WHITEHALL — Whitehall City Council met last Thursday, rescheduling their original meeting date earlier that Tuesday due to the storm and lack of power at City Hall.
Council member Debi Hillebrand thanked Consumers Energy, White Lake Fire Authority, Whitehall Police Department and Department of Public Works, who have helped with storm damage cleanup and who have been working as quickly as possible to restore residents’ power. Tanya Cabala followed this up, stating she wants to use this as an opportunity to talk about future emergency protocols within the City of Whitehall. She wants council to talk about what the city thinks went well versus what to improve on, as well as her desire to partner with other municipalities in the future. She used the City of Montague as an example, talking about their new program, TextMyGov, that residents can opt into. This text program allows the City of Montague to send mass texts to participating residents about a variety of things, including emergency weather. Cabala hopes adopting this same program or something similar will help improve communication and safety in Whitehall. Cabala also wants to look at replanting some trees in areas that lost many.
Whitehall resident Tamara Horne requested the emergency weather sirens be tested. She said she can’t recall the last time they were tested and wondered why they did not go off during the storm. She got a weather alert on her phone that said to take immediate shelter, but didn’t hear any sirens.
White Lake Fire Authority chief Pete McCarthy spoke during the public comment portion about updates on the storm damage. He thanked local city groups, as well as fire authorities from surrounding areas who have helped. At the time of the meeting, there were a total of 18 homes severely damaged to the point where they are uninhabitable. The Fire Authority has been working with DTE to cut off any dangerous gas lines to those homes, along with others. Council member and former firefighter Jeff Holmstrom shared his concern for more rain to come in the near future to White Lake. He urged community members to be cautious of any remaining hanging tree branches that could break before they are manually removed. He, along with the rest of city council, is grateful there have been no reported deaths or injuries.
