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A public hearing on the issue will take place at 7:30 p.m. prior to the regular city council meeting.

Michigan Sugar's Croswell plant employs 72 full time and 233 seasonal employees, said company spokesman Ray VanDriessche.

VanDriessche said the facility's juice purification system is undersized for current output and new purification tanks, heater changes, controls and insulation are being installed.

The purification system removes impurities and allows the beet juice to be concentrated and boiled efficiently to produce refined white sugar that meets customer standards.

"Poor purification reduces the yield of recovered sugar, increases operating costs and prolongs the campaign season, leading to further sugar losses in the beet piles as the sugar beet deteriorate," VanDriessche wrote in a statement to the council.

Upgrading the system will increase sugar recovery, reduce chemical treatment and processing costs, reduce energy consumption and allow more output, he said.

"These improvements will allow the factory to remain competitive in an industry under long-term business pressures," VanDriessche wrote.

"Eighteen beet sugar factories have closed over the past twenty years, or forty-four percent of all industry plantsÉdue to increases in fuel costs. Chemical costs are increasing by about twenty percent," he added.

Reducing energy and chemical consumption is vital for continuing factory operations, and improved competitiveness is key to providing adequate financial returns to area growers, when pressure to grow other crops is high, he said.

"As a cooperative owned by local growers, factory performance is directly tied to keeping local farms viable," he said.

"It is also critical for meeting the long-term financial commitments to local banks and the State of Michigan for loans established when the Co-op was formed in 2002."

In other business, the council:

- Approved a one-year contract with Barbara Cutcher as building inspector and deputy zoning administrator. Cutcher will be available Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and by appointment from 8 a.m.-4 p.m.

- Approved hiring Port Huron Fence to install a privacy fence around the parking lot at the community center for $14,050.