The Buchanan City Commission has once again postponed the approval of an agreement with Live Buchanan.
After delaying a vote on a formal contract with the non-profit economic development organization last week, the commission this week reconsidered the issue.
Again, it was Commissioner Dan Vigansky with the most reservations. He said the Downtown Development Authority should never have been disbanded. Commissioner Mark Weedom proposed reestablishing the DDA while also moving forward with the Live Buchanan contract.
Instead, Vigansky made a motion to have Live Buchanan report back to it with more detailed information on its planned budget and salary for Director Ashley Regal.
“So my motion is for Live Buchanan to rewrite all this and present it to us so that we can pass it before the deadline, the end of August,” Vigansky said.
Regal is the city’s assistant director of community development, but she’s leading the Live Buchanan Main Street initiative. Some of the $56,000 per year budget the commission was asked to allocate for Live Buchanan would supplement her salary to account for the extra work.
Live Buchanan has been working to designate Buchanan as a Michigan Main Street City with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, which would free up development support. Having an agreement in place with Live Buchanan could make that happen. Regal said the deadline is the end of August.
Commissioners will reconsider the issue August 26.
