DOWAGIAC — The Dowagiac City Council met on Monday for its regularly scheduled meeting in the Municipal Building and discussed city purchased lots, upcoming events and a contract with MDOT. The only council member missing was Charles Burling.

At the beginning of the meeting there was a question brought up by a resident about the recent city purchases of lots 320 and 322 on South Front Street.

“Those two properties purchased were apart of a term piece the city’s been working on for the past 15 to 20 years in terms of redevelopment of that entire block,” said Kevin Anderson, the Dowagiac city manager. “Those are the last two houses that were left and the two additional lots. The city has purchased those with the intent for long-term redevelopment in that area.”

The city is looking to make the area purchased into residential and nature areas that will be offered to the downtown area. Along South Front Street, they are exploring whether their plans for a nature or residential area can sustain the aura of the office buildings that are near it.

Anderson assured those in attendance that the city has no plans of being in the landlord business and will look to market the area to private a landlord business if the city chooses to go that route.

The resident brought up the rumor that the area would be turned into a parking lot, which Anderson quickly dispelled.

“When the county health department builds facilities like this, one of the requirements that they have is to have a certain amount of space open to the community,” Anderson said. “If people want to use that space, we are working in cooperation with the county to get in there.”

Anderson said the city has seen more and more people use the Snow building’s community room and the council will continue to advertise it on Facebook and different newsletters. The room is open to all residents for free.

The council also discussed and approved the upcoming events: Black Family Celebration and the 9/11 Ride to Remember.

“Unfortunately I haven’t been able to attend the past couple years,” council member Danielle Lucas said of the Black Family Celebration. “But this year I plan to attend and I know that the organization works very hard to get community donations to Feed the Children and to have activities for the kids down there.”

The Black Family Celebration event also includes a popular basketball tournament for attendees.

The 9/11 Ride to Remember event is put on by the Eagles, a local motorcycle group. Around 500 riders are expected to attend the annual event on Sept. 11.

The council passed a resolution authorizing a contract with MDOT for a federal/state/local airport project under the Block Grant Program for Airport Runway Sealing and Paint Marking in the amount of $42,000.

“The good news is the city’s cost for that would be $2,100,” Anderson said. “We raise our money for those events through…fuel sales so it really should not have an impact on the overall taxable value of the community.”

The other resolution passed dealt with the city council’s bills and payrolls.

The city council would like to encourage city residents to come see the car show this Saturday.