By Sterling McGinn
Former council Trustee and past Village President Lori Stokes has been appointed back on the Newberry Village Council to fill a recent trustee vacancy.
The decision was made at the July 21 regular meeting.
The board faced a trustee vacancy last month following the resignation of longtime member Dennis Hendrickson, who moved from the village to be closer to family.
Stokes was the only village resident who submitted a letter of interest for the position.
“I am nominating her, not just because it was the only application submitted, but because Lori has an extensive history with the village—she was an employee, she has served on this council before, not just as trustee but also as village president,” said Catherine Freese, village president. “She is already very knowledgeable on the projects we have been working on in the last couple of years, and she is a perfect fit.”
Freese said Stokes frequently reaches out to see how village projects are going.
Stokes was appointed at the beginning of the July 21 meeting and participated the remainder of the night. Her appointment will remain in effect until November, when her seat will be up for reelection.
In other business, the board held a lengthy discussion regarding painting stripes on the freshly resurfaced Newberry Avenue.
Two options were presented. In one, the layout of the lanes would be basically the same as before. The other would add additional crosswalks and bike lanes for improved pedestrian and bicyclist safety.
The latter plan stems from Luce County’s participation in the Walkability Action Institute (WAI) pilot project that included seven counties in the state. This effort is tied into the local trails committee who are working to secure Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP) funding for a paved bike path and Safe Routes to School funds to improve several sidewalks in the village.
After the WAI site visit in September, MDOT staff asked Toole Design to create a plan that would include additional pedestrian crosswalks at intersections and painting to indicate bike traffic along main street.
“The state is continuing to invest in Newberry and Luce County, particularly the Scenic Byway project that would connect the village to the state park at Tahquamenon Falls,” said Paul Lippens from Toole Design, who appeared that night via Zoom. “That is one of the high-priority projects that have been selected.”
The additional painting configuration comes at no cost to the village.
“They [MDOT] realized they had the funding opportunity and the opportunity to be a little flexible to ensure the connection is made to this future scenic byway trail,” Lippens said. “We created a striping plan that could be implemented in one of two ways.”
MDOT would have to determine if the full striping plan created by Toole Design would be eligible for that type of funding or if they would use the TAP pilot program.
“MDOT may have the flexibility to stripe part of that project today to put the road back but allow for a retrofit in the future,” he said.
Though the village’s role that night was only approving the proposed main street striping plan, the local trails team’s overall project would involve the possibility of the construction of a paved bike path leading to Four Mile Corner and involve designing and updating the railroad crossing on north Newberry Avenue.
“Part of the project, which is on your agenda tonight, is something that will increase the project’s viability in terms of implementation and funding—not just from the state’s perspective, but also any federal or other funding sources to get it to 100 percent.”
The Walkability Action Institute and Toole Design striping plan, however, did bring an area of concern among the council members due to its proposed bike lanes, which would travel between the fog line and the curb, potentially eliminating parking areas in front of Trinity Lutheran Church and the school as that area of main street is narrower than the first three blocks in the business district. The bike lane markings are planned on M-123 from Hamilton Lake Road to the railroad tracks on the north end of Newberry Avenue.
“I had some questions from some council members about the striping itself—it looked to some that perhaps there wouldn’t be parking spots downtown anymore,” said Village Manager Allison Watkins.
Lippens assured the council that parking would still be allowed downtown in the business district. Because Newberry Avenue is wider in the three blocks making up the business district, the bike lane would be placed between the parking space and the curb. But it was also noted that both parking and a bike lane would not be feasible in other areas of main street in the village limits.
Watkins suggested to the board that they vote to accept the Walkability study proposal from Truman Avenue to the north at the railroad tracks for the bike lane and approve the cross walks from Victory Way to the railroad tracks. The board voted to accept that plan.
The other areas of striping for main street will be reconfigured by the Walkability study and Toole Design and presented to the council for review at a later date.
