By By SCOTT NOVAK / Dowagiac Daily News
The Dowagiac City Council appointed five members to the Parks and Recreation Commission at its regular meeting Monday night.
The city council reestablished the Parks and Recreation Commission with the appointment of Dowagiac city council member Donna Okonski, Dowagiac police chief Tom Atkinson, Tom Burling, Tom Zablocki and Adrianne Renee Simpson to the board.
The five-member board must have a minimum of three resident members.
Those members are Okonski, Atkinson and Simpson.
Mayor Don Lyons had suggested and it was approved the the appointments, that there should be one council member and one member of the Police Athletic League board on the commission to keep the line of communication open between those organizations.
In other business, resolutions were adopted to approve early retirement windows for the General Non-union Division, the Police Division, the Fire Division, the General Public Works Division, the Department Heads Division and the Police Sergeants Division in the Municipal Employees Retirement System.
According to City Manager Bill Nelson, the move was one of the options the city was looking at to help cut costs in the face of declining state revenues.
A resolution was passed to apply for membership in AMP-Ohio, which is a non-profit corporation owned and by municipal electric members in Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Michigan.
According to Nelson, Dowagiac would benefit from it being an electric service provider and a wholesale power supplier.
A resolusion was adopted supporting Amtrak funding and services for the "Blue Water" line which serves Dowagiac.
A resolution was adopted to pay bills and payroll in the amount of $705,398.60.