Vice Mayor Adam Miller told Mount Pleasant residents Monday night to write to their state representatives because the city may receive a cut in funding.

Statewide shared revenue may be cut by $67 million, and state fire funding by 50 percent, according to City Manager Paul Preston’s June status report.

“I’m getting a little tired of the way the tax cuts roll downhill, while our funding gets cut,” Miller said. “I want (city residents) to write (state) Rep. (Sandy) Caul and (state) Sen. (Joanne) Emmons.”

Mayor Mike Pittsley said the fire funding covers the state property, including CMU, that is in Mount Pleasant.

People can reach Caul at scaul@house.state.mi.us, and Emmons at SenJEmmons@senate.state.mi.us.

In other news:

• A site plan was approved by the Planning Commission to allow Walgreens Corp. to build a new store on the corner of Preston and Mission streets, in the area where Cinema 4 Theatre, 816 E. Preston St., and Rally’s Hamburgers, 1309 S. Mission St., now sit. The City Commission approved a request that the area be classified as a Brownfield, or an area in need of environmental clean-up. The contamination stems from the gas station that used to sit where Rally’s is located.

By declaring the area a Brownfield, Walgreens can receive state tax cuts for cleaning up the contamination. Commissioner Jon Joslin cast the lone vote against the plan.

“We’re allowing another big corporation to pay less taxes and cutting money to the state. I won’t be supporting this, especially with our funding being cut,” he said.

Commissioner Cynthia Bradley said she didn’t want to lose the opportunity to have Walgreens in Mount Pleasant.

“On the other hand, if Walgreens decides not to come here because they can get a Brownfield site elsewhere, we’re losing out,” she said.

Two residents came to the public hearing to protest Walgreen’s site plan and were referred to the planning commission by Pittsley.

Tony Kulick, city planner, said the site plans show that Rally’s and Cinema 4 will be demolished. However, there is no demolition permit on file with the building inspector department. Sometimes companies file site plans and do not go through with the actual project, so he could not confirm that the two buildings would be torn down.

• Maps and other items generated by the Global Imaging System will be available in electronic format at City Hall, following the commission’s decision to enhance access to the documents. There will be a fee charged for the service, but the commissioners put the motion to charge a fee on hold until a tiered fee schedule could be researched.

• Four public hearings were set for July 8 for the following items: A zoning text change to require vehicle sales lot to be paved; a zoning text change to require that dumpsters be in mortared (not wood) enclosures, except for one and two-family homes; a rezoning of the property at the northwest corner of Palmer and University from R-3 Single Family to P-1 Parking District and a request to issue a Telecommunication ROW Permit to RVP Fiber Company.

• The post-retirement benefits for fire and police retirees was increased. The retirees formerly received a $440 increase in their pensions per year. That figure has been moved to $500 a year for the 29 people receiving the benefits and is a result of increased health care costs. The increase will be reviewed again in late 2004.