City of Eaton Rapids

We’ve been blessed with the hint of Spring in Eaton Rapids! It certainly has lifted the spirits for many, including myself.

With spring comes a lot of outside projects, and I want to take this time to remind city residents that leaves and brush can be taken to the brush yard located at 300 Market Street. This is for CITY of Eaton Rapids residents only. Times of operation is Monday-Friday, 8am-4pm. Saturday/Sunday, 8am-7pm.

Please be sure to take advantage of the additional pet waste stations that were installed around the downtown when you are out walking your dogs. We know that dog owners sometimes forget to bring waste bags with them, so we have provided them for you, and we appreciate you helping to keep our parks and downtown clean.

It’s also a great time to start planning for projects around your home. The City is working to provide a grant opportunity for home improvements so stay tuned for more information.

The G.A.R Memorial Hall and Museum are busy planning the next Memorial Day parade, which will be held on Monday, May 26^th at 11am. Line up is at 10am next to Family Fare. Anyone wishing to participate can reach out to me at pcolestock@cityofeatonrapids.gov. This parade is to honor our fallen veterans so it’s a somber ceremony more than a celebration. There is also the flag placement at Rosehill Cemetery on Saturday, May 24^th at 9am.

The Community Market will be starting June 7^th on both sides of Hamlin Streets. If you are a vendor and are interested in joining the fun, please contact Corey Cagle at ccagle@cityofeatonrapids.gov.

We have wrapped up our last week of Citizens Academy and it’s been fantastic! I want to thank all of our students and staff that attended each week and made the classes a lot of fun. You were very engaged and enthusiastic! There will be a graduation ceremony at our March 24^th Council Meeting where students will receive their certificate of completion. We hope to offer this again in the future.

Happy Spring!

Mayor Pam

I hope you’ve all had a great winter, but I know many are ready for it to be over and get into warmer weather!

The City Council and staff have had a productive start to the new year. We kicked things off with a Goals and Objectives session. This is where the departments all get to share their goals and ideas with Council and Council gets to weigh in on those goals, offering ideas and suggestions. We do this as we enter into budget time. I have to say since being Mayor, this process feels more organized and thoughtful, and I feel really good about the projects we are planning for the City. Most of those projects involve improvements to our infrastructure; streets, utilities, and buildings. As you can imagine, those are not small projects but are extremely important to our overall functions. Our goals are always to find ways to improve our overall safety, health and wellbeing of our city and citizens.

I had hoped that the Horner Mill property would be officially transferred to the Eaton County Land Bank but looks as if that will now happen this month. There were a few odds and ends that needed to be addressed first, but things are still moving forward. City Manager Ridge, Eaton County Treasurer Reynett and I are working with State officials to help find funding so that we can get going on demolition and environmental clean-up of this site. I will continue to keep you all informed as this progresses.

We held our first full committee meeting regarding Urban Air. There are a lot of moving parts to planning an event of this nature and it takes many hands to make it all come together. If you are interested in participating, please reach out to me, we’d love to have you!

This past month we had the honor of presenting a proclamation to Officer Jason Ferguson who is our School Resource Officer (SRO) in honor of SRO Day! Officer Ferguson has been instrumental in working with our students and bringing safety to our school district. We appreciate all the work that he does for our students and for our community.

Lastly, the Downtown Development Authority (DDA) is ready to kick off this years’ Farmer’s Market. There will be more details to come, but if you are a vendor and have not been a part of this in the past, please reach out to Director Corey Cagle at ccagle@cityofeatonrapids.gov, for information.

20 days to Spring!!

Mayor Pam