The Portage City Council met on September 23, 2025, with Mayor Pro Tem presiding. The meeting included a moment of silence, the Pledge of Allegiance, roll call (all members present: Burns, Ledbetter, Miller, Pearson, Randall, Urban, Young), public comments, a consent agenda, public hearings, discussion items, and council reports. Key actions included approval of a rezoning, a property sale, a housing assistance program, a developer exclusivity agreement, and a new ordinance.
Welcome to the September 23, 2025 Portage City Council meeting. Uh please rise for a moment of introspection on recent events that may have affected you personally, and then remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance, and I'll bring up the Boy Scouts. I pledge allegiance. Moment of silence. Thank you. I pledge allegiance. Oh, yes, yes. Come up and lead us, please. The Boy Scouts. From Troop Uh 244. The flag. United States of America. Stands. One nation under God. Liberty and Justice. Thank you, Scouts. Well, the clerk uh please call the roll. Yes, Mayor Pro Tem. I'll begin with Burns. Here. Ledbetter. Here. Miller. Here. Pearson. Here. Randall. Urban. Here. And Young. Here. Thank you. So we start with the petition of statements and citizens. Uh you have three minutes. If anybody has a statement, uh, please introduce with your name and uh your address, please. And Animal Leverage 2396588th Avenue Marcellus, Michigan. There's a real growing problem of microplastics in our food and water. I suggest we make a 10 cent deposit on plastic water bottles at the national level. Then additionally, a price included charge of five cents a bottle, three cents goes to the store for handling and two cents to help make bulk name brand water available. I will point out the sodopop industry often has aluminum cans, and we have paid for the refund machines in higher prices for many years. So you might have a standard uh gallon glass jar with the barcode. You could example fill these six of these jars at checkout, choose the brand, say some free choices, you know, on the screen, so you can take your mount mountain water and put it in your own containers at home with at bulk prices. Anyway, also I was passed a suggestion on to the stores that you have a voluntary program where you could pop up bags and the store process them for three cents a can. Then the drop-off program will work as follows. You bring a bag, the machine will print out two bio slips, one pair that they are paired but not identical. One goes in the bag you're turning in. They have might have some small zip zip-pop bags for you. The other you keep, you can check the website sometime in the next three days. It should be processed. Then you're good to go.