ESCANABA — The Escanaba City Council took the first step in the long process of developing a city budget for the fiscal year at its meeting Thursday night. Council approved a schedule of public hearings on the budget in the upcoming months.

The first three public hearings will be held the day of council’s regular meeting on Thursday, Jan. 20. In addition, other public hearings are scheduled to take place on Thursday, Feb. 17, and March 17.

The public hearings allow residents to address council with recommendations, questions or concerns pertaining to the city’s budget in the next fiscal year.

Creating a budget involves assessing the needs of each city department and city officials hold a number of work sessions on specific areas of the budget. These are also open to the public.

Although the process starts in January, the city’s budget is not scheduled to be formally adopted until June 6.

In other business, the council approved a sign ordinance amnesty plan/policy. Although the city does have a sign ordinance, the plan states that the city has “not consistently identified nor taken enforcement action on these types of violations in the past.”

The amnesty policy/plan will allow for a grace period to get existing signs permitted and legally protected.

The signs would have to meet certain city guidelines and regulations.

The city plans to identify properties that have unpermitted signs and notify owners of the process to get a permit.

City officials estimate this could take from a year to a year and a half to accomplish. Plans are to use a summer intern to inventory signs in the city and research their permit status.