IRONWOOD, MI - Friday, May 23, 2008 - The Ironwood City Commission held a special budget workshop meeting yesterday afternoon at 4:30 PM CST.

Commissioners Tom Laabs, Suzanne Toth, Gemma Lamb and Bruce Noren attended. Bob Burchell was excused.  Also in attendance were: Bob Erspamer, Director of Public Safety; Scott Erickson, City Manager; Dennis Hewitt, City Assessor/Building Inspector; Bob Tervonen, Utilities Director; Julie Frederickson, Financial Director; Karen Gullan, City Clerk; Joe Madgziak, Department of Public Works Foreman; Pam Zupan, Bookkeeper; Rod Passuello, Detective; and Mike Rimkus, Ironwood Public Safety Officer. Representing the press were Steve Frank, Chronicle Photographer; Ralph Ansami, Globe Reporter; Lou Bonagura, IronwoodInfo.com Writer; and yours truly. There were no members of the general public at the meeting.

City Manager started the meeting at 4:30 PM by presenting a handout that demonstrated his proposed changes to balance the budget. Those changes are:

Julie Frederickson supplied a list of the final budget numbers. To view a PDF file of those figures [CLICK HERE].

A lengthy discussion regarding the library negotiations was initiated by Mayor Bruce Noren. The usual debate between those that support the library and those that supposedly don't ensued. Noren intends to bring the matter before the City Commission where it will be further debated. If you really want to hear the same old ongoing rhetoric an audio link of the meeting can be found at the end of this article.

This reporter asked a few questions regarding a recent decision by the City Manager to repair an inoperable shut-off valve at my Aurora Street building. There are easily a dozen valves that don't work along the recently reconstructed street.  When they installed the sidewalks, many of the valve covers were set too low, and some have been damaged during snow removal. There are literally hundreds of valves City-wide that do not work. City Manager Scott Erickson tried to avoid my questions by stating the meeting was strictly a "budget workshop." Considering the City easily spent $1500 dollars replacing the valve, and will easily spend over $2500 when it's all said and done, I pointed out that I believe this is a budget issue.

A complete report will be posted later this afternoon.

Jim Albert