Come Together: When Will Our Two City Councils Meet Jointly?

The Menominee and Marinette city councils were slated to meet jointly in late May to review information on the Back Forty Project, the controversial open-pit sulfide mine foisted on us by Aquila Resources, a Canadian exploratory mining company.

The scheduled meeting fell apart when Menominee Mayor Jean Stegeman invited Al Gedicks, a UW-LaCrosse emeritus professor of sociology and executive secretary of Wisconsin Recourses Protection Council.

The only scheduled speaker prior to Gedicks' invitation was Joe Maki, U.P. District geologist with Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. Maki backed out when he learned Gedicks had been invited.

Then the Marinette City Council backed out, although several council members were ultimately in the audience.

TLDR: In other words, a bunch of adults acted like teenagers and there was no joint meeting.

(I can only imagine that Stegeman probably felt real chagrin when it all backfired. I do not think she meant to sabotage the meeting.)

You can read more here about the meeting, which Menominee alders attended in small numbers. Most claimed schedule conflicts, although the meeting had been planned for some time.

My question is: When will the two councils schedule another joint meeting to talk about other issues our two cities share?

Discussion topics abound: Crime, tourism, special events, emergency management, recreation, homelessness, drug use, elderly services, and I'm sure, many more.

There's enough common ground for at least two joint meetings a year, probably alternating at a school gym or auditorium on either side of the river. I'd suggest Blesch in Menominee and W.J. Jones in Marinette.

The right hand needs to know what the left hand is doing. Ideas need to be shared. Relationships need to be built.

It just doesn't make sense not to communicate across state lines.




TLDR: Internet-speak for "too long; didn't read"