City Hall Insider 5/24/22 meeting

By Charles Sercombe
The city council met on May 24.
During public comment, Lynn Blasey of the Hamtramck Arts and Cultural Commission said that there will be an art gallery crawl in the metro area in early June, which also included three galleries in Hamtramck.
The theme of the event, Blasey said, was a celebration of LGBTQ rights.
Also in June, a picnic will be held in the Sarah Garrett Park in honor of Juneteenth.
Greg Kirchner gave an update on a community television program that is in the works. He said some technical issues have been worked on, and that a production studio is built.
The station will be at the Hamtramck Public Library.
“The library is becoming a central hub of info,” he said.
Matthew Wyszczelski was appointed as the city’s new fire chief. He has been with the Hamtramck Fire Department since 1998.
Wyszczelski said his job will be “to lead the department into the future.”
The council approved accepting a state grant for $100,000 for training firefighters and police officers.
Hamtramck was among over 400 statewide municipalities that received this award.
The council approved a development agreement with Abubakr Abbas, who is going to build a housing unit at 2442 Andrus St.
Abbas is purchasing a city-owned lot for the project.
The purchase price for city lots is $10,500. In a note to council, it was said:
“This sale is part of the City of Hamtramck Vacant Lot program and, if approved, this is the seventh lot sold this spring. This reflects a significant amount of funds going to our pension obligation.”
In another housing development deal, it was announced that Wayne County has agreed to fund the building of three houses.
That deal will finally close a housing lawsuit filed against the city in the 1970s. In a note to council, it was said:
“The City Manager has requested funding from Wayne County for the completion of the last three homes for the Sarah Garrett lawsuit.
“Previously, Wayne County agreed to allocate funding, however the funding would not be enough to complete all three homes. The NSP subrecipient agreement identified three lots (12085 Gallagher, 5048 Prescott, and 5191 Yemans) for the construction of homes for sale or rental to low-to-moderate income families.
“All three lots were acquired from the Michigan Land Bank Authority. This amendment adds additional funding from Wayne County NSP, to bring total funding to $950,000, which will cover the cost of constructing the three houses by December 31, 2023. The City of Hamtramck must expend 50% of these funds by July 1, 2023, and 100% by December 31, 2023, with all work completed by that date.”
City Manager Kathy Angerer said “This will be a point of celebration.”
Posted July 19, 2022