Good afternoon! This is going to be a much shorter email. Jess Dobbs did a great summary of the ACCOA meeting on their website www.alconaconservatives.com with the accompanying video from the meeting. So I will leave my notes from the meeting in my notebook and just give you my notes from the county commissioner’s meeting on Wednesday. The Alpena News did an article on the ACCOA on Thursday and this morning there was an editorial in the same paper. I have heard Lenny has relatives that work as editors at the newspaper and we know that the mainstream media is not a friend of the people. So I recommend we make Jeff and Jess Dobbs our news source for what is happening in our county. 🙂 If you cannot go online to see either the article or video, let me know and I will copy and paste Jess’ article for you and send it via email. And if you get a chance, please watch the video. If you see things in the video that you’d like to point out or have questions about, please let Bob or me know. 🙂
There were about 20 people in the audience and all the commissioners were present at the meeting. Several veterans showed up to support Patrick and Tony who would speak later. The budgets for 2023, general fund and non-general funds got approved with one no from Carolyn Brummund. During the first public comment Leroy Perrin stood and said he was in support of the solar projects in the county. A man from Ranger (solar company) also stood and said he was there to answer questions if needed. Jan MacNeill and Joyce Jamieson were there to support Tony.
Jennifer Lueck from the court asked Adam Brege to sign to accept a $25,000.00 grant received by drug court. She also asked them to sign a contract for the family court attorneys at $5300.00 each. Patrick Smiley gave a veterans affairs update. First though, he was upset with the board because they received a $3000.00 bill for administration fees for their millage. Patrick told the board they gave back $27,000.00 to the county that they didn’t need and then received a bill. Tony said either waive the fee or give back the $27,000 and they will pay the bill. Adam said he could not waive the fee or every organization with a millage who gets charged admin fees by the county will ask for the same. The veterans brought one of two new potential board members for approval from the county board. Four ayes and one nay (from Carolyn) to allow the veterans to add two board members to the already five they have. Dan Gauthier wants to talk to the new board members to make sure they know what it takes to be on the board.
Sheriff Stephenson gave an update. He wanted to surprise one of his deputies with an award for his work with the active shooter situation on Roe Road but since the deputy didn’t know, he wasn’t there for the award. One of our deputies was injured in a suicidal call, but he is at home and recovering. Another deputy is having surgery and will be out for six months so the sheriff will have to decide if we will continue to have a resource officer at the school or on 24 hour road patrol. Scott also interviewed someone who works at a jail but he makes $5 more per hour than our deputies do so he was not interested in coming to work here. Scott said two people have gone through drone pilot training. The SWAT team used one on the active shooter situation and one was needed for a missing person in Ossineke. Snow mobile patrol will be starting and the sheriff is looking into buying a newer one. Homeland Security has a grant for our dashcam program. A stonegarden grant pays for our deputy overtime. He is looking for a shallow water boat in next year’s budget and two new patrol cars. The Ford Explorer seems to be the best option. He had a contract with the city of Harrisville for extra patrol. The contract with Iosco county seems to be working out and mentioned we have had some combative people to transport. He said Iosco has easier criminals. 🙂 Scott said we have no bodies for HUNT, no detective and maybe no one at the school. Adam said he’d like to talk to Scott after the first of the year to address some of these issues.
On to new business – Dan Gauthier said the county’s rec plan needs legal work before other grants can be pursued. Claims paid from 11/02-11/10 in the amount of $1,384,190.98 were paid. The board had the Gustin township energy ordinance in front of them. They approved it after reading a letter from citizen Mike Goddard whose concern was the noise level. These solar leases are lucrative for land owners according to Adam. The ordinance was put together by NEMCOG. It was already approved by the Gustin Township planning commission and now will go to the township for final approval. There was some discussion about a ‘payment-in-lieu’ regarding employee insurance and married employees whose spouse also works at the county. The board voted to change the policy regarding this with Adam the only no vote. Carolyn Brummund submitted changes to the ACCOA contract so the board voted to wait until Tom Weichel and Lenny look it over. (Bob will be requesting a chance to look it over before it goes to the Policies and Procedures Committee for review and vote before forwarding it on to the entire ACCOA board for review and then a vote. See the difference between that and having “Lenny look it over”?) MOOG (Massive Open Online Grant) was mentioned for a marijuana oversight grant. The board voted yes. There is a board member change at Wurtsmith AFB and there was discussion on waiting to see what the president says but the board voted to respond in the affirmative to the new board member (Terry Small voted no).
There were a couple of small budget adjustments for the emergency management director, the prosecuting attorney for equipment and the library for an unexpected maintenance There was an additional $1155.00 invoice from a litigation attorney. The Harrisville city master plan was submitted and the deputy clerk will find out if they have 30 days to review. The board planned a special meeting on the 12th at 4:00 pm to interview the potential veterans board l members. A few quick sentences on committee reports – public health floor plan looks good, Alcona Dam meeting, DEQ for the mouth of the Black River that keeps plugging, EMS and 911 in discussion, Opioid group discussion, Alcona County in the Barn Preservation Group calendar for 2023, 211 interviewing for an executive director, compliment Dave Hanson on the county building holiday decorations. Lastly Adam mentioned correspondence from Geri Klingenberg on digital ID and covid passports. He asked that Geri bring the board a resolution on these issues.
There was one public comment at the end from George Perkins of Millen Township who wants the county board to support Tony and the veterans. And the meeting adjourned.
The school board meets next Monday at 5:30 at the middle school lobby and Harrisville Township meets on Tuesday the 13th at 7:00 pm. (Bob and I will be on a much needed vacation next week so we won’t be at any meetings. If you drive by and see anything strange, please let us or the sheriff know. You may not even hear from me. 🙂
Enjoy your week! We had 17 people at the Tavern meeting on Wednesday. Most of the discussion centered around the ACCOA but we talked about other things, too. Don’t forget to email Bob or me with any concerns or questions you may have about what’s happening. Or Jeff and Jess Dobbs if you have news the county can use. 🙂 I’m starting to notice all the money the state is throwing around for these ‘housing’ projects and articles on Whitmer (How Gov. Whitmer’s $100 million MHCDF funding proposal could expand affordable housing and shape Michigan’s economy). Is it possible northeast Michigan is being targeted because we are a conservative county? Could they be planting people here to push their agenda of poverty and housing shortages…people who will help do this? Is this something we need to protect our county from? Asking for a friend. 🙂
See you soon!
Lisa
Alcona Conservatives video and article link on ACCOA special meeting last Tuesday:
https://www.alconaconservatives.com/2022/12/08/accoa-special-meeting-12-06-2022/
Alpena News Editorial from today’s paper:
https://www.thealpenanews.com/opinion/editorials-and-columns/2022/12/board-residents-must-work-together-on-project/
