It's full speed ahead on the Wright Street reconfiguration project.
MARQUETTE -- Wright Street will soon be able to better accommodate truck, car, and bike traffic.
When the idea was first proposed, changing a portion of Wright Street from four lanes to three, the Marquette City Commission was hesitant.
After careful review and approval of the lane reconfiguration of Wright Street by the members of the Marquette City Planning Commission, commissioners are willing to ride out the changes for the time being.
The project includes two lanes of traffic and a center turn lane, as well as two four-foot wide bike lanes on the one mile stretch between Industrial Parkway and Ontario Avenue.
However, some commissioners are still uneasy with the idea of heavy traffic riding side-by-side with bikers.
"I believe there are a lot of benefits to making Marquette a bike-friendly community, but I'm not convinced this is the way to get there," said commissioner Don Ryan.
"If three lanes can do it," said Mayor John Kivela, "and we got room for bikes, great."
But if the reconfiguration doesn't work, Mayor John Kivela said the commission can take the issue up in the future and reverse the decision.
The commission also discussed City Manager Judy Akkala's compensation at its Monday night meeting. As part of her employment agreement, the city manager's job performance is evaluated each year and may include a pay raise.
"I think our city manager has certainly done an excellent job for the community and the city," said commissioner Fred Stonehouse.
Akkala's salary was reviewed and the commission voted to increase her salary by more than $4,700 to an annual salary of $100,661.00.
The city commission also held a joint work session Monday with the Marquette City Planning Commission, Harbor Advisory Committee, and the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board. They listened to the results from a preliminary engineering and master plan study on the Presque Isle Marina and the proposed marina near Founder's Landing. The study included three different recommendations for redevelopment and reconstruction of the aging Presque Isle Marina.
Suggestions were also made for how to best re-use the old pilings and construct a marina at Founder's Landing.
The price of all the projects varied from $3.7 million to $9.2 million.
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