Nov 17th 2022 Escanaba City Council Meeting: Supersize My Grant Please!

Another exciting meeting of a small American town on the move, adjusting, and improving its opportunities with each step forward. Escanaba is becoming increasingly open to investment and development in a way that could impact its trajectory going forward (Post Covid changes things.). That is good news for those who want to reinvest in America's small towns that improves not only those towns but perhaps many others just like it (Building a model of economic cluster development through innovation and investment that better aligns towns to global markets.)

(Am I making a stretch here? 🤔👺I'm making a small stretch. You can see people starting to work together to encourage more local development through zoning changes and moving projects forward. For those of you who don't know "cutting the red tape" refers not only to regulations but also getting through the many delays of bureaucracy. Better strategies forward often create better cutting of tape to achieve those milestones.

In small towns there are is less bureaucracy but more caution with community concerns. That can actually be a good thing for business because small towns can be very flexible if people see the need for change. Yet the community is the ultimate stakeholders of change and local individuals can communicate one-on-one with council members. The seeds to democracy are here in small towns just like this! See SWOTCH.). 

Escanaba received some beefy grants that will make a difference in the local water infrastructure (Good infrastructure can improve business prospects and reduced downtime costs. See an article on America's water infrastructure history and economic growth. HERE). Attracting additional resources such as more grants, tourists, businesses, etc. is a good thing. Towns have inputs and outputs just like businesses and either must become sustaining (hopefully perpetually sustaining governments) or must rely on outside support.

Infrastructure is important and helps create the platform businesses and communities need to grow. Many times we spend resources on immediate needs and defer other needs. Strong infrastructure can encourage businesses to consider starting operations and could be a beneficial marketing piece to include in any business investment outreaches (I don't think the city does this yet but as a proactive approach one could find a way to reach out to businesses and the investment community when opportunities present themselves. See Esky Downtown Dev. Start Up Delta and Delta County SME)

You can read the November 17th, 2022 City Council Agenda A few of the main concepts are below....

-Water treatment project moving forward.

-Stipend for interim City Manager 

-New dog sniff 

-$20 Mil EGLE Grant: 1 phase water project and 2nd phase lead replacement.

-DDA application process

-Mutual aid alarm box system for emergency support.

-Stump grinding

-Closed bridge

-Prior city manager Patrick J. resigns.

-Appointments

-Committee reports