Hi. I hope you had a nice weekend and enjoyed the beautiful Indian summer weather!
This evening is the Alcona County Republicans meeting at the Chosen Ranch building in Lincoln at 7:00pm.
Tomorrow the ACCOA meets at 10:00am. This will be an important meeting as Bob and Leroy get sworn in as members of the board. If you can attend, please do so. 🙂
The commissioner’s met last Wednesday at 1:30. There were 17 people in the audience and 9 on zoom. I thought it was a terrific turnout! Commissioner Brummund and Gauthier were not present. Becky from the Harrisville Depot group said they should have the deed to the property by the end of the year. They are going forward with environmental testing on the property and asked for a letter of support from the board. She was dressed in the blue and white striped overalls and hat of a train conductor. 🙂 Gary Wnuk stood during public comment and spoke about the unnamed executive director of the ACCOA for his comments after the last county commissioner meeting. Patty Thomas, as a poll challenger, asked the board to approach state legislators to prohibit open carry in polling places. The board said they follow state law. Troy Somers gave a quick presentation on Equalization regarding the two millages on the ballot. Melissa Cordes gave a presentation on records preservation and the Underground Security Company that she was able to tour. Alcona County has some of their vital and irreplaceable records stored there. It is ten stories underground in an old gypsum mine. There are six miles of tunnel. Our records are in a file cabinet in room B. There is a constant 62 degree and 35 percent humidity which makes it a perfect environment to store microfilm. Our records went there in 1977. Microfilm can last 500years. There are a couple of other places in Iowa that also hold microfilm records. Jennifer from 44 North gave a presentation regarding insurance for the county….Priority Health vs. Blue Cross. She gave too many numbers for me to write down regarding deductibles and co-pays. The county will now decide if they want to stay with Priority Health. However, across the board, there is a 15.35 percent increase in the insurance costs per family. The board paid claims of $1,251,804.47 for the period of 10/05 – 10/18. So every two weeks the board pays out around 1 million dollars. I wonder how that compares to other counties of our size. The 2023 MIDC (Michigan Indigent Defense Commission) through the court system awards the county grant money. Adam just mentioned it but had no dollars to report at this time. Finance report – there was a change to the law enforcement fund ($3K increase to revenue and expenditures), parks and rec ($3500 increase to revenue and expenditures). Adam said the budget monitoring was going well and they were ahead of schedule. There was a personnel grievance filed but it was tabled because Carolyn was absent from the meeting. Dog license renewals were sent out. There is an error on the Mitchell Township ballot but it does not affect the vote. It seems the millage that was on the ballot was already voted for in August so no votes will affect the millage one way or the other. Terry Small gave a quick report about the dam’s possible closing. He thinks there may be a resolution forthcoming to keep them open. Bill Thompson reported on the opioid meeting and only the health department showed up. He suggested there is not much interest in getting money to organizations in the area that can help the crisis. The fair will be August 8th-12th next year. He said there is activity in Gustin Township regarding solar farms. There is a public meeting at 7pm on November 10th in Gustin Township on this topic. At the last public comment, Gary stood again and talked about how disheartening the senior center moving away from focus on the seniors is. He mentioned the amount of turnover and asked if the county board was going to hold Lenny accountable. Gary suggested they get involved or stop their funding. Patty Thomas asked Bill Thompson about the opioid crisis and who was eligible for funds. Bill responded with three criteria (I got two – prevention and outcome) and it’s $18,000.00 per year.
Last Thursday was the voter forum at the Greenbush Township Hall. There were about 50 people in attendance. I answered school board questions from the audience along with Vicki Hansen and Charlie Calkins. Steve Yokom did not show up. We answered questions on CRT, book banning, mental health issues, what we thought were good and bad things about the school, things we’d like to change and boy, was I glad it was over! It’s a tough thing to sit there and answer questions off the cuff. There were only three county commissioner candidates there….Joe Lukasiewicz, Craig Johnston and Bill Thompson. Carolyn was ill and still in quarantine so she was not able to attend. They did the same thing as the school board candidates for the second hour. I thought it was very helpful for those who don’t know where our candidates stand.
There are no other meetings this week. So have a wonderful week. And, if you have time, send a letter or an email to someone or some organization who is trying to take away our freedoms. Or come to a meeting and see what is going on in our county for yourself – especially the ACCOA meeting on Tuesday morning. We’d love to see you there!
Your fellow patriot,
Lisa
