001If you would call this meeting to order, please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance and the invocation following. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Dear God, please bless our elected officials. Grant them the wisdom to know and the courage to do what is right for all citizens. Amen. >> Amen. Roll call, please. Allen. Here. LaForge. Here. Mr. Obich. >> Here. Rix. >> Here. Schultz. >> Here. Warren. Here. Yellenich. >> Here. Most. Good to see everybody here this evening. We just came out of our 5:30 budget meeting will and we got it finished tonight so we don't have to go back after this meeting. But we still have more meetings to
002come on the budget future days here. Those are eyes open to the public by the way. Approval of minutes for the city council meeting of April 20th motion be in order. I'll make the motion. Support. Motion has been made and supported any discussion on the motion? Being not all in favor of the motion signify by saying I. I. Against? Motion does pass. We also have the minutes from the budget workshop held on April 20th. Is there a motion? I'll make the motion. Support. Motion made and supported any discussion on those minutes? Mr. Mayor, if you look at those under roll call it lists Yellenich as absent. That name should have really be up under present with in parentheses 6:10 p.m. and showing when he arrived. So. Very good. So the public knows uh Nick was
003at a house was it a workshop? Is that what it was? No, house fire. House fire. House fire. Yeah, it was a house fire, yeah. It's the other one that was workshop. Yeah. Okay. Uh Council doesn't have a problem with the correction, John? Made the motion. Okay. Any other discussion? Being not all in favor of the motion signify by saying I. I. Against? Motion does pass. We move on to audience comments on any non-agenda items. We have the queen and court from the Richmond Good Old Days here. Would you guys like to come up and tell us what's going on? Introduce yourselves. Come up to the microphone so the people at home can hear you. Can you hear me, sir? Speak directly into it. I'm moving right to you. Hi, my name is Ellie and
004these are my court members Abby and Lily and I'm honored to serve as the 2026 Miss Richmond Queen. I'm in 11th grade at Lutheran High North and I'm involved in student council, varsity cheerleading cheerleading, varsity soccer and I'm also a member on my student on my mock trial team. Outside of school, I play the violin on my church's worship team. I teach Sunday school and I'm working with Mr. Wilton on a vet veterans project through the Children of the American Revolution. I also care about being involved in my community. I have had the honor to teach vacation Bible school here locally at Grace Community Church and I look forward to continuing to serve Richmond throughout this year. As Miss Richmond so far, we have presided over the Easter egg hunt. We have participated in March's
005reading month at the elementary school and soon we'll be attending St. Clair Shores Memorial Day parade. Being a part of Miss Richmond means a lot to me because it means it gives me the chance to represent the city I love. I remember as a child looking up to the queens in her court and now this has become an opportunity for me to become the role model that I once looked up to as a little girl. I have always been a part of the events and traditions that make Richmond such a special place and I especially excited to continue being involved in my community. Thank you for welcoming us tonight and I'd like to introduce my court members here. Hello everyone. My name is Abby Bergeron. I am currently a junior at Richmond High School. I'm
006involved on the Richmond varsity girls golf team and I dance at my dance studio at Leap of Faith. I am involved in multiple clubs including student government, NHS, SAD, all the clubs, green clubs, anything I can get my hands on. And I am very excited to be honored well I'm honored to be on the Miss Richmond 2026 court. I'm so excited to participate in all the parades. Some of them including the Frankenmuth parade, the Mary the Marine City Maritime parade, the Bay-Rama Fishfly parade, Lexington 4th of July parade along with Yale, Memphis, Romeo and finally ending at the Richmond Good Old Days parade this summer. So excited and so honored to have this opportunity to serve my community and I want to introduce my other court member Lily. Hi, I'm Alicia Fram a junior at
007Richmond High School. I am on the varsity competitive cheer and sideline team. I also am on the varsity track team and I am involved in a lot of the same clubs as Abby. I'm so excited and I cannot express how grateful I am to be here today. I'm really excited to be involved in some festivities like the Richmond Good Old Days. It's always been my favorite. I love going to the fair and I love seeing all of the parades and our whole community coming together and just being one. We also be having some winter parades like the Santa one and another winter parade. But I cannot express how grateful and honored I am to be a part of this group with all these lovely girls and all this these lovely supporters. And then this is
008my welcome me back to Miss Richmond. Ellie. On behalf of the three of us, I'd like to thank you guys all for everything you do for our community and I'd like to thank you for having us here tonight. And thank you. Who's [laughter] who's the lady you got with you over here and what's her responsibilities? >> [laughter] >> This is I'm Backer. Miss Backer. This is Miss Autenbacker and she is our advisor and she comes with us to all of our events. She's like our fairy godmother. >> [laughter] >> Yes. No, you're not that old though. >> [laughter] >> Yeah. Very good. You guys have done a great job so far representing Richmond in the Good Old Days Festival and we look forward to you guys having a good time and through all the parades.
009You got a busy busy calendar for the summer. So a lot of weekends. It's a lot of sacrifice and we appreciate it. So have fun. Definitely have fun. Thank you. Would anybody else like to address city council at this time? And we will move on. You guys don't have to stay the whole time either. Uh adoption agenda Mr. City Manager any changes? No changes. City Council any changes? Motion to accept [clears throat] the agenda as presented would be in order. I'll make a motion. Support. Motion made and supported any discussion on that item? Being not all in favor say I. I. Against? Motion does pass. Consent agenda is there a motion? I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. Support. Motion made and supported. There is no discussion on our consent agenda
010according to our rules. All in favor of the motion signify by saying I. I. Against? Motion does pass. We move on to uh Yeah, public hearing. We have a public hearing for establishing an industrial development district on behalf of Prosper Tech Machine and Tool LLC. Mr. City Manager. In accordance with the industrial facility tax exemption policy for the city of Richmond adopted in March of 2000, council scheduled to hold a public hearing and consider approval of resolution 2006-9 a resolution establishing an industrial development district. The formation of industrial development district is the initial step in considering a possible industrial facility tax exemption request. Prosper Tech is proposing to invest over 12 million dollars in real and personal property in their development in Richmond and add approximately 40 new jobs. Administration has reviewed their application and
011has determined that it meets the requirements of the city's policy. Once a district is established, the property owner can then fill out the application for the industrial facility tax exemption which would then be acted on by the council at a future meeting. So right now at the public hearing stage tonight, you're just opening this for any public comment. Thank you. Is there a motion to open the public hearing? I'll make a motion to open the public hearing for resolution 2026-09 a resolution establishing an industrial development district for Visortech Machine and Tool LLC at 6:09. 7:09. 7:09, sorry. Support. Motion made and supported. Any discussion council at this time? We will open the public hearing. Did you guys want to address this at this time or do you want to wait until Items for consideration. Okay.
012Is there anybody that would like to speak to this here tonight? Being not. Motion to close. I'll make a motion to close the public hearing at 6:09. 7:09. For some reason I think it's 6:00. Support. >> [laughter] >> Support. Emily? Yes. Is there any discussion on the motion? Being that all in favor of the motion signify by saying I. I. >> I. Against? Motion does pass. We move on to item for consideration. The first one being consideration of approving resolution 2026-9 establishing an industrial development district on behalf of Prosper Tech Machine & Tool LLC. Mr. City Manager. Uh now that you have formally held the public hearing, council is scheduled to consider approving resolution 2026-9, which would establish an industrial development district for 6.32 acres uh on the recently split parcel on the industrially zoned
013property on Skinner Drive. Uh the property owners uh Prosper Tech uh Heidi and Bob, who are with us tonight, have been working with Todd Sebert, uh project manager at Macomb County Planning and Economic Development to help them through this process. Uh and then they [clears throat] will be working with Todd as well as uh Troy and I to uh if if this resolution is approved tonight, uh we'll be working with all three of us to kind of get their application in order and to you for a future meeting. Uh but uh again, uh this is uh similar process that we went through for Masters Machine back there as well. Uh the law requires the district to be established then for them to apply. So, this just establishes the district. Very good. Thank you. Is there
014a motion? I'll make a motion to approve resolution 2026-09, a resolution establishing industrial development district for Prosper Tech Machine & Tool LLC on 6.328 acres on Skinner Drive with the appropriate parcel number. Support. Motion made and supported. Any [snorts] uh council comments at this time? Would you guys like to address this at this time? Please state your name. We know >> by now we've seen it so often. >> [laughter] >> Heidi DeVroy [clears throat] from Prosper Tech Machine & Tool. Thank you for your consideration. It is a significant investment um for us personally and as a company, um we're excited to build um a another plant in Richmond and just what we do appreciate that you would pass a tax abatement for us because every little bit can help. Um but thank you. And on
015a side note, we are having a groundbreaking ceremony next Wednesday at 3:00. So, please come because it's because of you guys also that we can do it. So. Very good. Thank you. You're welcome. Is there any other comments by anybody in the audience? This Back to the table. If nothing else, all in favor of the motion signify by saying I. I. >> I. Against? Motion does pass. That was a lot simpler than everything else we had to do, right? >> Yeah. Yeah. Good luck there. Item number two is consideration of special event request, veterans banners. Mr. City Manager. City Council is scheduled to consider a request from Jim Wilton for the veteran banner project to hang banners with the names and photos of veterans of Richmond on the banner arms of the light poles along
016Main Street from Monroe Street to Water Street for the two weeks leading up to the Memorial Day and the one week following, uh which this year would be May 11th through June 1st. Uh City Council approved uh the veterans memorial and moving the Memorial Day celebration uh to that area of town. Uh and then uh in previous years, uh we've approved Jim Wilton's request uh to use the light poles in that area uh for the veterans banners. Um this year, uh we've tweaked uh or or Jim on his request tweaked uh the uh time they'll be up to two weeks prior to Memorial Day and one week following Memorial Day, so I think a total of three weeks. Thank you. Jim, did you want to address council at this time? No, really okay. Not only
017the city of Richmond, but those who lived out on the farm and went to school here, it's buried here or something like that because there's no place to hang a banner on it. On back roads that anybody's going to see. Uh-huh. So, if they went to school here, they have a home. We do a banner. We didn't didn't live in town. Okay. Is there a motion? I'll make a motion to approve the use of the light pole banner arms from Water to Monroe Streets to hang veteran banners near the Veterans Park for the two weeks prior to Memorial Day and one week following, May 11th through June 1st. Support. Motion been made and supported. Any discussion on this item? Something we've done in the past. It's great that we're able to do it. Yeah. Okay.
018Any any comments from the public? Back to the table. All in favor of the motion signify by saying I. I. >> I. Against? Motion does pass. Thank you. Item number three, consideration of special event request, St. Augustine Parish walk. Mr. City Manager. Council is scheduled to consider a request from the St. Augustine Church to conduct their procession on Main Street. The event is scheduled for Sunday, June 7th. This is their 21st anniversary. Uh St. Augustine Church parishioners will uh leave the church at uh 7:00 a.m. and progress on foot north on Main Street toward Memphis. Uh and we have approved this in the past. Emily, would you like to come up and tell us what you're doing? Hi, I'm Emily Sizzala from St. Augustine Church. First off, we appreciate the 21 years that you the
01920 years, this will be the 21st that you allowed us to do this. We really appreciate sharing our love for the Lord with the community and we enjoy having the support and the police safety. So, just thank you for considering it and we appreciate you. Thank you. Thank you. Is there a motion? I'll make a motion to approve the request received from St. Augustine Church to conduct their procession down Main Street beginning at approximately 7:00 a.m. on Sunday, June 7th, 2026 at St. Augustine's Church, excuse [clears throat] me, and traveling north along Main Street to the city limits. Support. Motion's been made and supported. Is there any discussion on this item? We haven't had any problem with those people, have we? No. >> [laughter] >> Little bit. Little bit. Is there any public comments on
020this item? Back to the table. All in favor of the motion signify by saying I. I. >> I. Against? Motion does pass. Hope you have nice weather. Thank you. Item number four is consideration of special event request, Lois Wagner Memorial Library. Mr. City Manager. Council is scheduled to consider a special event request for a mobile food vendor from the Lois Wagner Memorial Library to have one mobile food vendor, Kona Ice truck, on Thursday, July 30th from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. Uh the food truck is part of the end of summer reading program. Anyone completing the six-week reading program will be invited to the party that will include snow cones. Thank you. Trulyann, would you like to add to that at all? Sure. Uh this is probably the fifth or sixth year we've done this. It's
021a really big motivator for the kids usually. Knock on wood, we have good weather and um that time of year Kona Ice is kind of nice for them. Uh we usually have about 100 finishers. So, um uh this year our summer reading program starts on June 15th. The theme is Unearth a Story. I would highly encourage everyone to come visit the library at some point during the summer. We have excellent decorations going up. We have some large T-Rex and Velociraptors uh making their appearance in the next few weeks. So, our children's programmer has worked really hard on it. So, uh we're very excited to get the summer started. Very good. Thank you. Is there a motion, council? I'll make a motion to approve the specially event request for a mobile food vendor from the Lois
022Wagner Memorial Library to have the Kona Ice truck on Thursday, July 30th from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. for the summer reading program party. Support. Motion's been made and supported. Any discussion on this item? You say five or six years it's been going on? Yeah. Very good. Any audience comments on this item? Back to the table. All in favor of the motion signify by saying I. I. >> I. Against? Motion does pass. Hope you have nice weather for that day, too. Item number five, final item for consideration is the bid award, asphalt patching proposal. Mr. City Manager. Asphalt patching is completed every year as needed for various reasons. Uh some are uh pavement failures, manhole and catch basin uh rebuilds, uh water and sewer repairs. Uh and so, uh due to the abnormally high number
023of repairs over the winter, it's appropriate to complete a spring patching contract this year, not just a fall. Uh so, we did uh receive quotes uh through our public service director, who's here tonight to answer any questions, and James B. Contracting is the low bidder. Uh they have done work for us in the past, both I believe patching and uh road work. Jim, anything to add to that? Uh [clears throat] just that DPW we're not equipped to do the asphalt patching, obviously. That's why we have to bid it out. We did have a kind of interesting winter. It was fairly cold, so we had some water main breaks and some water services that we had to lower, for example, so it did result in I think we have 16, maybe 17 patch locations currently that
024we need to address, so. Thank you. Is there a motion? Uh just a Jim, that's not going to include Main Street, is it? Uh where they did No, nothing related to that the contractor they are responsible for that and they will be repairing that sometime soon. Okay, thank you. Motion? I'll make a motion to award the 2026 asphalt repairs contract 2026-SR-4 in the amount of $15,680 to James P. Contracting and expenses charged to the appropriate line items in the major street, sanitary, and water funds. Support. Motion has been made and supported. Any discussion on this item? How soon will they be in town, do we know? Uh before Memorial Day. Good, very good. Okay. Any other council comments on this? Questions? Any audience comments, questions on this? Back to the table. While we're on patching,
025when is the company coming back to fix the patches that they put on Main Street? >> well, I've I've been uh prodding them. I've been speaking with them regularly. I haven't gotten a firm date yet. They are trying to get their uh asphalt subcontractor lined up. Plants, you know, it may may depend on the plant that they pull material from, are they actively running? I'm not sure, but I am in regular communication with them, but I don't have a firm date yet. Okay. Do we have anything in the contract? Cuz that was a very poor job. They were 2 and 1/2 months at least past what was supposed to get done. Do we have anything in the contract where we can have somebody come in if they don't come back and fix it properly? Yes,
026we certainly have that option. We're working with them to allow them the opportunity first to correct it, but certainly we will address it in another meeting. >> 1st. They should have been here immediately. Yeah. Is my feeling. Um they should have fixed it right the first time, but I understand they were kind of given a you know, go free card there because of the lightness of uh the work that they had done and the plant I think actually closed. Uh they were still doing some things out there. Um but I don't think there's any reason for us to let this go. Um and for God's sake, if we do get the next grant, they better not be one of the people that bid on it. Uh that was and the way they left our community
027uh was not good. We also I I noticed we have some patching going on with asphalt on cement from uh the people that are putting the underground uh stuff is. Are they coming back to replace that also? >> Yeah, that's that's cold patch that they put in temporarily. They're waiting on a railroad permit to finish their boring, so they're uh at least as of now have been reluctant to permanently restore until all the work's ready and unfortunately there's been a delay, so. Okay. Do we think that that's going to get done in a timely fashion? Uh again, we are also we are communicating with them, but they don't they didn't have a time frame the last time I spoke with them. And that's not our contract, I No, it's nothing related to the city. >>
028state right away. Yeah. Okay. Okay, hopefully we can stay on them. Cuz they tore us up and they left us. And now they came back and did some of the work, so hopefully we can get our town back in shape again. Is there any other discussion on the motion? Being none, all in favor of the motion signify by saying I. I. Against? Motion does pass. We move on to miscellaneous matters from the city manager, sir. Uh just thank council for coming out. I know it's a lot of extra work to go through the budget packet and uh show up here hour and a half before the meeting uh to go through that that workshop, so I appreciate that. Uh had a couple nice fundraising events uh in town. Uh there was the wrestling event at
029the Odd Saturday night that raised funds for Saving Destiny Animal Rescue and then SEMCO was in town for their uh Walk for Warriors uh to raise funds for uh veterans support services and so both of those events went well uh and I believe the uh little league tournament uh softball tournament was also a nice addition to our community this this weekend. Yeah. It was a busy time. >> [clears throat] >> Okay, moving on, council comments, Michael. Uh nothing today, thank you. >> Dennis. I just wanted to add on the the softball tournament, that was great to see everybody in town and uh then it's another venue that adds to the community. Yeah, yeah. >> great. That was great. We went uptown, my wife and I went uptown to find a place to park to get
030into one of the restaurants uptown, there was no place to park. It was the town with the Main Street was packed. Uh it was it it certainly uh helps when we have those type of events down downtown. Moving on, uh Jimmy. Want to congratulate your golden arm for throwing a strike to your granddaughter. A perfect strike. Some people thought it was a changeup cuz it was kind of slow, but it [laughter] was a perfect strike. That's it. Emily. Nothing, thank you. John. All set. Nick. All set. Well, we got some things on the calendar here, just a few things. This uh week we have the end of the seniors let's talk coffee and conversation at the Odd. That is was every first and third Wednesday of each month uh over the winter uh from 9:00
031a.m. to 10:00 a.m. The last one is this coming Wednesday. Yes. This Wednesday at 9:00 a.m. at the Odd and the city manager is going to be there to talk and have donuts. Do they make you buy the donuts for this one? Uh actually, I think uh Blake's Hey, no uh company over in Armada is uh donating that. >> Yeah, yeah. Okay. Yep. Okay. Well, um and we also have the annual perennial exchange over at the BB Street Park Gazebo. That's going to be held Saturday, May 16th uh beginning at 9:00 a.m. Get there early because that goes fast. There's a lot of people involved with that. If you have any questions on that, 727-3064. And again, they are having lifeguard classes. Um that is going to be on Friday, May 29th, 4:00 to 8:00,
032Saturday, May 30th, 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and again on Sunday, May 31st, 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. That is for our community pool, of course, uh but you will have certification uh after completing this class. Registration opened up today and any questions again contact our parts and rec at 727-3064. We go to the calendar, today being the 4th of May already, we have a recreational board meeting tomorrow night at 7:00 here at City Hall. >> [snorts] >> And the National Day of Prayer is this Thursday right here at City Hall. It begins at 12:20 and uh our local pastors will be here to uh uh conduct the National Day of Prayer and the Good Old Days Festival is paying for the luncheon afterwards right here at City Hall. Um course, it's Mother's Day this
033coming Sunday, so happy Mother's Day to every uh every mother in our community and let's see, the 11th uh week from tonight will be the library board meeting at 5:30 at the library. The 12th is the cable commission meeting at 6:30 here at City Hall. And the planning commission will be meeting on the 14th right here at City Hall at 7:00. Two weeks from tonight, again uh we will have a budget um workshop. Starts at 5:30 right here in City Hall. It's open to the public. And our regular meeting will be held at 7:00. And then if necessary, back into the budget session after the City Council meeting is over with. Uh that is all that we have for the calendar. Is there anything else that we need to announce at this time? Um we
034move on to uh any other business to the City Council tonight? If not, a motion to adjourn would be in order. I'll make a motion to adjourn. Support. Motion has been made and supported. There's no discussion on the motion. All in favor of the motion signify by saying I. I. Against? Motion does pass. Thanks for being with us.