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Marquette leaders praise storm response; city urges 211 for non-emergency assistance
Summary
Commissioners and the city manager praised public works, utility and community groups for their response to a historic storm and urged residents to call 211 for non-emergency assistance; the city noted FY26 snow allocations were $50,000, below typical distributions.
Commissioners and city staff used the March 19 meeting to thank public works crews, utilities and community organizations for their response to a historic snow event and to remind residents about available support.
Several commissioners and the mayor praised plow drivers and utility crews for keeping emergency routes open and restoring power quickly. The mayor and commissioners also highlighted active social media updates from the city and Border Light and Power (BLP) during the storm as helpful for residents. Commissioners recognized community organizations such as SWP for providing in-place assistance to isolated residents and noted examples of staff making targeted deliveries and support.
The city manager urged residents needing non-emergency assistance to call 211 so callers can be connected with resources. He said the city received a FY26 snow allocation of $50,000 (noting that allocations historically have been closer to $500,000), and that the scale of this storm required substantial overtime, equipment and fuel costs. The manager also explained that some sidewalks and school routes remain priorities for clearing and that crews are bringing in heavy equipment to restore normal sidewalk clearing capabilities.
Commissioners reiterated gratitude for staff work and noted a temporary glitch on the BLP outage map that overstated outages; CEO Carpenter contacted the mayor to clarify the numbers. The meeting concluded with an adjournment at 6:30 p.m.
