NILES — After a series of successes, Niles’ municipal utilities department left Monday’s Niles City Council meetings at a low.

One of the department’s agenda items from the council’s regular meeting was scratched and added to the committee of the whole following for discussion. Many city councilmembers approved of its vision but not its cost.

The municipal utility wished to have Philip Vitale, of Vandalia, create a 125th anniversary book of the department, marking its historical achievements for future reference. Centennial and 75th anniversary books were made in years past.

The utilities department came to be on Aug. 14, 1895. This year, the utilities department has seen the decommissioning of its Pucker Street Dam and the ground-breaking of the Niles Indeck Energy Center, an independent company within city limits that will create enough energy to power thousands of homes across the country.

“There’s been monumental changes in the electric industry and the generation industry,” said Jeff Dunlap, utilities manager. “We’ve seen renewables come forward, battery storage, things like that.”

Dunlap said he would imagine that 100 years from now, people could use an anniversary book as a reference.

Many board members agreed with the book’s historical significance. It was the price tag they worried over.

“It’s not taxpayer money, but it’s rate-payer money,” said councilmember Daniel VandenHeede. 

He added that the council seems to have historically interpreted the utilities department’s council-approved expenses this way.

Councilmembers Jessica Nelson, Charlie McAfee, Georgia Boggs and Travis Timm also expressed cost concerns.

John DiCostanzo told his fellow councilmembers that this request was approved unanimously by a volunteer citizen utilities board.

City leadership will reconsider their options before the utilities department’s request is called to a vote.

Fortunately for the department, other utilities agenda items were approved unanimously by the council.

After the council renewed an annual membership for underground utilities marking requests for $3,546.04, it approved the purchase of a drone from Macatawa Unmanned Systems, LLC, of Holland, Michigan, for $3,850. It was budgeted in the department’s three divisions.

The drone will be used to find hot spots that can cause electric issues, such as transformer fires and pole fires.

The city owns another drone that originally cost about $40,000. That one paid for itself when considering the utilities issues it prevented, Dunlap said.

The second drone will be smaller and can be manned by one person, instead of a crew of people.

“They’re able to respond quicker to incidents,” Dunlap said.

Another major utilities-related agenda item was a proposal from Heartwood Quality Woodworking, of Niles, to construct a conference room on the first floor of city hall for $20,854. The expense comes out of the utilities account.

The idea of a new conference room was brought up by Ric Huff, city administrator, at a Niles city council meeting a few weeks back. Huff argued that a new conference space will allow for a more permanent and consistent location for the city’s various commissions and Niles City Council.

Currently, Niles City Council and city commissions use space on the second floor of city hall, the police station and the fire department. Sometimes, rescheduling occurs due to the space being needed for pressing matters.

Along with conference room approval was the approval for the utilities department to purchase a three-year environmental insurance policy for the Pucker Street Dam’s removal and the Dowagiac River’s restoration. The cost will come out of the department’s dam-restricted cash reserves.

A 2020 Ford F-150 pickup truck and 138 LED lights were also approved for purchase Monday evening. The former purchase comes from the utilities department’s five-year capital plan, while the latter comes from its overhead system material account as part of a LED bulb replacement project.

While not an agenda item, councilmember DiCostanzo mentioned another Niles utilities benefit. He said Niles’ first marijuana grow facility, part of The ReLeaf Center, had its first electric meter readings, 47,000 kilowatts over one month.

DiCostanzo said that is about the same as 50 homes in Niles and said the additional revenue will be a boost for the utilities department and the city as a whole as more grow facilities prepare to open.

Minutes earlier, the council unanimously approved the zoning administrator, Sanya Vitale, to begin taking proposals for adult-use marijuana vendors to do business in the city.