Here are the reports that Village Manager Bryan Gruesbeck present to council during regular meetings in October:

• Best Village Award: On September 29, 2022, the Village was notified that we won the Simply the Best award for Northern Michigan Local Village category. The readers of the Record Eagle vote on this every year, and we would like to thank them for the recognition. The Village will continue its efforts and live up to this designation.
• System Email Reset: On September 21, 2022 village staff were notified by the IT contractor that all elkrapids.org email accounts needed to update their passwords. Staff have sent out resets to all accounts, including board and commission members. We cannot track who all has reset their password, therefore we do not know if some b/c members still are locked out of their accounts. Lori will be reaching out to chairs and members to ensure everyone is back on their village accounts.
• Cyber Security Testing and Training: September 19 – 23, 2022 our IT company coordinated a phishing security test. All sixty-eight (68) elkrapids.org accounts received a randomly selected email to track who opened the email, who clicked the link in the message, etc. This base-line assessment rated our risk of falling for a phishing scam. I will be following up with IT Right to set up some additional training for our users to decrease this risk moving forward. The next training campaign will begin October 17 and elkrapids.org users will have ninety (90) days to complete the training.
• Cedar Street Update: Stormwater controls and sanitary sewer lines are in place. Sidewalk replacement on site is expected during the week of October 17, 2022.
• Traffic Study Update: I included a PowerPoint of various basic traffic calming options in the agenda packet for the October 17, 2022 meeting. The costs identified in the examples are crude estimates sourced from planning entities. Many of the examples are included in a traffic calming manual used by the City of Traverse City. As I indicated in previous meetings, experience and research indicate that physical changes to roads are generally the most efficient ways to slow traffic. The trade-off is expense – e.g., roundabouts, medians and bump-outs carry some costs for materials and installation. Painting lines and installing bike lanes can also slow traffic down to an extent.
• Updating Plans: As you may be aware, the Planning Commission, Downtown Development Authority, Parks and Recreation Commission, and Harbor Commission are all preparing various plans. Staff met recently the Elise Crafts of Statecraft and laid out roles, responsibilities, and a timeline to complete the 5-year Community Recreation plan by January 31, 2022.
• Conference Reminder: The village clerk and I will be attending the Michigan Municipal League Convention October 19-21, 2022 in Muskegon. The focus of this conference is “Turn the Page: Local Leaders Shaping the Future.”
• Bonus – EV Charging Stations usage update: