NEGAUNEE – At a city commission meeting at the Negaunee Senior Citizen’s Center, City Manager Nate Heffron’s agenda included a request from the city of Ishpeming. In recent storms, Negaunee has suffered a very minimal amount of damages; in state funding, a total of thirty thousand. Yet just down US41, the city of Ishpeming has been faced with a need for much more repairs, one being the road that leads up to the UP Health System’s Bell Hospital; Westside Marquette County’s closest emergency room.
Ishpeming, whose total damages add up to over 150k, have asked that the city of Negaunee take on the Bell Hospital project, and be reimbursed for the project through additional state funding. Bell Hospital remains much closer to Negaunee then the Marquette UPHS branch hospital, and therefore in the request, it was noted to be of importance to the Negaunee community as well.
While some city council members stated it was a good chance to strengthen community ties, and help keep Bell Hospital easily accessible to Negaunee patients without risk in losing money, others, however, want to see the details of a contract and state funding first. The Negaunee City Commission voted to begin looking into a contract between the two towns.