Good morning! I hope you had a great week and are ready for the weekend. 🙂
You may have read the Alcona Review about the situation in Mikado. Last Thursday, the 12th, I attended the special meeting regarding the EMS situation. Since I did not know what had happened previous to this meeting, I can only talk about what happened at the meeting from my viewpoint. There were about 55 people in the audience so they moved the meeting to the larger room at the hall. The meeting was about the fire chief, Regina, that they had fired the previous Monday. Since most of the backstory is in the paper, I will just say a few things. I believe most people in the audience wanted Regina to be fired. When the board made the recommendation that they were rescinding her firing and reinstating her, there were many shouts from the crowd. People were yelling, “she put us in danger”, “she needs to go”, “we need our questions answered”….. It was a bit chaotic as it seemed most of the audience did not know Robert’s Rules of Order. 🙂 But what struck me was when Regina stood to address the crowd…a crowd that was mostly against her…and said she was sorry. She got emotional saying this was her community and this was not done with malicious intent. She was remorseful that this situation happened and although it was her fault, she took responsibility and was trying to make it right. She asked if anyone in the audience had ever made a mistake. So I had a lot of respect for her to stand and face her accusers and explain what she had done, how sorry she was that this had happened, she loved her community and was in the process of trying to make it right. She also stated that she would have been able to explain all this the previous Monday at the regular meeting but she was in Saginaw as her daughter was having an emergency c-section. And her husband, the township supervisor, who had recused himself from the proceedings, was fighting a fire at one of the audience member’s house.
The township board did thank those in the audience for coming and hoped that at some time they would step up and get involved in the township. It was very emotional for a board meeting but I think the right decision was made in the end. 🙂
The county commissioners met this past Wednesday. There were about 30 people in the audience so it was standing room only. There were a lot of veterans in the audience. Before the regular meeting Erin Mahalak presented the formula for calculating taxes (truth in taxation) and the board voted to accept it. This is done every year. The regular meeting started and after approving the agenda, there was public comment.
Gary Wnuk stood and said he was disappointed in the board regarding the recent nominees for board positions. Janice MacNeill stood and said she was in support of Tony and the veterans. Rich Bray asked about the smell from the marijuana growing facility and could the county use the marijuana money to get rid of the odor. (Personally, I had to agree…the person sitting next to me smelled so bad of marijuana I had to cover my nose). Don Sefernick stood and said since the Lincoln Pharmacy is closing, he wants the veteran’s building in Lincoln. Mary Dix stood and said Tony’s office in the county building has no a/c or heat and there is no room for people in a wheelchair to maneuver. She said the board is not supporting the veterans and shame on them. Bonnie Baker stood and said her husband is disabled and can’t use Tony’s room. She said the commissioners do not care about our country and none of them are veterans so they cannot understand.
Patti Thomas stood and asked for a public hearing on the ACCOA and support from the board on the $12.5 million project. Pam MacKinnon stood and said people should attend the ACCOA special meeting Thursday at 10:00am. She believes the ACCOA project will not create jobs. Rick Kacel stood and said right in the millage it says the money is for seniors 60 and older. The ACCOA is not doing senior stuff. He suggested the board cut off funding immediately for the ACCOA. Patrick Smiley gave a letter to the board from the Mikado Legion. Jim Berger, commander of the VFW post in Mikado asked the board not to stand in the way of the veterans and to help them. Randy Sharboneau spoke about the millage intended for the veterans. Iosco County has the same millage and they are treated better than our veterans.
It was about 2:00 and the board had to go into closed session regarding a lawsuit and had to call the attorney. But Adam asked Craig to give an update on the veterans before the closed meeting so the veterans could leave. Craig said that he has had several meetings with Tony and Patrick. He said Tom Weichel said the millage can be used for a building. The board is waiting on plans from Russo so then they can look at zoning, the DDA and others that need to be involved in the building in Lincoln. Dave Jagst (commissioner who replaced Dan Gauthier) along with Craig suggested a temporary solution to move the veterans to the building department. Tony could have an office there and there is an available conference room. There may be a little cost involved for some renovation but it’s possible this could happen by the middle of February. The board voted to go ahead with this suggestion. There was a lady in the audience who said, “are you talking about moving me out of my office?” She must work at the building department. 🙂 They apologized for not letting her know sooner but there will be things moved around in her office. 🙂 The board went into closed session and everyone vacated the room. We waited until 2:45 and decided to leave as we weren’t sure how long the meeting with their attorney would take.
We had a Tavern meeting in the evening. There were 19 of us there talking about the usual things. There was great conversation. I love meeting with my neighbors! 🙂
And lastly, there was a special board meeting at the ACCOA yesterday at 10:00am. It was called for “internal grievances”. The video can be seen on youtube but our wonderful videographers, Jeff and Jess, were out of town so we don’t have a great version from them. The grievance committee met regarding some letters written against Delores and Bob. None of those letters were ever produced at the meeting. Delores, who is on the grievance committee, was never called to be at the meeting. But Dan O’Connor was. Delores and Bob asked for the meeting to stay open as they have nothing to hide and prefer the audience knows what is going on. There were many public comments at this meeting but the most explosive one came from Betsy Lehndorff who said she met with Lenny and this is all about people being racist. (She actually wasn’t talking about the meeting but about the project). That comment drew a big reaction from the crowd and some further public comment. She also attacked Terri Goldstrom in the audience that Terri had to respond to. Delores asked many times to be shown the letters that were written about her. No response from the rest of the board. Leroy motioned for the president to recuse himself from any proceedings regarding Bob as he has shown bias in the past. He gave an example and so did Bob. The board voted to have Mike recused and he left the meeting. Jacquelyn stated the grievance committee recommends the board hire a company called Recon Management to be a third party to investigate the contention on the board. There was no motion to move forward with this. Bob motioned this issue (which was argued not to be important enough to even be called) to be tabled until he and Delores can meet with the grievance committee, which they have not been afforded the opportunity to, and all rest of this can be avoided. The meeting was adjourned without Delores or Bob ever having seen a single letter that was supposedly written about them. If you want to see some great public comment and how this meeting went, here is the link.
So that is all I have for now. I am looking forward to a quiet weekend with no meetings. Then I will start up again next week. Thank you to alconaconservatives.com for sharing my notes. And a special thank you to all of you who show up at these meetings and give your input. Our community is better for it….even if we are called fools, or a cancer. 🙂
Your fellow patriot,
Lisa
P.S. Check out alconaconservatives.com this weekend….they will be sharing a VERY important video that will shed light on an important issue. 🙂
Correction to Gary Wnuk’s public comment (Secondary Email from Lisa)
Hi! Gary wants to clarify what his public comment was at the commissioner meeting.
Here is what he said:
What disappointed me was their refusal to bring in the appointees before the board as they did with the veterans, Johnston, Jagst and Small voted not to bring them in. The board approves their appointment, they should be in. Also the public would know who they are because the meetings are on youtube.
Sorry, Gary, that I didn’t get it right. 🙂
Lisa
