11-04-2025 12:53am

Saline City Council Candidate Miri Weidner Answers Our Questions

The Saline Post sent questions to the six candidates running for Saline City Council. This piece features the answers of candidate Miri Weidner.

Voters will elect three members to council in the Nov. 4 election.

Why are you running for City Council?

I’m running for City Council because I want to help improve communication between residents and the city. We do a great job at the moment with making sure citizens are notified according to Michigan laws, but we could do even better at being transparent and make sure we notify individuals to go beyond the minimum requirements set by the state.

Why should voters choose you?

I am very active in helping the community in any way I can. I'm also very methodical and focus on making sure that I do thorough research on every topic. I’m very data-driven and I want to make sure all citizens are aware of developments in their community. This additional time will allow all citizens to have a chance to provide input on things that may affect their lives here in Saline.

Please share your top three issues and how you plan to address them.

My top three issues in Saline involve the Saline dam, rec center and following up with the water treatment plant improvements. I believe it would be more fiscally responsible to rehabilitate the dam, as the grants initially earmarked for removal aren’t available and still may not be available for the next few years. Our dam is in fair condition now and with maintenance, we know the upfront costs - with removal, there are unknown costs such as legal fees, renovating Mill Pond Park after the pond has been removed, and any other possible issues such as silt removal if we find contaminated patches of it. For the rec center, I would like us to investigate whether a Recreation Authority would be feasible to make our rec center financially sustainable by regionalizing it. Our renovations and improvements to the Water Treatment Plant conclude in June or July 2026. I would like to make sure that after those updates conclude, we follow up with any citizens still having issues with their water by investigating any connections between their home and the city pipes that may need replacing.

Are you happy with the direction of the City of Saline? Please explain your answer.

I believe there are many improvements we could make with the city of Saline as far as being transparent and communicating with our residents. Currently, I believe we don’t do enough to make sure citizens can find information they need when they need it. We should be accessible to citizens on multiple platforms so they can reach someone if they have inquiries. At times, I find residents report not being able to reach city council or don’t receive a response when they have sent questions to them.

Can the city afford to operate the Saline Rec Center? If so, specify how. If not, how should the city handle it?

If we look into a Recreation Authority, we could potentially team up with other townships that also utilize the rec center. If we had in addition to this, a mileage solely for the Rec Center maintenance and we also regionalize the Rec Center, this would offset the maintenance cost and open up the possibility to add other beneficial programs or utilities to the Rec Center.

Some residents want to save the Saline River Dam and Mill Pond. Others want to remove the dam. What are your considerations and where do you stand on the issue?

As I mentioned previously, I believe keeping the dam and doing the necessary maintenance on it would be better than exploring removal. The grants to remove this dam no longer are available, and most likely the cost upfront with removal would fall on citizens in the form of taxes. We do not have the full picture with removal of the dam to accurately assess what would be needed financially; such as potential legal costs with water rights on private properties and what cost the Mill Pond Park would need to be rehabilitated after the pond is removed. We could be entering a situation where we incur costs for multiple years to just repair the damage the dam removal would cause once the pond is drained. The studies have not included any research into migratory species or threatened species that may use the stillwater of the pond. The only study so far was completed in winter, when most species are hibernating or gone for the winter season. Additionally, almost seventy percent of the dams currently in Michigan are utilized for recreational use. Mill Pond is one of our most reserved parks for events and we have not properly assessed what this would do to our tourism in Saline if we removed the recreational feature the dam creates with the Mill Pond.

Does downtown have enough parking? If not, how would you create more parking to help people access the local businesses? Tell us your thoughts.

Our current layout for parking needs a thorough investigation of how we can best utilize our current parking lots. At the moment, you can turn into a full parking lot and not be able to turn around to exit that parking lot - this is a design flaw, and a properly trained Civil Engineer needs to be either utilized or contracted to look at this issue. We need to make sure we have not only more parking but functional parking.

Taxes. There is no end in sight to the potential millages we see coming in the future. And that doesn’t include rising property values and significant water/sewer rate increases, not to mention other forms of inflation. Can the city provide tax relief? If so, how?

I believe tax relief could be achieved in making sure any future projects are properly funded through the acquisition of grants or additional funding through state level programs. We are in the process of creating a Fire Authority, which would open access to further funding through grants. Creating a Recreation Authority may also open up availability to grants and avoid needing to dive into general funds for maintenance. These sorts of issues need to be explored and implemented immediately, because it is becoming exceedingly difficult to keep up with the rising costs of living and utilities. We don't want to price our citizens out of their residences.

We’ve had some low-key political scandals (Fire Board and City Manager search, to name two) in our city. How will you hold others accountable and ensure political shenanigans cease and transparency and thoughtfulness prevail?

Transparency involves keeping all issues open to the public. I believe if we have less closed door meetings and increase our recordkeeping, as well as show how we arrive at our decisions, it will be less likely to spur any discussion of lack of accountability. I also believe if we do our due diligence with communicating with residents on all issues, and try to promote more town halls and other avenues of communication, we will have more residents feel included in the decision making process than feeling as if we make the decisions as individuals sitting on the council.

In your view, should the city buy the Curtiss Mansion? Tell us why or why not?

I believe we should explore a solution by making sure the Curtiss Mansion is part of the historic district in Saline, through the Local Historic Districts Act of 1970. This will make sure that future property owners have to connect with the city and local historical boards on any future changes to the property. At this time, with our other expenditures, I do not believe we need to seek acquiring the mansion by the city and trying to turn it into a business run through the city.

Saline has been compared to neighboring cities regarding downtown amenities, shops, restaurants and curb appeal. What are your views of downtown, and what changes would you support, or things you'd keep the same?

Personally, I love our downtown and I always believe we can make it more appealing. I am a big fan of the recent art installation in Leather Bucket Alley. Having more community projects to liven up the area and supporting our businesses through incentives and policies is always a good goal. I hope our collaboration with Ann Arbor Spark furthers our ability to reach out to new potential businesses in the area.

The city council decided that trans women should use the women’s changing room at the Rec Center. At the council table, the Parks and Rec Director said that if a woman is uncomfortable with getting changed in front of a trans woman, she should use the private room. That’s a decision that left some females feeling like second-class citizens. Do you agree with the decision? Can you think of solutions that don’t alienate some people?

Regardless of how I feel about this particular issue, this decision has opened the option to have your own personal space to feel safe in and I support this for all parties involved. Some Rec Centers have the option to only have private rooms, which I believe would be best as opposed to open locker rooms, but at this time we do not have the funding to implement this change.