City Manager Shane Horn provided the council with an update on the city's multi‑year investigation into water service connections and potential lead service lines during the Jan. 6 meeting.

Horn said the city is conducting potholing and other investigations to locate service line materials and that staff have obtained grant funds to support the identification work. He cautioned, however, that replacing lead service lines often requires work that extends onto private property and into homes and that “to this point, we have not received any sort of any sort of funds to help us in that regard,” meaning funds to cover private-side replacements.

Horn said Petoskey is about “year 3 or going up on year 3 of our investigation” and that the city expects to continue logging findings and then, at some point, “have to come back and actually make the improvement, make the disconnect, and upgrade the services at that point,” but did not specify a timeline or a funding source for private-side work.

Council members encouraged engaging state representatives in Lansing about potential funding and noted that many federal and state funding efforts prioritize communities with higher environmental-justice impacts; Horn said many of the initial funds have gone to communities categorized as hardest hit and that the city hopes additional funds will become available.

Ending: Council members and staff urged residents to respond to information the city sends — Horn noted the city’s letter asked residents to document and photograph internal connections as part of the investigation — and to continue discussions with state lawmakers about reimbursement options for private-side work.