MAYOR:

    JANET HENDRICKSON

COUNCILORS:
    EDNA HEIKKINEN
    SCOTT THRASHER
    MARK VALESANO
    JACK STACHOWICZ

CITY MANAGER:
    CHARLES NORDEMAN

The City Council meets every 2^nd Monday of the Month at 5:00 p.m. in the City Council Chambers at City Hall.

The Downtown Development Authority meets at 1:30 p.m. on the 2^nd Monday of each month at the City Hall. There are three (3) vacancies on this board – Get involved and help shape the future of our downtown – apply for appointment at the City Clerk’s office today!

The Planning Commission meets at 6:30 p.m. on the 3^rd Thursday of each month at the City Hall.

 TELEPHONES!

When you call City Hall you now get an automated phone system. This was installed earlier this summer as an upgrade to a very much antiquated system. The new system offers you the opportunity to leave voice messages, something that was previously not available. This feature alone has cut back on the time spent by the office staff that previously spent up to an hour a day taking and delivering messages for other departments. So, when you have a question on the weekend you don’t have to wait until Monday to call us, simply leave a message and we will return your call with the information requested as soon as we possibly can. We realize the greeting you hear (telephones continued) when you first call is lengthy, however, once you know the extension number for the department you want you can simply punch that number in on your TOUCH TONE PHONE and your call will be directed to that extension. (If you are still using a rotary dial phone you will need to stay on the line and listen to the entire greeting and then your call will be forwarded to the City Clerk’s office. If you are using a Pulse Dial phone – simply switch your phone to Tone Dial before you push the extension

Number you want and it

will work just fine – if you don’t switch to tone dial you will automatically be forwarded to the City Clerk’s office extension.)

The extensions for the various City offices are: 

Department Ext.

Electric Department 1

Public Works 2

Mechanic 3

City Manager 4

City Clerk/Treasurer

And Utility Billing 5

If you are calling after hours with an emergency such as power outages, water line breaks, or sewer line backups you will be instructed to call 875-6614. This call will be answered by the Crystal Falls Fire Department. They will then find someone to take care of your problem immediately. 

All in all, we hope this new phone system will prove to make the City operations more efficient. If you experience a problem with this new system, please let us know so we can address the problem. Also, please be patient with us while we learn how to utilize all the new features on this system.

When visiting the City Clerk’s office you will see that we have a new computer system. These computers replaced hardware that was installed in 1998. We now have a Windows XP operating system and it is working great with all our accounting software. The old system was slow and locked up on us several times a day because it couldn’t handle the work load. 

POWER PLANT AUTOMATION! 

The Crystal Falls Hydroelectric Power Plant is now automated. What this means to the residents of the City of Crystal Falls is an improvement in the efficiency of producing electrical energy for our residents. The reduction in operating costs will mean that electric rate increases will be smaller than what would have been necessary – especially now when the cost of wholesale electric power has been steadily increasing. The total cost of this automation project, $950,000 was funded through the sale of Revenue Bonds which will be paid off over the next 20 years. The public is welcome to attend an open house at the power plant on October 1, 2005 from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. During this time there will be guided tours, food and refreshments. The tours are open to all individuals EXCEPT those with pace makers. Also note there are stairs to be climbed.

FALL CALENDAR:

September 15, 2005: Please remove all artificial flowers and flower pots from graves at Evergreen Memorial Cemetery by this date. Flowers left after this date will be removed and discarded by the cemetery work crews. Artificial flowers are not permitted from September 15^th to May 15^th to allow for fall and spring clean up. Thank you for your cooperation.

September 24, 2005: The 5^th Annual Fall Harvest Festival. See the City’s website for additional details.

Recycle Day for City residents.

Recycle Day!

October 29, 2005: Daylight Saving Time –Before you go to bed on Saturday-October 29^th- move your clocks BACK one (1) hour.

 November 14, 2005:

City Council Meeting at 5:00 p.m. at City Hall.

 November 29, 2005:

Recycle Day! 

Channel 19 has been off the air for some time now due to the inability to receive the broadcast signal from Marquette. The City has invested in some equipment to receive this channel via a satellite feed so the Detroit Lions football games will be received this fall. 

CATV CHANNEL LINEUP

The items accepted must be sorted and include: Tin and Aluminum cans

(remove the labels and crush if possible), Glass Jars (Clear/Green/Brown only), Newspapers (do not

bundle and no glossy papers), Magazines (include your glossy papers with magazines), Cardboard (flattened down), and Plastic jugs (#1 & #2 only). This service is provided by the City for City Residents Only and the site is monitored to insure the recycle bins are not contaminated.

Runkle Lake Park Campground officially closes the week after Labor Day. Camping will not be permitted at the campground following the Labor Day weekend.

The City staff is dramatically reduced once the summer workers return to high school and college and we simply can’t keep the park open for the minimal amount of campers after that time.

The Iron County Chamber of Commerce holds office hours in Crystal Falls every Wednesday morning from 9 – 10. Stop in and chat with the Chamber Director Bill Leonoff. 

Angelo "Mickey" Diqui is retiring! Beginning on September 24^th Mickey will end a 33 year career with the City of Crystal Falls. Mickey began as an electrical lineman and was promoted to his current position of Chief Electrician in 1978. He has used his many talents, including carpentry and computer programming, in addition to his electrical knowledge, toward the betterment of the Crystal Falls community. We wish him well in his retirement; he will be missed by all who have worked with him.