Mount Clemens Mayor Laura Kropp delivers the 2024 State of Mount Clemens Address at the Emerald Theater on Oct. 25.
By: Dean Vaglia | Mount Clemens-Clinton-Harrison Journal | Published November 7, 2024
MOUNT CLEMENS — Two years ago, Mount Clemens Mayor Laura Kropp ended her State of the City address with a wary eye toward major projects within the county seat. In 2023 she announced that more than $39 million in grants and appropriations were allocated for the city.
For her 2024 address on Oct. 25, Kropp ran out of space to fit all the city’s news into.
“This is the first State of the City Address since 2020 that I’ve had to eliminate good news because we just had too many positive things to share with all of you today,” Kropp said in her closing remarks. “What a problem to have. If you close your eyes and think back to what Mount Clemens looked like five, seven, 10 years ago when 70% of our downtown was vacant buildings, when we believed that if we wished hard enough for things to get better maybe we would get lucky, and someone would come do something. Fast-forward five years of hard-working, planning, finding resources, collaborating and just doing something to make things different. The road hasn’t been easy, but boy, have we come a long way. I believe that even though Mount Clemens is 200 years old — 206 years old — her story isn’t over. This is just the season of change and growth and prosperity.”
Taking the Emerald Theater stage for the second year in a row, Kropp’s 2024 State of Mount Clemens Address was a roughly hourlong affair highlighting the city’s developments over the course of the year. From staff and policy changes within City Hall to the city government’s potential relocation, almost no stone was left unturned in the address.
Beginning with City Commissioner Theresa McGarity leading the North Broadway Church of Christ choir in a performance of “Seasons of Love” from the 1996 musical “Rent,” numerous ongoing developments were touched on in Kropp’s speech. In 2022, the address was hosted at the then-recently acquired Cairns Community Center. In 2024, Kropp’s recreation remarks came days after the unveiling of a new playground at the center.
“Recreation in Mount Clemens began this spring with an informational meeting and community listening session at Cairns Community Center,” Kropp said. “We listened to residents’ ideas and came away with some policy changes. The meeting results were the hiring of Karl Haye (as) a new part-time recreation employee working at Cairns Community Center for planning and implementing programs.”
Another development from the meeting was a city-wide recreation building rental policy, with details about that and the city’s recreation programs available at mountclemensrecreation.org.
Kropp hinted at major developments involving water infrastructure in 2022, and she had plenty of news to share about the projects in 2024. Work is underway to improve old and broken machinery at the city’s wastewater treatment plant and sewers are being replaced around the city. A $37 million contract for the design and construction of the city’s connection to the Great Lakes Water Authority, a 2 million gallon water storage tank and the replacement of water mains was awarded to Dan’s Excavating earlier in 2024 with plans to break ground in summer 2025.
“That was not an easy decision; $37 million to Mount Clemens’ annual $14 million budget is a really difficult decision for our commission to make,” Kropp said. “Giving up our independence of our own water facility and changing to Great Lakes Water was something that was not popular, but it was really necessary, and it was the right thing to do. I thank my colleagues at the commission table for not turning that into something that divided us, but turning it into something that united us.”
More developments unfolded above ground. The downtown revitalization project, which would see an overhaul to the Cherry Street Mall and Macomb Place, was announced in late 2023 and delayed due to federal funding requirements. The delays gave the city a chance to revisit the plan and modify it a bit by changing some of the aesthetics, adding greenery and shade for the Macomb Place fountain. Updated renderings can be seen at the Downtown Development Authority’s office at 48 Cherry Street. The city plans to award a contract in December and have work begin by April 2025.
A stone’s throw away from the mall is the former site of the Victory Inn motel, which has since been knocked down to make way for the new market-rate Manchester Mount Clemens apartment complex.
“This important development of over 100 apartment units has the potential to more than double the current population of our downtown,” Kropp said. “Right now, living within our Downtown Development Authority footprint is less than 100 people, so this 100-unit development will significantly change that landscape.”
The Manchester Mount Clemens apartment complex is a project of Clinton Township-based developer Jim George, who is also behind a new Alro Steel plant being built at the former Gibraltar Trade Center site.
When city officials honored the fall of the Victory Inn, some information was shared about a project to redevelop the Clinton River waterfront. Kropp revealed at her address that the project would involve moving City Hall to the downtown — talks are currently being held about a building on South Main Street — in order to free up space along the riverbank. A $2 million appropriation to aid the project was acquired from the state.
“We will take City Hall off of the riverfront and put it in the heart of our downtown,” Kropp said. “This will allow us to develop the east side of the river with public space and a possible multiuse development. Stay tuned for exciting announcements as this project develops.”
Between recollections and announcements, Kropp was joined on stage by state Rep. Denise Mentzer, a former city commissioner, to discuss developments in Lansing, while Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel introduced the choir and praised the partnerships between the city and county government located within its borders.
City Commissioner Erik Rick agreed with the bulk of the mayor’s address, particularly enjoying the problem of having too much news to include.
“It’s great having the city have so many wins that they had to cut some out of what they’re addressing just to keep it under the time limit,” Rick said. “There’s still lots of challenges in the city, but the fact they’ve been able to work through so many of them over this last year has been really amazing.”
Known at City Hall for encouraging people to join the city’s boards and commissions, Rick was happy to see a number of those boards and commissions highlighted in the address.
The 2024 State of Mount Clemens Address is expected to be uploaded to the @CityofMountClemens YouTube account for online viewing.