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Portage manager's 2025 review highlights housing, grants and sustainability programs
Summary
City Manager Pat McGinnis presented a brief 2025 year-in-review highlighting housing project approvals, neighborhood enterprise zone designations, a $1.75 million state grant for a farmers market, tornado-relief disbursements, and sustainability initiatives; the Environmental Advisory Board reported on plastic-bag recycling and invasive-species work.
City Manager Pat McGinnis delivered a 2025 year-in-review to the Portage City Council on Jan. 13, outlining housing approvals, grant awards and community programs completed or underway in 2025.
McGinnis highlighted residential development activity, noting the city has added hundreds of housing units since a county study and cited specific projects the council advanced during the year. He told the council the city secured a $1,750,000 state grant for a farmers market and referenced a $2,000,000 award for a senior center; he also credited the city's delegation for securing $3,000,000 in tornado-relief funding distributed to local families and nonprofits.
The manager emphasized other accomplishments including neighborhood enterprise zones, Brownfield work intended to catalyze redevelopment, public-safety technology investments such as a drone system and an AI reporting tool to free officer time, and expanded business-support programs including a local-business payment incentive called Portage Pocket Pay.
Earlier in the meeting, David Lancaster, chair of the Environmental Advisory Board, presented the board's 2025 accomplishments and 2026 priorities. Lancaster described the board's adoption of meeting rules of procedure, participation in invasive-species removals using nonchemical methods, and a plastic-bag recycling initiative that quickly reached its year goal and produced a bench at the water treatment facility as a program reward. He said the board plans increased collaboration with parks and recreation, continued public education and a revived high-school competition tied to the bag-recycling effort.
Council action on these reports included a motion to receive the environmental board report. The council also approved multiple appointments to boards and commissions later in the agenda.
What to watch: McGinnis said the city will continue work on mixed-use zoning and corridor improvements, pursue multiple grant sources for trail and park projects, and track implementation of community land trust and housing-related programs. The manager said further details about the single-hauler transition and container distribution will appear in the February newsletter and that legal and logistics work related to the special election will follow the council's action.
