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 4th 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!
