local businesses using similar payment tools have also run into. Residents were also told the village's annual holiday celebration will run from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. with Santa Claus at the Masons Lodge, followed by a tree lighting from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m., with local artists helping children with crafts and a photographer on hand; details will be posted to the village website. The meeting closed with a motion to adjourn and holiday wishes for a Merry Christmas and happy New Year.

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.