Updates happened on a quartet of Dunkirk projects at this month’s meeting of the city Common Council Economic Development Committee.

HERO BANNERS

Southpaw Printing is currently sending digital representations of banners to patrons for their approval, according to Economic Development Committee Chairwoman Natalie Luczkowiak. She also chairs the Hero Banner Program Committee.

Brackets for the banners are at the Department of Public Works. There will be two banners on each bracket, one to a side. They will be put up on Fourth Street near City Hall, Lakefront Boulevard, and near Point Gratiot.

Luczkowiak didn’t have a final number of banners but said “it will probably be about 120 when all is said and done.”

It’s anticipated that DPW will get the banners in April so it can erect them in time for Memorial Day.

SUPERMART SEAGULLS

Luczkowiak has investigated how to stem the glut of seagulls that hang out in the Sav-a-Lot plaza on Fourth Street. She first called the state Department of Environmental Conservation, who referred her to a federal wildlife biologist.

See PROJECTS,

She said the federal government offers a permit for seagull mitigation. Working with Code Enforcement Officer Glenn Christner, she thinks they have found a solution: An effort to destroy seagull nests will start in April. Contractors will come in once every one to two weeks “for a while” to remove the nests, Luczkowiak said.

“There is a cost,” Christner noted. However, it will be divided among 10 businesses in the area and there will be no cost to taxpayers, he added.

In addition, a June effort will harvest 50 Canada geese, which will get fed to the poor. Luczkowiak noted there is a problem with “feces of the geese” in Memorial Park.

SOFTBALL STADIUMS

As previously reported, Luczkowiak is asking DPW to renovate the city’s softball “stadiums” at Wright Park and Point Gratiot. She said a softball stadium commmittee and DPW agreed to work on some projects that cost little to no money.

Luczkowiak said the “stadiums don’t kind of match the tourneys we want to bring in.”

WASHINGTON PARK STEPS

The city Planning Department’s Nicole Clift, who administers Community Development Block Grant funds, said CDBG money will back an effort to renovate the steps at Washington Park.

She said quotes were due by week’s end for the work. If the estimates cost more than the grant funding will provide, the city will “take another look” at the project. The quotes are not formal bids.

Clift said the city hoped to not only fix the steps, but add a wheelchair ramp. But if there is only enough money available for one, the steps will come first.