NEGAUNEE, Mich. (WZMQ) – The Negaunee City Council held a public hearing Thursday Night regarding the application for a Michigan Department of Natural Resources land and water conservation grant. The city is applying for a matching grant of $400,000 to pay for additional upgrades to the Neganee Ice Arena renovation project.
“This grant will specifically allow us to add on to the facility, and those items that we want to add on will be a women’s locker room and referees’ locker room,” said Negaunee City Manager Nate Heffron.
If the grant application is unsuccessful, the project will still move ahead as planned.
“If we do not get the grant, it doesn’t stop us from moving forward and doing that activity. We just won’t be adding on; most likely, we’ll be doing something more internal to the building. So this is just some extra cash that we’re hoping to get and obtain, so we can make the facility even better for the users of Negaunee,” said Heffron.
The council also heard from residents about the future of data centers in Negaunee. The council agreed to draft zoning language that would set parameters and limitations on any proposed data centers.
“A lot of concerns are addressed with those issues of bringing the data center in, and people want us to address that issue. So, we’re taking the initiative, we’re trying to get ahead of the game, so we don’t put ourselves in a bad position if someone were to come here and try to just shove a data center down our throat, explained Heffron.
And then there are improvements to downtown. The council announced its new Vista Theater website, which will give people a look at future plans for the historic theater.
“We just launched our website that allows people to see what’s going on with the project, the most up-to-date information, the plans, what we’re looking for, what we’re trying to do, all those types of things. This would be a long process to get this theater where we want it to be, but right now we’re in a good position, and we’re moving in the direction we need to be moving in,” said Heffron.
Work on the theater is ongoing, and the ice arena project should begin this summer.
Visit Negaunee’s Vista Theatre Project website: https://www.cityofnegaunee.com/vista-theater/pages/history
