MONTAGUE — After some discussion and an objection from one city council member, the Montague council voted 6-1 to approve the city's new parks and recreation plan at Monday night's regular meeting after putting it together since last summer.
The meeting was moved from the city council chambers upstairs to the library, with city manager Jeff Auch saying the furnace was not working and holding it in the library would be more comfortable.
Council member Paul Schultz, during council discussion on the parks and recreation plan, raised several issues after, he said, reviewing it the previous couple of weeks. His concerns were largely fiscally related; he felt the plan called for several things, including new playground structures and pickleball courts, that are already either plentiful within the city or near the city or could be made by repurposing existing facilities, such as the tennis courts at Montague Township Park. He added that 30% of the city's residents are senior citizens and felt nothing in the plan seemed designed to address their needs and desires.
He added that in his view, the city's subcommittee process needs to be improved, noting he'd been approached by other council members in the past with questions about subcommittees he was a member of because they did not feel they had sufficient information.
Schultz then made a motion to table approval of the plan for at least a month so the council could further examine it during a future work session. The motion was sent to the floor, but after Auch stated the city would be unable to apply for grants in the first half of 2025 if the plan was not approved Monday, the council voted 6-1 against it. It then voted to approve the plan, with Schultz dissenting. It was stated during discussion that not everything outlined in the plan necessarily needed to or would be done, but simply outlined the processes under which they would happen if the city pursued them.
Following the plan approval, the council unanimously approved Kristi Bortell's appointment to the city's board of review as a second alternate.
During the city manager update, Auch said that the area fireworks committee would like to again use the boat launch as the site for the July 4 fireworks show. Approval could be on next month's agenda. He also said that there is growing interest about extending the Hart-Montague bike trail to Medbery Park, with citizens from both Montague and White River townships looking into the idea.
During the work session that followed the council meeting, the council discussed the Downtown Development Authority's in-progress redevelopment plan, which will be revisited again during he February work session as it is not yet finalized. Council member Susan Newhof expressed her approval of being deliberate in the process of approving the new plan; "we only get one shot at this," she said.
