EAST LANSING, Mich. — Community members are advised that some City of East Lansing offices and buildings will be closed on Wednesday, Feb. 15 as the City continues to stand in solidarity with MSU.
City offices and buildings that will be closed include East Lansing City Hall, East Lansing Prime Time and the East Lansing Department of Public Works. The East Lansing Hannah Community Center will be open from 8 a.m.-9 p.m., with community counseling services offered from noon-5:30 p.m. The East Lansing Public Library will only be open for community counseling services from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. The Library Board of Trustees President has canceled tomorrow’s meeting; it has been rescheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 22 at 4:45 p.m. Events/meetings that have been canceled or will be rescheduled include The Gift of Life event at ELPL and the Parks & Recreation Advisory Commission meeting.
While some City of East Lansing offices will remain closed to allow additional space for processing and grieving, essential City of East Lansing employees will continue to provide critical services to the community. Community members should note that trash and recycling collection for Wednesday, Feb. 15 will be delayed until Thursday, Feb. 16. Wednesday and Thursday’s trash and recycling will be collected on Thursday, Feb. 16 Additionally, the East Lansing Finance Department will now be accepting property taxes through 5 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 16 with no penalties incurred. Regular City operations will resume on Thursday, Feb. 16.
Statement from East Lansing Mayor Ron Bacon
In response to last night’s shooting on the MSU campus, East Lansing Mayor Ron Bacon has released the following statement:
“Today, we are all Spartans. Last night, another mass shooting took the lives of three innocent victims and injured five others, students who had their entire futures before them. As a community, we stand with MSU students, faculty and staff in collective grief, disbelief and shock at the horrific events that occurred in our city. As a parent with a child away at college, I have deep empathy and understand the heart-wrenching fear, the silent pleading prayers for your child’s safety and the need to immediately connect if only to just hear their voice. As an elected leader, you hope and pray that nothing like this will ever happen and when the unthinkable happens, it rocks you back on your heels and halts all sense of normality, shatters your sense of safety, but also creates an urgency to act, to call on all of us who have any power to do something, so that no family, no parent, no child will ever be forced to hear the words, there has been a shooting. This event has devasted our entire community and has left the country to once again grapple with the senseless loss of life from gun violence. February 13, 2023 will be indelibly etched in our minds. We will remember the victims, Arielle Anderson, Brian Fraser, Alexandria Verner; the survivors who are hospitalized fighting for their lives; and the thousands without physical wounds whose lives will be forever changed. We will not forget them.
We will remain steadfast in our support for our MSU family and offer whatever resources we can provide as we navigate through this difficult time as one city.
I want to thank City staff and first responders, who came from across the region to answer the call to help, their bravery and professionalism was unapparelled. This is the time for our community to lean into one another, for comfort, healing, to find solutions and to find hope for a way forward. The City of East Lansing will have counseling services available for community members at the East Lansing Public Library and the East Lansing Hannah Community Center on Wednesday Feb. 15 from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. and noon-5:30 p.m. respectively. City offices will be closed for an additional day on Wednesday, Feb. 15 as we continue to stand in solidarity and fidelity with the MSU community and honor the 48 hours requested for processing this situation.”