Mayor's Corner

Happy Summer Eaton Rapids! I hope you are enjoying everything Eaton Rapids has to offer. Our parks, river, Wednesday night Cruise-In, Outdoor Recreation Center, and movies/music in the park. There is something for everyone!

We are gearing up for a fantastic Independence Day celebration, starting on Thursday,July3^rdwith Chalk Fest in the downtown, then Family Fun Night at Martin Hansen Amphitheater on W. Knight Street from 6pm-9pm with a movie playing at dark. Friday,July4^thkicks off with our parade at 11am, followed by activities immediately following throughout the day, with the grand finale fireworks. You can find more information on the City’s website and Facebook page.

The ER Lions Club will be selling popcorn at the movie on July 3^rd from 7pm-9pm and the Rotary is selling tickets now for their annual Chicken BBQ!

By the time you read this, we should have the new crosswalk signal installed at Main/Hamlin Streets. MDOT was able to bump us up in their schedule which we are very grateful! This crosswalk signal is on both sides of Main Street, in front of Las Flores restaurant and City Hall. When pedestrians need to cross, they will push the button on the pole to start the signal flashing, so vehicles are alerted to STOP and let pedestrians cross.

TacoBell has completed their first site plan review with our Planning Commission and will bring back more information at their July 7^th meeting. O’Reily’s Auto Parts is working hard on the former Rite Aid building and we are excited to welcome both new businesses to Eaton Rapids!

City Manager Ridge, Building Official Hummel and I had some fun the other day when the Michigan MunicipalLeaguepaid a visit to Eaton Rapids and filmed a video about what we are doing in Eaton Rapids for attracting new housing development. We toured Eaton Village (Tiny Homes), Bridgewater Senior Apartments and some vacant land that is slated for development. We were really excited to help them make this video and show off our beautiful city.

Have a safe and Happy Independence Day!

Mayor Pam Colestock

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

The City of Eaton Rapids had a very productive 2024! We welcomed 3 new officers to our Police Department. Officer Green and Officer Benson successfully completed cadet and field training and Officer Kipp successfully completed cadet training and is currently in field training. We also have 1 new cadet starting the academy soon. We are happy that they have chosen Eaton Rapids for their career in law enforcement.

We welcomed Lisa Barna as our new Community and Economic Development Specialist. Lisa works directly with the DDA and LDFA on projects and also assists city staff with other economic initiatives. We appointed Rick Loftus to City Council. Rick represents the Council At-Large position and has made a great addition to our team.

We also appointed some new members to our various boards and committees, as well as reappointed current members. Their time and dedication to these boards is greatly appreciated as we cannot move forward without their work and commitment on these boards.

We started a major sewer project in 2024 that should wrap up in early 2025. We also received a grant to inspect and assess our lead lines. This work resulted in a $34 million grant for work to the lead lines along with other water projects in 2025.

We completed major bridge repairs to 3 bridges; State Street, East and West Knight Street bridges. We also held our annual events such as the 4^th of July, Downtown Trick or Treating and added one new event, a Wine Walk that was a huge hit.

This year we will be just as productive. The Planning Commission and City Council will be considering the adoption of an updated Zoning Ordinance. We will continue working with Eaton County on a recycling center and we are also working to bring a housing development to the City! Our DDA and LDFA continues to work to bring new economic incentives and development to the downtown and industrial parks.

Last but not least, we will see the return of Urban Air in October. Planning has begun, and we are super excited to see this return! We will also see the Horner Mill property officially turned over to the Eaton County Land Bank! This is great news as we will finally start seeing progress towards the demolition and clean up of the property.

If you’d like to stay up to date on these or other projects, please join us at our council meetings. We appreciate the feedback! As well, if you’d like to get involved on one of our boards or committees, please let me know.

Wishing all of you a very Happy New Year!

The holiday season is upon us! We have many holiday traditions in Eaton Rapids and one of them is the annual Christmas Tree, which will be coming soon. Another tradition is our community’s “spirit of giving”. That being said, I want to let you know the city will be publishing a list of local groups, businesses, nonprofit organizations and churches that will be accepting new and gently used toys, books, clothing, non-perishable food, and household items for anyone wanting to donate or for anyone needing assistance. This list will be posted on the city’s website, Facebook page, and there will be a sign posted near the City Christmas Tree, with a QR code that will take you directly to the full list. There will also be hard copies of this list located near the tree and at City Hall. We are encouraging the community to utilize these organizations for both giving and receiving, instead of using the Christmas Tree as a drop-off. We have fun events planned at the tree, such as community caroling, family pictures and possibly a visit with Santa!

We realize that some people liked dropping off “gifts” at the tree, and we hope that you will continue that spirit of giving by donating to these charitable organizations instead, such as, Good Shepherd’s Love, Mr. Dales, First Congregational Church, St. Vincent DePaul, Hearts and Hands, and many more! The list will include the organization’s name, address, hours of operation, phone number, and what they are accepting for the need in our community. I want to personally thank these organizations for all the wonderful work they do to help our community, not just at Christmas, but all year!

We would be happy to include your organization in our spirit of giving list, so please reach out to me if you’d like to be added. You can email me at pcolestock@cityofeatonrapids.gov.

Wishing you and yours a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Mayor Pam Colestock

I want to take the opportunity to let you know about some upcoming events. On October 30^th the annual Downtown Trick or Treat, from 5-7pm. Local businesses will be passing out candy and treats to all the kids. Please watch carefully for pedestrians crossing Main Street as this is usually a very well attended event.

The Eaton Rapids Lions Club will hold its 80^th Anniversary at the Eaton Rapids Area District Library on Wednesday, November 6^th from 4pm-6pm. Cake and punch will be provided. All past and present Lions Club members are invited to attend, along with the public. At the same time, the Lions Peace Poster contest will be on display where the general public will vote for the best artwork created by our local teens. Voting is from November 6^th-8^th at the library.  Please plan to come out and celebrate the Eaton Rapids Lions!

The Jean Bradford Kline Senior Center will hold its’ annual Veterans Day plaque unveiling on Saturday, November 16^th at 10am. Please plan to attend to pay tribute to the local heroes whose names will be displayed.

I want to give an update on the recycling center. The city has not been successful at obtaining grant funding to build a recycling building. It seems the State of Michigan would like to direct funds towards County recycling efforts. That being said, we are working with Eaton County to have their mobile recycling unit come to the City of Eaton Rapids once per month so that any Eaton County resident can turn in their recyclables. We are working out those details now and will update all of you once they are final. It’s a huge disappointment that we won’t have our own center, but I think this option will be very good for our residents.

Thank you!

Mayor Pam Colestock