PETOSKEY – Through a partnership with Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council, the city of Petoskey will have access to a drone this summer to help keep the marina clean of plastic and floating debris.
City Manager Shane Horn explained how the Pixie Drone will be in use during Monday’s Petoskey City Council meeting.
“This is controlled remotely,” he said. “It will be launched here at the marina and go in and out of the bays to pick up floating debris in and around the marina.”
Horn said use of the drone will be offered free of charge.
“I really want to give (the watershed council) credit for reaching out and getting us involved in this effort,” he said. “All the floating material we’ll obviously bring to shore, they’ll catalog it, find out how much trash it’s collected and then they’ll do this a few times during the season.”
Council Member Lindsey Walker, who also works with Emmet County Recycling, said recycling efforts will also be made for the collected material.
“We are going to receive the materials that they collect after they check it and see if we have opportunities for recyclability in secondary end markets,” she said.
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More: Meet BeBot, the robot designed to keep Northern Michigan’s beaches clean
The water board also offered the use of its BeBot beach cleaner, but Horn noted that the robot works better on sandy beaches than on the city’s rockier waterfront.
“I think the state park uses that service, but we’re pretty rocky again, so I didn’t necessarily see a fit for that device,” he said.
— Contact Jillian Fellows at jfellows@petoskeynews.com.
This article originally appeared in The Petoskey News-Review: Drone will help keep Petoskey marina clean this summer
