AEP informed us that on Saturday, May 18th, there will be a planned power outage on the south side of town. It will start at approximately 8:00 AM and may run through 6:00 PM. The outage will start in the Bronson/S Williams area and head south out of town past Special-Lite. 40 customers are anticipated to be affected. AEP will also be sending out phone notifications to those residents affected. The outage is for the purpose of replacing poles and lines for their upgrade project. Any questions can be directed to AEP at 1-800-311-4634.

During yesterday's Council Meeting, two public hearings were held. The first was concerning a proposed ordinance update for the regulation and possession of animals and the second was on a proposed ordinance to opt-out of permitting commercial recreational marijuana facilities. Following the public hearings, the Village Council discussed each item and subsequently voted.

Both ordinances were postponed indefinitely by a margin of 6-0. As such, the existing animal ordinance (#197) will remain in effect and the Village of Decatur will now opt into permitting commercial recreational marijuana facilities within the village limits.

We would like to thank everyone that took the time to express their views on both of these matters. As stated when the public notices were posted, community feedback is crucial, and we, sincerely, appreciate everyone's efforts to inform village officials and staff on their views.

Concerning recreational marijuana facilities, please bear in mind that there is still a lot of work yet to be done. LARA has yet to issue their final regulatory framework and no licenses will be issued until that is complete. In addition, for at least the first 12 months (up to 24 months) only entities with MMFLA licenses will be eligible for recreational licenses under the MRTMA. Secondly, the village will also likely need to reconsider the opt-out of the MMFLA that occurred in 2018. Finally, our zoning ordinance will need to be updated and an administrative framework for how the licensing system will be implemented will also need to be finalized. As such, it's very likely that the process will take several months to complete. However, the village staff is beginning work on this now and will work expeditiously to try and resolve these matters. We will provide further updates when more information is available.

MDOT will begin repaving M-51 from the south Village limit to Swartwood Drive beginning Monday, May 13th. The work is scheduled to be completed by May 30th. For a map and project details, please visit https://bit.ly/2PNQ3VW.

As promised earlier this month, the Packet for Monday's Regular Council Meeting was published on our website and can be found here: https://buff.ly/2ZTSeMm. Transparency is paramount to good governance. As such, all meeting packets, less any necessary redaction, will now be published on our village website each month moving forward.

#DecaturMI #Transparency

The Village of Decatur will be utilizing the State of Michigan for all building permit processing until further notice. To apply for a building permit, you can utilize the State of Michigan's Building Permit Form: https://buff.ly/2VqzdBQ, or you can apply online at the following link: https://buff.ly/2GCqbZ8. Please note, to apply online you will need to create and register an account.

In addition, all Building Permit Fees will now be charged in accordance with the State of Michigan's Fee Schedule: https://buff.ly/2XFgujl. In the meantime, we are working to revamp our Building Department and will provide an update when we finalize a plan of action.