GLADSTONE — The Gladstone City Commission set a public hearing for the adoption of the budget for the 2024 to 2025 fiscal year, agreed upon a hire for two blocks of water main replacement, approved a request for the disbursement of funds for the wastewater treatment plant improvements, heard a public comment, and reappointed members to the city’s Economic Development Corporation at its Monday night meeting.

While the city’s new budget for the fiscal year of April 1, 2024, to March 31, 2025, was presented last month, an ordinance must be officially appropriated to put it into action. As it stands, the balance to defray to costs of operating general government, the cemetery, and the Departments of Public Safety, Public Works, and Parks and Recreation is at a tentative sum of $1,732,172, which is to be levied across the assessed valuation of all taxable property within the City of Gladstone. The hearing on the ordinance appropriation was set for Monday, April 22.

As part of the city’s water main replacement project to swap 4-inch pipes with 8-inch ones, which last year went from the highway to 14th Street, the Gladstone Water Department intends to continue this summer by going another two blocks to 12th. Of two bids received, the winner was DeGrand Construction. Water Department Superintendent Robert Spreitzer said the job — which falls in line with the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE)’s rules for replacing lines that may potentially contain lead — should begin by late May or early June.

During public comment, Deanna and Charles Kang, owners of Gladstone Storage, spoke before the commission for the third time with complaints about contamination of their property and inaction by the city. The couple presented photos and stated that they also had documents, including letters from EGLE, and video going back several years. When Mayor Joe Thompson asked if files were on a shared drive, Charles requested that they sit down together to review the evidence.

For the ongoing construction at the Wastewater Treatment Plant, a regular request for funds to pay Staab Construction was approved by the commission.

The final order of new business at the meeting was the reappointment of four individuals — Jim Andersen, Steven O’Driscoll, Kevin Gendron, and Steven Soderman — to the Economic Development Corporation.