Engineers and housing debated

The Babbitt city council also found themselves working with two different engineering companies, the current engineer SEH and Bollig, a company trying to get the city’s business.

The discussion at the regular meeting on Sept. 17 was on flooding issues previously brought up by Jim Zupancich in his neighborhood.

Paul Hoheisel questioned how Bollig was hired to go look at the problem without council approval.

Jaeger said that was what the council had determined.

“I made the motion that they go over there and take a look at it and they were gonna come back free of charge and have us determine what needs to be done over there. There was there was never no money involved,” said Hoheisel.

Jim Zupancich said the problem needs to be solved to keep more houses from being flooded.

The council did approve spending $9,800 with Viewpoint Consulting to update the city’s housing study from 2021.

The work would include determining currentdemandforhousing in Babbitt.

“It seems like, for something that’s just been done, it seems like a lot of money to do an update,” said Lossing.