DOWAGIAC — From 2025 to 2030, the city of Dowagiac will have a fixed rate contract for electric service with Wolverine Power Supply Cooperative.

On Monday, city council unanimously approved an agreement for a full requirement electric service with Wolverine Power Supply Cooperative, which City Manager Kevin Anderson said was good news for the city.

Ten years ago, the city entered into an agreement with American Electric Power and Indiana and Michigan Power to have a long-term contract in place.

The city was tied to a regional association, of which Mishawaka was the largest piece. The city of Dowagiac came to the party late with the contract and was unable to acquire the same deals as other cities within the association, Anderson said.

“We didn’t get the same deals that other groups got in terms of being able to set notice and get out of [our contract] early,” Anderson said. 

By entering into an agreement for full requirement electric service with Wolverine Power Supply Cooperative, the city will be supplied the same terms as the other cities in the I&M association when its contract expires.

From 2025 to 2030, the city’s long-term contract with Wolverine Power Supply Cooperative will be 30 percent lower than what the city is paying now, Anderson said.

“If we do the math on that, that comes out to about $100,000 a month in savings,” he told council. “I wish we could start tomorrow on it, but contracts won’t allow us to.”

Besides offering the city savings, Dowagiac will have the same concluding date as the other cities in the association, allowing them to bid together.

“Wolverine does power all throughout southwest Michigan,” Anderson said. “The only regret is we can’t start earlier.”

Also on Monday:

• A resolution was unanimously passed to allow Anderson to submit a Neighborhood Enhancement Program round five grant application. The Neighborhood Enhancement Program is administrated through Michigan State Housing Development Authority. This year, the city received a $50,000 grant from MSHDA on June 19 and was able to complete 10 projects.

The next round of grants will go be for $30,000 due to state budget cuts, said assistant city manager Natalie Dean. The grant would be administered in March 2020. At the city council meeting, Anderson said applications would likely be chosen through a lottery system, as last year there were more applicants than the city had money to work with.

“There is money to go around. It just isn’t going to go quite as far,” he said.

• Council authorized Anderson to accept a quote from Tree Servants for tree removal and trimming of trees for runway approaches at the Dowagiac Municipal Airport.

“One of the things we are required to do on the approach at each end is make sure trees don’t reach a certain height,” Anderson said.

The city received two bids, one bid was for more than $70,000, the other bid was for just over $18,000. After the city received two bids the state recognized two more trees that were not previously listed, so the $18,000 bid will increase.

“It’s very important that we do it,” Anderson said. “If we do not take care of this, we will fall out of the eligibility of grants.”

• Council authorized Prein & Newhof, Inc. to serve as the consulting engineer for airport service. Michigan Department of Transportation’s Aeronautics division and Federal Air Administration require every five years the airport solicit proposals from consulting engineers. The city received only one bid from its current consulting engineers, Prein & Newholf, Inc.

• Council authorized Anderson to apply for a Michigan Department of Transportation sign permit to allow construction of the Dowagiac Rotary Club’s “Welcome to Dowagiac” sign. The Rotary club is responsible for all cost associated with the sign.

• Council passed a resolution to accept Asset Management Program for the city’s water system and submit the report to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, which is a requirement of the Safe Drinking Water Act.

• A resolution was authorized to enter a bus lease agreement with Cass County Transportation Authority.

• A public hearing was rescheduled for Dec. 9 to investigate a potential blight pursuant at 212 First Ave., Dowagiac.

• The Dec. 23, 2019 City Council meeting will be canceled.