The MML Community Excellence Award returns to the Upper Peninsula after 11 years

Connecting Houghton takes a lot of hard work, volunteers, and dedication to a community. Last week the Michigan Municipal League announced Houghton as the 2024 winner of the Community Excellence Award. Houghton’s award marks the first time in 11 years that the traveling trophy has found its home in the Upper Peninsula. Ironwood won the MML Community Excellence Award in 2013.

And what we wanted to celebrate was the work that’s been done in the last several years, really looking at how we’ve connected things. I mean, we’ve redone the utilities, we built the pier project, we had to take the parking deck down, and all of those connections that the city was able to make, and looking at that from the perspective of volunteers, a lot of those efforts in place making were volunteer efforts between the beautification committee and muralists. And then a lot of the just good old DIY efforts of the Department of Public Works. – Eric Waara, City Manager, City of Houghton

The connecting Houghton project spans across years of projects says city manager Eric Waara, adding that the city had a unique story to tell.

We did the same thing that these other nominees did. You know we spent millions of dollars pouring concrete, putting in streetlights, you know different things but our presentation and what we were nominated for was the efforts we made after the concrete was done after the contractor left and what we did with those spaces. – Eric Waara, City Manager, City of Houghton

Waara adds that the city and its residents get involved and stay engaged. Volunteers get inspired to create new points of interest, and the Department of Public Works stays creative building places for the community.

And I think it goes from a volunteer that wants to paint something or someone who wants to volunteer some time with the beautification committee to even in some cases a business in town, which says, hey, I can help you do that piece of equipment that can make you that and they’ll just you know in a lot of cases they did it for free just because they want to be part of something good and I think that was a lot of that connection that was made is people want to be part of something good going on. – Eric Waara, City Manager, City of Houghton

Houghton will retain the Michigan Municipal League Community Excellence Award for the next year. The traveling trophy will eventually move onto a new home. But while its home is in Houghton the city has the trophy proudly displayed at the city center. Those interested in learning more about connecting Houghton can find more details here.