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MARSHALL -- Plans for a substation project in Marshall have Marshall Municipal Utilities looking for space to store materials like gravel or topsoil. This week, members of the Marshall City Council approved a request for MMU to use a city-owned lot in the Commerce Industrial Park development.
"MMU desires to move materials stockpiles to this site, that are currently located by the Erie Road substation, which is just south of the wastewater plant," said Marshall Public Works Director Jason Anderson. "They're doing a substation project there that will kick off next year," which meant the materials needed to be stored elsewhere.
The lot MMU was asking to use for storage space was located on the southeastern-most lot in the Commerce Park addition, Anderson said. That property is currently owned by the city, but does still have connections to MMU.
"The plan is, long-term, that it would be turned over to MMU at some point," Anderson said of the industrial park property. "There is a signed option contract with Marshall Municipal Utilities that was already kind of set in stone back in 2017, and then amended in 2019."
The idea was that the industrial park land could, in the long term, be a location for new utility development, according to agenda materials for Tuesday's council meeting. However, right now the city still owns the land, Anderson said.
Anderson said Marshall city staff drafted an agreement that would allow MMU to use the property to store construction materials. He said MMU plans to install a couple of driveways to access the property. The entrance points would be located along Michigan Road in the industrial park.
MMU would have to take out driveway permits to install the concrete driveway entrances, Anderson said. The agreement to use the land didn't include requirements for fences, Anderson said.
Council members voted to approve the agreement allowing MMU to store materials on the industrial park property.