Laurium Village councilors prepare for its regular February 2025 meeting.
Laurium’s Department of Public Works has settled into its new home. For now. Laurium’s village council has many big decisions to make over the coming months. Village Manager Ian Lewis has set out Laurium’s priorities, with the village starting to bring services back to residents. Laurium will form a committee to streamline the village placing bids on replacement loaders, graders, plows, and other equipment.
This is so that we can make purchases without having to call for special council meetings, which could hinder the ability to purchase equipment on auction. – Ian Lewis, Village Manager, Village of Laurium
Following the fire Lewis, the village council and department staff began renting equipment from nearby municipalities. The fire left the village with no equipment or tools in the fleet. The village’s first purchase included a garbage truck.
Oh, sorry, yes, we bought a garbage truck. The Sands Township had one up at the auction. – Councilor Jeff Erickson
The vehicle does not have tippers installed yet. The village council asks residents to keep bags out on pick up days to make work easier on employees. Laurium hopes to outfit the garbage truck when the village has the means to do so. Officials came to agreement that Laurium will need to look over what parts are salvageable from the old fleet, as well as analyze the DPW equipment inventory and determine what may work better for providing services.
Streets Committee member Councilor Jeff Erickson says the DPW crew has settled into their new home in Florida Location. Laurium will need to determine a more permanent solution in the near future. Options include taking on a longer-term deal to stay at the temporary site with the North Houghton County Sewer Authority.
The limitations of the building are we can’t fit big equipment in it, but we can do our smaller stuff. It’s heated. RC Mechanical pulled off a small miracle getting things up and going in a couple of days. We got heat, running water, and flushing toilets, and Bay Electric showed up with some temporary lights. And then we had just had a general outpouring of people coming to help clean it up. So we have a functional building now. – Councilor Jeff Erickson
Another option the village has includes building a new DPW garage. To do so, Laurium will need to work on a shortened timeline to find a suitable site, complete engineering and design work, as well as find a developer.
There’s a ton of work going on up here this year in the construction industry. Aspirus is doing two projects, Portage is doing a project, and Tech is doing three projects. So this is a horrible year to be doing a new building because prices are going to go up because we don’t have the workforce. I mean, there are contractors coming from Wisconsin to bid on work up here because there’s just not enough workforce right now. – Councilor Jeff Erickson
Lewis has begun work to evaluate Laurium’s lost fleet and tools with insurance companies. The village does have outside insurance through the Michigan Township Participation Plan. Lewis did inform the council he has had hit hurdles along the way.
I review it whether it’s fair or not. I mean, you really don’t have too much of a say. The only thing you can do is fight back with comparables that you find. Because how it works is they only pay you on actual cash value. So even though we had, let’s say, a $100,000 liability on it, if the actual cash value is 30 grand, that’s what they’re paying. So that’s where we’re kind of getting in a little bit of trouble is a lot of our equipment was old. – Ian Lewis, Village Manager, Village of Laurium
Laurium will create a separate bank account for funds received from insurance companies. This will help Lewis and the village more easily track funds coming in and expenditures for new-used equipment/rentals.
Laurium councilors thanked the surrounding area for their support. Village President John Sullivan mentioned, two days after the fire, you wouldn’t have thought Laurium lost an entire fleet. Streets were maintained with rentals. And with the help of residents.
There were residents out there who were helping that. A lot of people have plow trucks and there were a lot of residents that were just dropping the blade. So right after, initially during that snowstorm and after, because bad timing, you know, for us to have a fire. So many residents were out there helping on their blocks and their neighbors. That was very appreciated. – Councilor Krista Carlson
Laurium wrapped up a discussion on the fire, asking residents and visitors to refrain from visiting the incident site. Councilor Erickson added debris from the fire has become frozen into ice, that has now become covered by snow. Nails, glass shards, and other refuse could harm someone or a pet if not careful.
Related to the Laurium’s plans to recover after the DPW fire, the village will table discussions on becoming a city. By the close of the city of Laurium survey the village received 100 verified responses from residents. Four out of five respondents were in favor of elevating Laurium to a city. Lewis says with the new set of priorities he will need to push city work to a back burner until more services are restored under Laurium’s control.
Tonight neighboring communities will meet at the Calumet theatre for a free benefit concert supporting Laurium’s recovery. The concert has been organized by the Lake Linden Hubbell Schools Music Department with help from nearby school districts and the Michigan Tech music and performing arts department. The show will begin at 6:30 pm tonight.
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