Corunna held fire assessment hearing, weighed police F-150 Monday

Corunna property owners got their say Monday night on a fire special assessment district i the charge the city is proposing to levy on property to pay for fire protection. The City Council opened a public hearing on the district at 7:05 p.m. at the lower level of the Community Center, 457 Emma Drive, according to the agenda the city posted for its Sept. 21 regular meeting.

Immediately after the hearing, the council took up Resolution 092126-01, the resolution creating the district. The agenda does not state the assessment rate, the boundaries of the district or how much money it would raise. The city had not published minutes or a synopsis of Monday's meeting as of Tuesday, so how each member voted is not yet on the record.

The hearing had been set a month earlier. The Current reported that the Aug. 17 agenda carried Resolution 081726-01, the Public Act 33 fire special assessment district resolution that scheduled Monday's hearing, along with a 2025-2026 budget amendment and a pension division merger. Monday was the council's first meeting since then i the Sept. 8 meeting was cancelled for Labor Day weekend, as we reported in August.

Four other spending or policy items were listed for action. The council considered a Historical Commission loan request; 2026-2027 Budget Amendment 1, the first change to the budget the city adopted for this fiscal year; the purchase of a combination driveway grader and landscape rake; and a quote for a Ford F-150 Responder for the Corunna Police Department. The agenda lists no dollar figure for any of the four.

On the consent agenda i items passed in a single vote unless a member pulls one i were the Aug. 17 minutes, vendor disbursements covering Aug. 7 through Aug. 20 and Aug. 21 through Sept. 3, and the appointments of Tiffany Kimbrough and Anne Kazmer to the Parks & Rec Commission with indefinite terms. Again, no totals for the disbursements appear on the agenda.

The communications section, which is informational rather than up for a vote, included August building, electrical, mechanical and plumbing permit reports; a Parmenter Road bid; c2ae progress reports; park items covering the CMS ball program, bench sponsorships and Cherry Street restroom sponsorships; the Shiawassee County Land Bank's 2022-to-2025 impact report; and minutes from 12 city boards and commissions, from the Airport Board to the Fourth of July Commission. Parmenter Road has been on the council's plate before: the July 20 agenda included an MDOT construction amendment for the road.

What happens next: the city's minutes for Sept. 21 will show the vote on the fire special assessment district and on each of the four business items, along with the dollar amounts for the grader, the police truck and the Historical Commission loan. The council's next regular meeting is Monday, Oct. 5, at the Community Center. We have asked what the assessment would cost a typical property owner and will report the figures when the city releases them.