[0:01] All right. I'd like to go ahead and call
this regular city council meeting to
[0:04] order on Monday, March 19th, 2026 at 6
p.m. If we could rise with pled of
[0:09] allegiance, please.
>> I pledge the algiance to the flag of the
[0:15] United States of America and to the
republic for which it stands, one nation
[0:20] under God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all.
[0:27] » Holly, will you call the role, please?
Bloodwick
[0:30] » here.
>> Haynes, Jenkins
[0:32] » here,
>> Grimes
[0:34] » here,
>> Gilroy
[0:35] » here,
>> Hansen,
[0:36] » yes.
>> Uh, we also had notification from
[0:39] Councilman Haynes and Councilman
Vanzberg that they would not be able to
[0:42] be here this evening. I'm looking for a
motion to excuse your absence.
[0:46] » So move.
>> Do I have support?
[0:47] » Second.
>> Thank you. All in favor say I.
[0:50] » I opposed. Motion carries. I'm looking
for approval of this evening's agenda
[0:56] unless there are changes that need to be
noted. to approve.
[0:59] » Thank you. Support.
>> Second.
[1:01] » All right. Thank you. All those in favor
say I.
[1:03] » I.
>> Opposed. Motion carries.
[1:07] » Just as an aside, if we had one more
person gone, we couldn't meet. Is that
[1:10] right?
>> Uh, no. We four. We have four, but then
[1:13] everything has to be unanimous and
nobody can vote no.
[1:16] » Okay.
>> But if you vote no,
[1:18] » let's never get to that point.
>> Thank you, Carrie.
[1:21] » All righty. Now, we have an opportunity
for audience participation with a
[1:25] maximum of five minutes per
presentation. Would anybody like to come
[1:28] forward? Please come forward. State your
name for us.
[1:35] Caroline Canarelli.
>> Hi Caroline. How are you? We haven't
[1:38] seen you in a while.
>> I know.
[1:42] » Can't come out with our golf carts
anymore.
[1:45] » Why not?
>> Okay. This is a concern about the lights
[1:50] that go through town
and we notice that you're
[1:55] doing away with the amber lights and
you're putting in the white lights.
[2:00] » Okay.
>> Why?
[2:02] » Um I'll go ahead and respond to that. We
usually don't respond during public
[2:06] comment, but those are DTE lights and
those lights, those ballots are all
[2:12] getting changed so so that they can be
uniform and it's a DTE issue. So, I
[2:17] appreciate your
>> I've had so many people tell me and
[2:21] friends and relatives that come in town
how how nice it is with the amber lights
[2:26] ambient, you know,
>> and those are are probably reaching
[2:30] their life expectancy. You'll notice
those are only on South Putham and the
[2:34] rest are, you know, all that new LED
[clears throat]
[2:37] and so, you know,
>> six of them right downtown.
[2:40] » Yeah. I'm sorry.
>> That's too bad. Well, but thank you for
[2:44] coming out on such a sunny day,
Caroline.
[2:46] » Appreciate it.
>> Would anybody else like to come forward
[2:48] during public comment?
>> Yeah, feel free. Please
[2:53] » state your name for us.
>> Hi, Marie Bowen. Uh, I just came here to
[2:57] introduce myself. I'm opening Run Boo,
which is a run and strength studio in
[3:01] town. Our grand opening is April 11th,
and hopefully we can schedule a ribbon
[3:06] cutting ceremony and see you guys all
there.
[3:09] » All right. Thanks so much for coming and
introducing you yourself and we're
[3:13] excited to have another business down in
our our uh downtown area.
[3:16] » Thank you. I'm excited to collaborate.
>> Thank you. Anyone else at this time? All
[3:22] right. Moving forward, we've got our
council meeting minutes of February
[3:25] 23rd, 2026. I'm looking for approval
unless there are changes that need to be
[3:30] noted.
>> Move to approve.
[3:32] » Do I have support?
>> Thank you. All those in favor say I. I.
[3:36] » I. Opposed. Motion carries. Terry, you
had an opportunity to review accounts
[3:42] payable. Can you tell us where the money
went?
[3:45] » Where did all that money go? Okay, so um
an interesting thing I said last time
[3:49] that was not quite correct. I said the
street lights are 50% of our electric
[3:55] bill. That's not quite the case. It's
50% of what you might call the municipal
[3:58] electric bill. So, the municipal
electric bill includes all of our DPW
[4:03] buildings, this building right here,
police station, some of the lift
[4:06] stations and other things like that, but
that's only about half. There's the
[4:10] other half, which I saw this time, is
the wastewater treatment plant and the
[4:13] water treatment plant, which are big,
big electric loads. So, street lights
[4:17] are actually only about one quarter of
our total electric bill. And one of the
[4:21] reasons why we've got the white ones
coming in, they're less expensive. So,
[4:24] » for what?
>> They're less expensive to run.
[4:27] They're less expensive.
>> Yeah. Yeah. So I Yeah. Um so that's my
[4:34] interesting thing in
>> Thank you, Carrie. Appreciate it.
[4:37] » Time around. And as usual, this this
just gobsmacks me. The um the advil
[4:42] valorum things that we pay to other
government units were again 80% of the
[4:47] amount of money that we spent in our
budget.
[4:49] » Yep. So, um,
with that,
[4:52] » all right,
>> I will, uh, make a motion to approve
[4:56] checks 78908-78,928
[5:00] and AC2099-2133
[5:04] for a grand total of 864,428.25.
[5:09] » Thank you very much, Terry. Does anybody
have any questions regarding accounts
[5:12] payable this week?
>> All right, I'm looking for
[5:14] » Oh, one other interesting thing. Um, if
you get caught driving while
[5:18] intoxicated, it's going to cost you 10
$15,000, something like that. It's a
[5:22] very expensive thing. Well, I found out
this time around, it's also expensive
[5:25] for the municipality that catches you
and and charges you. Yeah. So, we're
[5:30] having to pay uh lawyer Romley, I think
it is. We're having to pay them because
[5:34] we're prosecuting an EWI,
>> but I think we get it back if with as
[5:39] part of a conviction. So, that's what
John said. That was
[5:42] » more trivia. Thank you. All right. All
right. I'm looking for support.
[5:45] [clears throat]
>> Support.
[5:47] » Thank you. Holly, will you call the
role, please?
[5:49] » Ryan,
>> yes.
[5:50] » Gilroy,
>> yes.
[5:51] » Lewig,
>> yes.
[5:52] » Hansen,
>> yes.
[5:53] » Jenkins,
>> yes.
[5:55] » All right. We have a very short list of
action items this evening. Our first is
[6:00] to set budget work session dates.
Monday, May 11th or T and Tuesday, May
[6:07] 26. We do have a memo in our packet from
our city manager, John Hanniban. I'll
[6:11] turn it over to him.
>> Thank you. This is part of the annual
[6:14] budget process for our fiscal year. Um
per charter a draft budget is required
[6:18] to be presented to council by the April
April. It's the first meeting in April.
[6:22] This year it's April 13th. And then part
of the uh process is the work sessions
[6:27] that we have the two a minimum of two.
We've never gone beyond that but there's
[6:31] nothing that says that we can't. And
then the public hearings for the
[6:34] millillage rates, utility rates and fees
and then the fiscal year budget.
[6:38] [laughter] reason we do these early. I
mean, we're required by charter to have
[6:41] a budget adopted by the end of June.
This gives us plenty of time. Um, if
[6:45] there's, it's happened before throughout
my career. There's changes to weather,
[6:49] building issues. So, you can, you know,
come back later at a later date and and
[6:53] finish the process. So, pretty simple.
tonight. It's just the motions to set
[6:57] the budget work sessions for Monday, May
11th, and Tuesday, May 26th, which is
[7:02] the day after Memorial Day,
>> and then to set the the public hearings
[7:06] for the millage rates, utility rates,
and fiscal year on the 26th.
[7:10] » All right, great. Any questions before I
call for that motion? We're going to
[7:15] need two motions. So, I'm looking for
the f first motion, please.
[7:18] I'd move that we set our budget work
sessions as provided May 11th and May
[7:24] 26th.
>> Thank you. Do I have support?
[7:27] » All right. Hollywood, call the role,
please.
[7:29] » Rimes,
>> yes.
[7:30] » Gilroy,
>> yes.
[7:30] » Leadwick,
>> yes.
[7:31] » Hansen,
>> yes.
[7:32] » Jenkins,
>> yes.
[7:34] » All right. And I'm looking for that
second motion, please.
[7:37] » Make a motion to set the following
public hearings for May 26th of this
[7:40] year. Fiscal year 26 27 mill rates.
Fiscal year 2627 utility rates and fees.
[7:46] Fiscal year 26 27 fiscal year budget.
>> Thank you. Do I have support?
[7:50] » Support.
>> Thank you. Holly, will you call the
[7:52] role, please?
>> Gilroy,
[7:54] » yes.
>> Lewig,
[7:55] » yes.
>> Hansen,
[7:56] » yes.
>> Jenkins,
[7:57] » yes.
>> Ryan,
[7:58] » yes.
>> All right. Our last action item of this
[8:02] evening is easement for Innovation
Parkway. And we do have a memo in our
[8:06] packet. I'll turn that over to our city
manager, John Anaban.
[8:09] » Thank you. So, the goal here is to to
grant a easement 101 Innovation LLC,
[8:14] which is the the LLC that owns the the
currently vacant PI engineering
[8:18] building. Innovation Parkway is the
driveway that services that parking lot.
[8:24] And if you can you can see on the aerial
there there's a stub out that originally
[8:29] was intended, but based on my research
was to was going to go all the way to um
[8:34] Centurion Way, which is one of the loot
roads and the uh the uh industrial park.
[8:39] Um what came to light is there is a
purchase agreement for that building and
[8:43] as part of their due diligence it was
discovered that while there was an
[8:46] easement, the easement was not correctly
described from a from a
[8:52] kind of a meets and bounds perspective
from a survey um nor
[8:55] [cough and clears throat] was it ever
registered. So when we acquired that
[9:00] property, this is part of that. It's
actually on the property that we own.
[9:05] Um, and that's just one of those those
interesting anomalies when you work in a
[9:08] town long enough. Um, so what we're
asking for is simply to allow that that
[9:12] driveway to be included in an easement.
The easement language was prepared and
[9:16] reviewed by by Mr. Cron's office. It
doesn't grant an exclusive right. It
[9:22] just allows the building to have access
to it. Um, and it's not a public street.
[9:27] We're not required to maintain it. And
it certainly it it meets the end goal of
[9:31] when we we acquired that property. If it
can facilitate the sale of that that
[9:35] that property to a a new entity and have
a have it be occupied by some sort of
[9:40] business, that's a good thing. So I'd
have you happy to try and answer any
[9:44] questions you may have. I mean I was
doing researching the archives and uh
[9:49] there was a recommendation for that road
to go all the way through but somehow
[9:52] that that got you know abandoned
somewhere along the lines about like I
[9:56] said about 20 years ago. All right. Any
questions? Yes, Dan.
[10:00] » With this easement, you said it doesn't
grant them exclusive rights. Let's say,
[10:04] you know, we've just reacquired a lot of
this property. If in the future we
[10:08] wanted that to go the whole way through
with this easement, that would still be
[10:11] feas. Absolutely.
>> Anyone else? Any questions? No question.
[10:16] » All right. Great question. Thank you.
>> Yeah. Yeah. They there is there's no
[10:22] obligation for the city to maintain it
because it is a it is a private drive
[10:26] effectively.
>> Okay. Great. I'm looking for someone to
[10:29] make the motion then.
>> Where is that motion?
[10:34] » It's going to be down on the bottom of
the first page.
[10:38] » Make a motion to grant the attached
easement to 101 Innovation LLC, a
[10:44] Michigan Limited Liability Company,
whose address is 2375
[10:49] Woodlake Drive, Sweet 380 Okamus,
Michigan 48864.
[10:56] Thank you so much. Do I have support?
>> Thank you. If there's no other
[10:59] questions, Holly, would you call the
role, please?
[11:01] » Lewick,
>> yes.
[11:02] » Hansen,
>> yes.
[11:03] » Jenkins,
>> yes.
[11:05] » Ryan,
>> yes.
[11:06] » Gilroy,
>> yes.
[11:07] » All right, that concludes our action
items for this evening. Moving down
[11:10] along our agenda, we have our discussion
items, which is our main four safety
[11:14] improvements. Do we have any
>> Nothing to update this time. Haven't
[11:17] haven't heard back from the state, but
that was to be expected.
[11:20] » All right. Continuing along our agenda,
correspondence received. We do not have
[11:25] anything. So, we'll move right into
department head reports and I'll go back
[11:29] to our city manager John Han for his
>> just a couple of of brief things. Um,
[11:34] last Friday the the mayor and the chief
of police, we were invited to business
[11:39] leadership lunchon which I thought was
excellent and well attended. We had some
[11:42] folks here in the audience that were
there. I thought it was a really good
[11:46] discussion and a dialogue about, you
know, bringing the business community
[11:50] together and talk through common common
issues and and, you know, strategize on
[11:54] how to to make Wellington an even better
place. So, I thought that was a really
[11:57] good first step. So, that was good. Um,
about a year ago, we adopted you, we put
[12:03] these resolutions in front of you
seeking grant funds, and I always with
[12:07] the qualifier that it's usually
difficult for us in particular because
[12:11] we're we're we're a non-entitlement
community. that means that we're doing
[12:14] really well. But I'm happy to announce
that we did receive a4 million grant to
[12:18] help pave Industrial Park Drive in
Progress Court. So that's part of the
[12:22] TED FB project. No idea what that
afterward. I could make up what it
[12:26] means, but you could look it up if you
really needed to know. So that is uh
[12:32] 2026 uh fiscal year project for the
state. So, we're going to be required to
[12:36] have that as they call obligated before
the end of the state's fiscal year,
[12:40] which is uh the last day in September of
this year. But, um based on that, we had
[12:45] planned to do those projects as part of
the they are in the TIFFA district and
[12:49] so it's TIFFA funds that that are paying
for it. Um we'll still have plenty of
[12:53] funds to do that if we do in fact
actually have to build it this summer.
[12:56] We got a meeting with MDOT MDOT
representative next week to talk about
[13:00] that whether we just have to have it
obligated which means bid it out in this
[13:04] their current fiscal year and then for
us do it like next May if possible we
[13:09] may do that. One thing that will allow
us to do we'll we'll get a really great
[13:13] economy of scale for paving because as
you know the plan and it's been
[13:17] presented in the visioning session to do
mail and railroad streets
[13:20] » and we can bundle this project together.
So we'll really save a lot on
[13:24] mobilization. So, um, so beyond the
grant funds and it's great. Um, it's
[13:29] it's will really help queue up a lot of
good things. So,
[13:32] » excellent.
>> So, it was a good way to end the week
[13:34] last.
>> Yeah, that's great. That's great news.
[13:36] » Sort of a related thing. Remember
[clears throat] that 300,000 from
[13:39] Senator Water something something was
going to do was Lloyd Street and uh
[13:44] William Street and it was kind of
pending pending pending. Did we ever get
[13:48] that money?
>> Three million.
[13:50] » Three million was what the total grant
was.
[13:52] » So, so we're awarded that. We haven't we
haven't received an allocation from
[13:56] that, but we we expect to receive that.
>> That was one of the things um John
[14:01] covered that in uh our visioning, I
think, where we have to fill fill out
[14:06] some more paperwork
>> and then uh once that's hopefully the
[14:10] first branch will come through.
>> We'll we'll keep shaking that limb on
[14:13] that money tree at the state of Michigan
to get our money. Well, and and on that
[14:17] and on that front, I mean, the the
congressional earmarks, which is the
[14:22] nice way, there's a like a, you know,
more derogatory term for those
[14:26] » or somebody.
>> Yeah.
[14:27] » Well, no [laughter]
for the program
[14:31] more derogatory term for pork rail
projects is what they were called.
[14:34] » I just said,
>> but anyway, no. Don't turn this.
[14:38] » No, no, no. My my my point is bring it
back around.
[14:41] » There's congressional ear marks again.
There's Senate eararks again. So those
[14:46] are all due right right this month. And
so we we've submitted every year that
[14:51] I've been here for those for wastewater
plant improvements and we'll do that
[14:55] again this year. And you know we'll
cross our fingers. It's it's it's a
[14:58] challenge. It's difficult but we were
successful once which sometimes helps
[15:02] sometimes doesn't. So
>> but we'll keep at it.
[15:05] » See the fans how long we've been waiting
for that. Is it a year? Is it a year and
[15:08] a half?
>> It's roughly a year and a half.
[15:10] » Year and half.
>> Okay. Right. Just going.
[15:13] » That's all I have. All right. Thank you,
Chief. Thank you for your memo and here.
[15:17] Would you like to expound upon it?
>> Uh, the only thing to highlight is we
[15:22] did um if you recall, we had the lean,
the law enforcement identification
[15:27] network uh audit that we came through to
find colors. Thanks to officer Smith and
[15:33] Vonnie uh did a great job. But we also
uh last month had our M goals, the
[15:38] Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement
Standards assessment which assessed uh
[15:43] three areas of the department, our
training program policy and employee
[15:48] history records and they know we had
full compliance with no issues. So that
[15:53] was those are the two big audits by the
uh by the state if you will and we did
[15:59] great and and we provided escort for the
Williamson High School wrestling uh team
[16:05] members that went to states uh last
week.
[16:10] And you guys do so many great things.
And I just have to compliment you with
[16:15] Officer Pong helping one of our military
service persons coming home.
[16:23] If you didn't see it on Facebook and see
the video, you absolutely should. But
[16:27] Officer Pong um executed a traffic stop
on this military service person's family
[16:33] in front. They had no idea that the
military service person was in the car
[16:38] with Officer Bong. And so he got to
surprise his family that he was back
[16:43] from deployment. Y
>> and I think he had been a year in
[16:46] » year in Korea.
>> A year in Korea. So just wonderful. So
[16:50] » it was great.
>> You do a lot of great things, but it's
[16:53] these other little things that make it
just so special. that uh that had the
[16:57] most uh Facebook uh stats, most Facebook
likes, loves, comments of any Facebook
[17:04] post we've ever had.
>> Excellent. Keep it up. Keep it up.
[17:06] » Watch it when you're done and grab your
tissue.
[17:08] » So, just so you know, you can ask the
police department to do special things.
[17:12] They will uh they'll come up with
something very clever and um you know,
[17:15] let's see if we can beat that Facebook,
you know, post.
[17:19] » Thank you. And please extend thank you
to Officer Belong.
[17:22] » I will.
>> All righty. um in our P. Yeah. Yes. Go
[17:27] ahead.
>> I had a question for Chief as it relates
[17:29] to the M. Cole's audit. Is that a pass
fail or is that uh rated on a percentage
[17:36] basis as to how well you comply?
>> The the lean audit is pass fail. Uh the
[17:41] the second one, the MCOS is is an
assessment which isn't necessarily past
[17:46] fail, but you do have to as they
describe it to us, you do have to comply
[17:50] with uh uh these three areas. Uh if you
don't comply, then they will assist you
[17:56] in compliance. Um but the lean is
definitely pass fail.
[18:03] » If that makes sense.
>> This is the answer to the question, how
[18:05] do you know you live in a small town?
[clears throat]
[18:09] the police stop your relatives to let
you know you've come back from
[18:12] deployment. Exactly.
>> Yeah, absolutely.
[18:17] » All right. Uh our last uh is our
department building department report
[18:23] which is our Livingston County of
building and safety engineering. They
[18:27] are who uh issue all of the permits for
new construction, renovation,
[18:32] residential, commercial. Uh, so if you
do have any questions regarding what's
[18:36] happening and going on in our wonderful
city of Williamson, please reach out to
[18:40] John and he will contact Livingston
County and get those answered for you.
[18:45] Moving along our agenda, we've got our
committee subcommittee reports. Did
[18:48] anyone have a committee meeting that
they attended that they'd like to share
[18:52] this evening?
>> I have one coming up this week. It's a
[18:55] Nissa meeting.
>> Excellent.
[18:56] » And there's the floating public member.
What is it called? The open member at
[19:01] large.
>> Member at large. large election is
[19:03] coming up sometime. Um, and I'm I'm
going to ask that they add an agenda
[19:07] item where we discuss the process of
electing that open that open member. So,
[19:12] if you know somebody, Dan, who might be
interested in that job, please get a
[19:17] hold of me or let me know about it or
and I'll try to keep you guys up to
[19:21] speed on how that process is going.
Okay,
[19:23] » great. Thank you. All right, anyone
else? All right, moving along our
[19:27] agenda. We have another opportunity for
audience part participation with a
[19:31] maximum of five minutes per
presentation. Was that the timer that
[19:34] we're done with the meeting?
>> All right. Would anybody like to come
[19:37] forward at this time for our last
audience participation?
[19:41] All right. Council member comments. I'll
start down at this end with Tim.
[19:45] » You know what I would say is um it's
really nice to see all the improvements
[19:48] consistently happening where people are
improving their properties and you know
[19:54] making the
nicer.
[19:56] » Yeah, it's good to see. Yeah.
>> New business owner, where do you live
[20:02] here?
>> Um, yep. I live in Williamston on
[20:04] Shaffburg between Hasla and Bella.
>> Cool. We're very glad to have you here.
[20:09] » I'm very excited. Thank you for inviting
me to the Z.
[20:12] » All right,
>> Steve.
[20:14] » Sort of echoing that comment. It is good
to see downtown storefronts being
[20:19] occupied. So, the two main two of the
main ones that have been vacant for a
[20:25] while, it's good to see that they uh are
going to be on right now.
[20:29] » Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.
>> No.
[20:33] » All right. Well, as you can see, we went
through uh daylight savings time on
[20:38] Sunday. So, it is staying lighter longer
out there. And that means that we're
[20:42] just going to have a lot more activities
that are happening in our wonderful town
[20:46] of Williamson, which if you'll notice, I
brought in my uh lucky shamrock hat with
[20:49] pot of gold. I've got on my earrings and
my shirt because this Friday um one of
[20:55] our first events for this year is going
to be our uh Shamrock Shuffle through
[21:01] town. We have a 10-stop pub crawl that
starts at 5:00 pm. Continues on uh with
[21:08] gathering at Zinda's for the end of the
rainbow pot of gold party. Um we'll have
[21:14] a DJ uh a photo booth like we did um
after the ugly sweater crawl um during
[21:21] our light parade weekend. Um we're
really excited that we've got 10
[21:26] participating restaurants including
Brookshshire and also the Eagles. So,
[21:30] you can find it more more information on
our Williamston um events Facebook page,
[21:36] but again, it starts at 5:00. You can go
to all or a few of the participating
[21:41] restaurants, show up at Zindas at the
end of the evening. We're going to have
[21:45] some fun giveaways. We're going to have
some uh drawings, and then we're also
[21:49] going to vote for the best restaurant
experience out of the 10. Um, so it's uh
[21:54] definitely something not to be missed as
we, you know, kick off springtime. And,
[22:00] uh, we've got a lot of other great, uh,
events coming forward, um, that we're
[22:05] working on. Um, and we'll, uh, we'll
share those as they continue to get
[22:09] closer. But, um, just excited that it's
light out again. We did not beat my
[22:13] record time of shortest council meeting
by about five minutes. But anyways, I'm
[22:18] going to go ahead and say just enjoy
this beautiful sunshine before the
[22:22] weather's turn, you know, second winter,
third winter, fake spring, whatever you
[22:26] want to call it. Um, get out there and
enjoy the sunshine. Stop at Twister,
[22:31] stop at Candy Cafe, get your ice cream
cuz it's warm outside. And, um, with
[22:36] that, I will go ahead and call to a
journ at 6:22.
[22:41] » Quick. Good job.
>> 18 minutes.