Wakefield updates master plan.

WAKEFIELD - Members of the Wakefield city council and planning commission met in a Wednesday workshop to learn how an updated master plan could help them to counteract the dwindling population that many U.P. towns experience. Presenting the evidence were Scott MacInnes, northern field consultant for the Michigan Municipal League, and Bessemer city manager Charly Loper. According to Wakefield city manager Richard Brackney, Wakefield’s master plan has not been updated since 2000. Loper said Bessemer’s master plan was updated recently after city officials worked on the project for about a year after she began her position there. She said her city’s master plan had not been updated since 1954. MacInnes strongly stressed the importance of a solid, current master plan and warned that shrinking U.P. towns need to “step it up” in order to keep their areas ripe for opportunity. No decisions were made during the workshop and more work on the Wakefield master plan will continue.