County Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Roscommon County Board of Commissioners meeting September 9th, 2026 at 9 a.m. Please stand for the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Roll call, please. Rousseau. Morley. Here. Wolfson. Here. Milburn. Here. Spencer. Here.

Approval of the agenda.

So moved and chaired. Second.

Any discussion? Roll call, please. Morley. Yes. Spencer. Yes. Wolfson. Yes. Milburn. Yes. Motion carried. Approval of the consent agenda. The items in the consent agenda are the meeting minutes from August 2026 board meeting and the budget and finance committee of the whole meeting September 1st 2026 special meeting boiler project Class A's in the amount of two million two hundred and sixteen thousand one hundred and seventy three dollars and one cents in claims and accounts in the amount of three hundred ninety nine three hundred ninety nine thousand three hundred eighty dollars and seventy cents Correspondence from Spectrum, Expansion of the Broadband, Monthly Department Reports, May through August 2026 Sheriff Activity Report, and August 2026 Animal Control and Shelter Stats, Administrator Controller Report, and the Clerk Register of Deeds Update. Do I have a motion to accept the consent agenda?

So moved. Second.

Roll call, please. Yes, over yes answer yes Public comment for agenda items only is there any public comment for agenda items Any visitors Unfinished business strategic plan action update I Commissioner Morley, would you like to start?

I think we'll be going over a lot of that in my report, but basically we're just finishing up right now on all the budget meetings with the department heads. Last but not least, hopefully today we'll finish up our Board of Commissioners budget, Controllers budget, the funds, and our Drain Commissioner. Those are the last ones we have to do, so. Commissioner Milburn?

Commissioner Wolfson?

No.

Okay.

Review of comparable counties' employee benefits.

So we are short. Five counties have not responded yet to the survey. So we will have to ask to table that and move that to the next. As soon as Noelle has that data, she'll send it out to you well in advance so that you can see. But it is a comparison of the benefit types, vacation, just as was requested at the last meeting. So that'll be in a spreadsheet format.

Okay, thank you New business request for a budget amendment fund 207 the Sheriff's Department Good morning.

Good morning so for the last Eleven years or so the sheriff has done a very good job of being intentional with our budget Most of you know we were pretty short-handed for a while, and we're not paying out all of our wages as budgeted Every year that we have had excess he has put into An account knowing that we would have major expenses coming up in the future for things that needed to be updated around the sheriff's office In the last couple of years, we've updated our records management system, our jail management system, our body cameras and in-car cameras, and have our new policy software. Recently, we also had some upgrades with computers added to our vehicles that was paid for by federal funds. And in the next Several years we will be slowly working on updating all 800 megahertz radios to be compliant with state and federal requirements for encryption. That's going to be another costly thing that we have ahead of us. For the 2027 budget, Sheriff originally had $400,000 budgeted to be moved out of that fund into our budget to pay for several different things. Some of that was vehicles. We're in need of several patrol vehicles. When Sergeant Hand sort of oversees our fleet of vehicles, when he got looking at patrol vehicles, he located several that were available still in 2026 that we can purchase at the 2026 pricing, which saves us about $1,700 a patrol vehicle. So what we are requesting is that $200,000 of that $400,000 be moved into the 2026 budget instead of the 2027 budget so we can purchase those patrol cars ahead, which will save us about $7,000 total instead of waiting until next year to buy those vehicles. Does that make sense? $200,000. That will help pay for the vehicles and the outfitting of the vehicles, radios and radar and restraints and all those things that we have to put into the vehicles once we receive them.

And he budgeted that $400,000 for next year, and so essentially we would just be taking $200,000 of that early.

So what we would then be requesting is $200,000 in next year's budget, $200,000 in this year's budget, and the $200,000 in this year's budget would be for those four patrol vehicles.

That's the thing they gave us an estimate of What 2027 would look like you know and it's a lot cheaper this year But they said that that was just an estimate and by the time 2027 comes around and we try it You know how that goes it could be even more I'm sure and they have these vehicles available right now Today but they will be available October I think is when they said yes. Yes.

Yes How's that money move? Has it been collected?

Yeah, so they actually have a pretty healthy fund balance Close to two million dollars. So it would simply be that the board would need to approve a budget amendment for $200,000 moving it from their fund balance to their vehicle line item and

So when it's collected, it returns back to the fund balance? Yep.

OK. Any other questions?

Any other questions? Save money.

Thank you. We're trying.

We're doing it.

So Jody, this would just go on our next meeting for a motion?

OK. Today's meeting or?

Next.

Because you have to order these by when?

Available and they said that they could hold them for us until we get a for sure answer so They just I think they had a few extra on the lot when they went and picked up the last ones and so this Sales ladies like hey by the way. I know you guys because we had already told her that next year we wanted to get more okay so um she was like hey just so you guys know heads up all right thank you thank you

Next, we have the Brownfield Authority Lakeview Apartments TIF Plan. Our treasurer, Marcy Dankert.

He is the developer for Lakeview apartments in Denton Township and he came to the brownfield redevelopment authority back in June requesting capture through the brownfield Housing TIF and the brownfield Authority based on what was presented everything meant the guidelines of the housing TIF project we approved that Through the brownfield redevelopment Authority it was recently in September 2nd concurred with the Denton Township Board of Trustees to approve that project as well this project will be located at two four five six Gladwin Road and That is the old sandbar for anyone who's familiar with Crudenville area and it will include a 10 unit housing development two of those one-bedroom units are going to be reserved for households at or below 60% of the AMI and eight units at or below 100% of the AMI and The housing TIF allows for the developer to recapture infrastructure costs demolition Remediation any any costs like that? The what they the whole project is estimated to be just over three million dollars The TIF would capture an amount not to exceed nine hundred and seventy thousand in that period of capture will be somewhere between 20 and 25 years and We are asking that the County Board of Commissioners authorize a public hearing to be held on September 23rd at your next Board of Commissioners meeting Any questions and Dusty's here he can explain any part of his project if you have specific questions for him I'm sure yes His parking been addressed with that project.

Yes, I there isn't any exact guidelines for apartments in Denton Township, but I believe we're at the 1.5 per each unit, so we have... There's no set standard, but I think we're trying to be at least one and a half spots per each unit that we have there. If there's... Back and look I can't remember the exact count we have but we try to have at least that That's why we reduce the units from 12 down to 10 actually also allow for more parking and a bigger offset off of M18 because if you rent the families I Mean yeah, that was a concern you could assume they're gonna have guests or maybe even a child that drives correct and

Any other questions for Dusty? I understand the TIF and the importance of that for a developer.

Are you going to have rates available? Yes. I'm curious about how that's going to shake out.

Yeah, I probably can have the exact numbers at the next meeting. Thank you.

These were just estimates. We've got some of it in the documents. Yeah, I think so too. I saw about I think really the request is that we make allow you public hearing yep And we'll take care of it's the brownfield our consultant will take care of notifying newspaper publication all of those Thank you for investing in our County Dusty

We have motions and resolutions. Whenever our clerk is ready.

Move to authorize the purchase of PowerEdge R750 server from SAMHSA for a cost of $107,245.18 for the purpose of allowing identity-based access to authenticated and accessed users as determined by Roscommon County Information Technology. Funds for cost to be allocated from the capital projects fund.

So move. Second.

Any discussion?

OK. Roll call, please.

Spencer. Yes. Yes. Morley. Yes. Wolfson.

Yes.

Motion carried.

We'll go by whatever you saw, Marcy.

OK. Committee reports. Commissioner Wolfson.

Still working with Bacchus Township on their recycling site. They had a drawing, computer drawing of it, and I think he's seeking bids now. Their next meeting is next Monday night, and I'll attend that to see how that's going.

We had the agenda meeting. Department had budget proposals we met with the majority of the Department heads, I think there's only a couple left um Discussions with the engineers regarding the hope Mike Lake level project. I was not able to attend the airport meeting last Thursday Due to a funeral that I had to work So I'm hoping that Commissioner Melbourne or someone can give it me an update on what happened there. I And that's all I have.

This is my turn. Mm-hmm. Big takeaway from the airport last Thursday was the fact that we have 14 hangars being built, breaking ground in October, zero match to the county. That was the big takeaway. Later that day, I went to the veterans, and 56 veterans attended Bridgewalk and Bill Mullen was officially approved as our as our as our next person on the board And the Commission agency This Wednesday attended that meeting he signed a conflicts of interest standard and there's fixing the sidewalk in front of the COA We take away and Carolyn Rabdow yesterday was appointed is going to be the incoming president to represent And also lady by the name of Carolyn Minton is the representative for st. Helen A conflict of interest was signed there by the district health The big takeaway there was food borne illnesses by a doctor by the doctor attending and Our new Taylor Irwin was our is a brand new Director for the facility And also the last thing, at the meeting in Nestor Township, the next RTA meeting in Roscommon Township Association meeting will be September 17th at 10 a.m. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you.

Commissioner Morley. Well, I as well. On August 26th, after our meetings, I was unable to attend the Spongy Moth meeting and the Health Department meeting. Thank you, Mark, for giving us that update due to a personal issue September 1st we attended the special meeting for the boilers and the bid proposals so really great job you know to Justin for putting out the information and being able to get that worked on that's been in the works for a long time so I hear a lot of great comments in the county building that that's getting moved forward so September 4th, the controller and our chair Sensor, we met with the CEO for Northern Lakes Community Mental Health. There are funding changes that are happening in our mental health world as far as with Medicaid going through stricter guidelines and trying to be qualified. That does impact their budget because 90% of Northern Lakes comes from Medicaid and very strict rules on how they can use that and who they can use that for. And so the other 10% is really with local funding. And so there might be a need to do some additional funding for a one-time piece to keep some of that going. Their biggest push right now is they really want to work on our legislators because mental health code is not matching up with how they fund and how they're doing what they do and how they organize each of the groups. John Roth, Representative Roth, did speak at their meeting recently, which is, I give him a lot of credit because many times those representatives don't come to those kind of meetings. He is the head of appropriations for DHHS, so he is hearing loud and clear that the disparity in mental health around different counties is quite large and they want to work on that. I did ask, he said we have three months left before there could be a change in people in the House and the Senate. They're going to do everything they can. I said, all right, well, your leadership has picked three top priorities to fix in the next three months. What are those? And that was not on the list. So my thought that they're going to move much of that needle in the first three months is probably slim, but at least he went on record to talk about it. The other piece that we're really seeing when it comes to that and sharing is if by chance the county needs to give something one time, that we need to have something in return. We hear quite readily that what we provide in the jail, we don't get anymore. But that comes out of those other pots that they can't use the other money for. So I think having that conversation next would be important to figure out what would we want if we were able to give them a little bit more at one time. That amount of money, what is it, 50 something thousand a year, Jody, is not changed for decades. Because even by state law, those have not been able to be increased for a while. So there's just a lot of funding struggles going on in that way. So we'll look through that. I also met with the Sheriff's Department. Thank you to them who helped me catch up on that budget review one-on-one. That was extra time on your behalf, so I appreciate it. I also worked with emergency management, their budget review, and our prosecuting attorney. Kudos to that attorney's office. The backlog is gone. They've cleared through that. Even the two oldest cases, 23 and 2024, are done. And they've succeeded how many cases that they have done year to date than they did all of last year. So they have really been working hard in that office to get things going. So I wanted to give them a shout out. On September 8th, the 911 Authority Board met some updates on the tower project. And, you know, just in general, sometimes people think those towers are about cell, and that scares people, and that's not what these towers are for. I just want people to know that those are really for our emergency management. connectivity when things go on in the county. So they're still working through that. The CAD project's about a third way through that work. A lot of back in on Eric's behalf to really think about kind of the verbiage and how does the net, how does all the, how do they set that up going forward and then they come and switch it on over here. They did complete their state audit and despite they had not had one in a very long time, it hit them at a time we're doing budget and everything else And really the biggest thing was there was just some verbage changes that needed to be added to our 9-1-1 plan and maybe some AP adjustments, a little bit more description on those, but there wasn't anything alarming that the state said, okay, you know, you're in trouble. So kudos to that group. And then we got an update on their 2027 budget that we had heard, but she shared that with their entire board and kind of gave them a heads up on what that's going to maybe look like going down the path. And same night, Gerristown shipped. So I know we always celebrate some of our people here, too, thanks to you guys. But they celebrated Ralph Roland as the Act Now Community Service Award. He's been around for a long time, done a lot of things with Trunk or Treat, and been a great volunteer. So they celebrated him. Higgins Lake Foundation actually provided a grant to them for the health of Higgins Lake that they're working through. They approved their L4029. And some concerns came up to me post-meeting about our health department and that our district's septic codes are ancient compared to our surrounding districts. So there was concerns that maybe we should bring up to our health department on why are we not at the same level at surrounding counties. So I'll check in on that. Other than that, that's it. Thank you.

Any public comment? Board comment? Commissioner Wilson?

Yes, I'd like to remind everybody hazardous household waste is this Saturday, 9 to 1, at the County Road Commission.

Thank you.

Commissioner Morley? I won't go into a lot of detail because I know we've talked a little bit today, but I love when we get those department head reports. They are very, very helpful. And just to give a few highlights, because I think it's important for you guys to know that we do read them, and we do take the time to look at the work that's been done in our sheriff's report. Some of the highest mileage traffic stops and everything over the last three months, down a little bit in August, maybe give you a little bit of a breather. But they still go out there and keep going, even though some of that volume in our community starts to subside. The other numbers are still up. Animal control, same number, same kind of trend. Some of those statistics go down, but the work that they're doing, responding to people and talking, continues to be high. Our controllers report, thank you. that the time that, you know, our chair and I spend on the department budgets have taken up quite a bit of time, day-long meetings of going through those, but you were still able to get through all the claims that are, you know, the comp claims, Ogema IT issues, spongy moth work, the postcards, airport stuff. You still maintained all those, so I just wanted to say thank you. Clerk and Register of Deeds, I don't know how you keep up during an election year and the training that's going on and some of the things that you've had to uncover to be better prepared for this next election. So I even hear good things when I go to the township meetings that they are pleased with that work. So thank you. I already talked about the prosecuting attorney and the work that they've done. So that's it. Just thanks to our team. Commissioner Milburn.

At the VFW meeting last night, Bruce Olsen gave me some cool information. He says there's a VFW foundation in META will bring Ray-Ban META AI glasses to eligible veterans and active duty service members. The cool thing about this is that it's supposed to help them navigate everyday life with greater independence. I've seen a commercial on this the other day on TV. So this is kind of an exciting program. I'll keep everybody informed as it rolls out. And this Friday at 8.15, We have a 9-11 25th anniversary remember ceremony our own Ben Lowe will be our Invocation and benediction speaker Thank You mad chair All right with no further comments this meeting would be adjourned and our next meeting starts at 10 o'clock 17

Ross Common County Board of Commissioners work session September 9th 2026 at 10 a.m. First we have nominations for the 2026 person of the year

Discussion of the whole This is just kind of put on the radar so that you guys can start thinking about it If everybody if you do have somebody that you want to nominate if you can bring them to the next meeting That would be great Yeah And then that way we can have further discussion of that and we're able to vote when we need to vote there. I believe it's in October, if I'm not mistaken, isn't it?

So generally, that's the deadline that's needed?

To bring the, who, yeah, if you want to nominate somebody. Okay. MSU Extension updates.

Well good morning everyone it's good to be here again and good to see all of you And other folks in Roscommon County as you know I'm Julie Darden and I'm the now the former district director for MSU extension district 4 and the current district director for MSU extensions district 9 which is South and I'm here to introduce Dorothy Munn, who is taking on the role as the interim. And I will let her give you more of an introduction to herself.

Hi, everyone. My name is Dorothy Munn. I am the district four director, the interim director. And I've been with MSU Extension for 31 years. I've spent 28 of those years based in Ogema County. And I have served in a county position, a supervisory position, which covered 14 counties. And then most recently as a policy and risk management educator for the entire state with MSU Extension. So I'm excited about serving these seven counties of District 4 and looking forward to working with you all.

Anybody have any questions? Thank you. Thank you. So it's interim. So how long is it interim? Is this something you're going to look to stay in? Or is it just helping them fill out?

No, I am looking for the permanent position. The intent, as I know it right now, is to have it be a permanent position in May. So there'll be an interview process. But there's another vacancy in the south part of the state that they need to fill first. So So that process is anticipated to be made permanent in May Welcome. Thank you. Welcome.

So Dorothy will be reaching out to folks about the advisory committee Kim is the designated person from this board for that role and we're also I'm sure looking to recruit others if we want to have a range of experiences in that role. And I just want to say again how much it's great to be back, and thank you for all of your hard work. I've tried to give Dorothy a little bit of an update on some of the things we've shared about the future funding potential for 4-H and other programs, but she's We have very complementary strengths in terms of Dorothy's very strategic, and I think that will serve this role very well. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Thank you. You're welcome. Nice to meet you. Thank you for coming. Thanks, Julie, for all you've done for us as well.

Community Wildfire Protection Plan, our emergency director, Vanessa Varner.

Good morning. Good morning. Vanessa Varner, Emergency Management Director. And next to me, I have George Merceron from Crisis Ready Lab. We are presenting the Community Wildfire Protection Plan. You guys all should have received one of these amazing binders. Does anybody need one? Or has everybody got theirs or had a chance to look over it? OK. The presentation that we're going to be going over was in the front left. Perfect. Resolution that we're asking you to approve. Yes, right there. Good job Kim. Good to you. You did your homework all right, so As you all know I came to you about a year and a half ago asking for approval to apply for the community wildfire defense grant program While we scored very high we did not get approved for that the Michigan DNR ultimately ended up approving $50,000 in local state funds for us to be able to hire Tom and George to complete our plan for us. What we're presenting today is the final product for your approval. So if I can use this correctly, we'll be ready to go. Maybe. Oh, here we go. What we are asking you to adopt is the community wildfire protection plan. This is important to us because the wildfire risk has been identified as the number one hazard threat for Roscommon County. This is a 10-year framework that builds off of the 2016 plan that we had. And this 162-page document can be summed up into identifying where the county is exposed to wildfire, evaluating what our fire departments and partners can do about it, and then how we can proceed with different actions over the next 10 years. What we need you all to do is adopt this plan because our Fire Chiefs Association that comprise the nine different fire departments in the county, they have already looked at it and said that they are in support of it. And then also the Michigan DNR that is considered our forestry partner for the county, they have also accepted it and adopted it. So you guys are the next part of that. So adoption for the county doesn't make a financial commitment. It doesn't mean that we are asking taxpayers to do anything, commit to anything at this point in time. What it simply is saying is that we agree that these actions that we've identified are all things that would be a benefit to our county, to our residents. that they could ultimately reduce the risk of wildfires in the future if we participated in completing these activities. That if we proceed with completing all of these activities, ultimately the benefit would be that our risk would be reduced. It also allows for our fire departments, for our county agencies to be eligible for various different state federal and local grant opportunities. The community wildfire defense grant that we had applied for to get this plan updated also has a different part that is for completing mitigation activities. That is something that we could be eligible for, is to complete those activities. We can also use this plan and all of the data that's been collected and updated to apply for other funding opportunities. Our fire departments are allowed to use the data to apply for different equipment grants. So it's really a great tool for various different opportunities there. With that said, I'm going to pass it off to George to be able to give you some more information about the heart of the plan and all the meat and potatoes.

Absolutely. Good morning, everybody. I want to talk a little bit about the methodology, how we got where we are today, the inputs to the plan. And where it really started for us is understanding the data to really engage stakeholders and talk through some of the challenges that we saw in terms of exposure. And what I'll start off by saying is that the risk that we see in Roscommon County around wildfires is relatively low. When we look out West, it's really 10 to 15 times higher, the risk that they're dealing with around wildfires. However, when we look at the actual exposure, properties, whether residential or commercial structures, 97.9% are in that wildland-urban interface or wildland-urban intermix. While the probability is low, if there were a wildfire to take place, there's the potential for catastrophic loss. So what does that mean for you all? Looking at those actual structures within that wildland urban interface, it amounts to $4.5 billion in value for the county. And so you think about those impacts during a disaster, even if it was in a pocket of the community, the reality is that there would be likely some catastrophic impacts. As we go into the next slides, I'll let you know that the concentration, and this is important for folks in the room because you can see your districts represented here, the majority of the risk is concentrated around your lake communities. We know that communities want to live near the water, and therefore we see a higher percentage of the population in those areas, which then presents a secondary risk in that not only are those homes within that wild and urban interface, but they're also abutting against the lake. And so the ability to evacuate those areas and then also for fire apparatus to get into those areas are really impacted by the environment there. And so as we get into some of the actions and the recommendations in the plan, what you'll see is that a lot of the risk reduction is tying in with community-based actions. There are some recommendations around equipment purchases and such. And I don't want to get too far ahead of myself, but there's a lot that can be done through education of the community, as well as the folks that are coming into your community for recreational purposes. So the three lakes are the primary risk, and then Lake Higgins in Garish Township is the single largest concentration of risk. little hard to see on the map but if you notice there's some red areas that are highlighted those are the areas of particular concern where we see a lot of structures that are erected so in terms of how we built the plan use the mixed methods approach we use the data to inform our outreach but we engage the entire community we started with the fire departments we launched on a survey we followed up with that followed that with key informant interviews and to just make sure that the data, what it was telling us, aligned with what we were seeing in the community. And by far and large, the risk that's presented was reflected through the fire departments. But more importantly there, their ability to respond to fires was addressed as well. And so we looked at how their operational challenges related to equipment, to access, to capacity to support wildfire response in terms of staffing, And so what you'll see in the plan is each of those kind of challenges or issues that were identified by your fire departments are addressed there in the plan. We didn't just stop with the fire departments. One of the requirements that we'll get to in the later slides, the federal requirements around this plan requires engagement from local all the way up to state. And so some additional partner agencies that we engaged included the Michigan State University Cooperative Extension Office, Department of Natural Resources. We met with some lake community associations. So all of those, and even a private landowner, to get some really good perspective of how that risk is distributed throughout the community and what that concentration looks like. I also want to applaud your emergency management department. Vanessa and her team were able to connect us with a variety of stakeholders that really helped to provide some additional detail into the plan. And so it was really helpful to have kind of that full picture. And then the last piece of this is the public review, which if you don't know, we posted a video to a website for folks to get a full briefing on the plan so that they understood that again, while the probability for wildfires is low, there's a real exposure risk. And there are some actions that the community can take to address those risks. So we'll talk a little bit about that as we get into the next slides. So how the community responded. First off, like I said, the draft was posted to the website along with the video. We had an open comment period. By and large, really good positive feedback from the community on the plan. But ultimately we use that video as part of a national night out to really gauge the community under gaze your understanding of wildfire exposure and so They were able to take a look at the map product Understand where their residence was relative to the risk and then they were able to rank the actions that were listed in the plan and so While in the plan, those items aren't ranked, the community has kind of put forward what their preference is for specific mitigation actions. Yeah, absolutely.

So when Martin and I were out at National Night Out, we asked our residents as they came by and talked with us about what their thoughts were about wildfires and if they felt that they were prepared or if they felt that they were at risk of wildfires. And a lot of people said, well, maybe, you know, not really. And I said, you know, will you do me a favor and put a sticker where your house is on here? And I said, because 98% approximately of the households are within this wildland urban interface. What does that mean? I said that if we did end up with a wildfire, that your residents would be at risk. So you need to make sure that you're helping and working on some of these mitigation activities. And they're like, nah, I don't think it is. And sure enough, I think one in the two times that we did this, only one resident had a house outside of that. So I mean, yes, we see data, right? And it's always kind of one of those, I want to actually see the data proven. And it truly, it's there. Our residents are within that. You guys know I like I like to test the the boundaries and the limits and see if we're where we're at and and it was Our people are within those ranges those those red lines those orange spots.

That's where our people are I'll just say that that dimension of things really informs the the approach that we have in the plan So it's really good timing to talk about Oops In terms of the mitigation actions that are recommended in the plan, first off, starting with the fire department, understanding there are some real capacity gaps. You guys have a volunteer fire department base, and their ability to recruit is challenging. This is primarily an aging community. There's not a lot of able-bodied folks to join the force. When we look at some of the actions, first and foremost, focus on the capacity issues that exist here. Beyond that, there was a lot of discussion around access to water supplies. Even with the fact that you guys do have large water bodies, the ability to access those water bodies was challenging. And relative to that, the apparatus to get into those areas to access the water, to access the structures that may be on fire, also represented in the discussions across the board with stakeholders that we discussed this project with. What you'll notice is that the majority of actions are tied to fire adapted communities, and this goes back to that community education piece, and that a lot of the risk is really concentrated on private properties. And so when we look at the fire adapted communities approach, It's looking at things like defensible space and home hardening and how do we protect residences. Because there's this assumption when we look out west of wildfires coming through as a wall of flame. But indeed, the real risk is an ember that can fly miles away from the fire, land close to a home, catch that vegetation on fire, and the home becomes aflame. And so beyond that, we are looking at firewise communities. You all did have some firewise communities in the past. some of those have all of them have gone away and so you know through this plan we're looking at how do we bring those back online in the places that would benefit most from those the other piece is you have both seasonal homeowners that don't live in the area and when they return into the area they may return after the fire risk has already gone away and so how do we message homeowners to clean their properties while they're away in order to protect their homes and otherwise protect the community. Similar to that, you also have seasonal folks that are coming into the community for recreation purposes. And there has been some communications campaigns that reach that community. However, this is probably the largest source of community ignition of fires is that recreational activity whether it's ATVs or small campfires that aren't completely put out and so there is a strategy that has been put in place but And then we get to funding you'll find that a lot of these communication strategies are probably the lowest hanging fruit in terms of cost and impact So we'll talk about that in a moment as well Moving over to resilient landscapes. These are areas for partnership between the county and state DNR as well as the fire departments to look at fire lines around the community I remember meeting with Richfield and their fire chief and sheriff and One person running that whole shop. And he mentioned the school that's there, Charles Heston School, right up against the forest line. And so we spoke about fire lines and how do we mitigate fires in that area. And at one point there was a Firewise community there as well. And so when we look at fuel breaks, fuel reduction, prescribed fires, these are all areas for coordination with our partners to really reduce that risk in the surrounding landscapes. And then the last piece, this is a novel addition compared to the 2016 plan, which is really overlaying some governance on the document to make sure that we're reviewing the plan regularly if there's an incident to revisit that plan and make sure that the actions align with the evolving threat. At the same time, pursuing funding. And so what you'll find with this plan in terms of plan maintenance is that while the previous plan didn't really tie in with stakeholders or have strong timelines or funding tied to those individual actions, and really a big reason why that plan didn't have the level of success that I think this plan will ultimately bring to the community had to do with some of the tracking and governance mechanisms that we've built in here.

Oh, I know going the wrong way.

It's counterintuitive. Um, so how the actions get funded as Vanessa mentioned there, there's no funding obligation around this rather there's funding opportunities. And so by completing this plan, you're eligible for funding source for funding through, uh, the U S forest service, for example, through. FEMA through some additional programs as well as through Mitch, Michigan Department of Natural Resources, which Vanessa spoke to Honestly though when we talk about the education of the community when we talk about printing and mailing and having somebody at a community event These are low-cost five thousand to fifteen thousand dollars is what we're estimating on some of these projects and actions to make a presence in the community and do exactly what we've done as Vanessa's done with the night out with the community. So this helps amplify the message and even go out to folks that may not be in the community year-round. So the plan, what you'll find is, again, with those larger actions, there is some grant funding to support equipment purchases, to help with some of the capacity issues. Ultimately in the plan, all those funding opportunities are tied back to the actions, and there's a champion identified. As we look at plan maintenance, what we'll be looking at is an annual review. So those stakeholders that are identified, we can ensure that there's progress. And if there isn't, we can support to make sure that the support is provided around applying for grants or tracking progress around any of the efforts that are being identified. We're proposing a five-year update. 10 years is a long time, and a lot changes in five years. You know you're one of your larger fires was in 2004 2005 the boys fire And so if you have a situation like that within five years We want to have the opportunity to update the plan before we get to that ten-year mark Ultimately those would trigger early revisions if you find areas where additional action is needed or there needs some refinement This process allows you to get to that before you're ten years out and again you know you haven't seen the progress that you otherwise expected. So all of this is different from the 2016 plan. And I'll tell you, whether it's after action reports or other plans, the accountability piece is really what drives this plan home and is going to bring results to your community. So with that, with this request in front of the board, I'll turn it over to Vanessa and kind of close this out here.

As I always come to you guys and present various different things, the big part with this is truly going to be continuing to keep our stakeholders engaged. The issue that we had with this past plan was that it became a paperweight on a shelf. I don't want to see that happen with us we have a lot of agencies that are Interested that want to do this We've got some new people in different positions within fire departments that that want to be engaged that want to incite some Education and change within Our community, so I think we're at a great spot I love the annual review part of this where I can bring this to you all and let you know where we're at with things Not just to my local planning team and say hey, I've looked at this. This is where we're at. It will come before you guys I also feel it's important to take this to our townships So whether I do a roadshow every year and say hey guys, this is where we're at or I do a mailing I guess it's something I can discuss with Chairperson Sensor and Jody and let you guys know. But I think that it's important that we keep all of our stakeholders engaged in that process because not having a county-wide building department, a lot of the mitigation activities, some of the zoning regulations and stuff like that, I know that there are some areas where There is a requirement that a firewise assessment, per se, or education component be done before a building permit's issued. There's some places that have those sorts of ordinances. So there's various different things that can be done to help create that more resilient, educated community. And I'm not saying that that's something that has to be done, but it's just ways that we can assist our community. And again, this boils down to I just need you all to adopt the resolution so that we can proceed with this plan. I think that this is light years ahead of where we were at with our 2016 version. The data that's been collected, the maps are bold, in my opinion. I don't think that there's anything that isn't representative of our community in this. Do you guys have any questions for us?

Obviously, I've been a little closer to this, working with you on your board there. one your rta group for presentations to go back because then you'll have all those township people hopefully good idea thank you instead of sometimes the road shows are time consuming but you may have to go to some but i think that group is a really great group because they listen to this part originally so that follow-up i think would be very very helpful um So part of this, I'd like to say as well, it is definitely different than that 2016 one. I think the accountability, the follow-up, so it doesn't sit on a shelf. Even if it was grant money, you hate to use that money, and it just sits somewhere. But I also believe that I think this is important for our township and our fire departments. And if I'm not mistaken, some are more engaged than others. I know there had to be an inventory, if I'm not mistaken, done, which you had been begging for for a while. Seems like this action got you that information. Is that a correct statement? So that's complete. Is it a true statement that maybe this is engaging them more to say we all, all of our township fire departments are saying, I'm on it, and willing to engage? Because I think that's going to be a big piece to make sure that they all want to do it. Yes, ma'am. Is that true? Yes, ma'am. Struggles on that right now, or is it better? Progress has been made. Progress has been made. Still work to be done. Yes, ma'am. To help with them. Yeah. Those are just a few questions I had, but nice presentation. Thank you.

to homes and businesses, it's a lot. And all of the maps are GIS layers that we have as assets for the county now.

This can go, this resolution, the next meeting? Next regular meeting?

Yeah. Everything has to be wrapped up with the grant and funding by the end of the month. We're within the timelines are we okay, okay good?

We'll make sure to have that thank you. Am I okay to excuse them absolutely Next we have the l4029 tax rate request including winter 2026 from our equalization director jamie hoserman thank you for some exciting tech stuff all right

Good morning Honorable members of the Board of Commission for us Common County as you know I am Jamie Hauserman your equalization director in Front of you today is the state tax commission l4029 Which is your tax rate request? this form has been updated since the summer levy occurred and now includes the winter and As you will recall from previous discussions on this reporting, it is very much so a statement of transparency. All of the information on it is information that you've seen in the past. It's just now being presented in a format to order the collection. So the first thing you'll note is the taxable value in the top right-hand corner. As we talked about in the summer, it is not the same taxable value number that you saw when you did county equalization in April. That number has been reduced by about $23 million to account for properties that we do not collect tax dollars on. Those include disabled veteran exemptions, and senior built housing. From there, you'll see each of the columns along the top that represent each of the categories, column two being how the tax levy was generated. Actually, every single one of these was generated via a property tax, I'm sorry, a tax vote of the people. And so therefore, all of the funds that you're collecting were already vetted by and approved by the local voters. That third column tells you the year in which those voters approved that collection. You'll note towards the bottom, the last four were approved in August of 2026 to be collected yet this year. Those are all funds that you've collected in the past. That next column shows you the original collected amount that the voters approved. The column after that, column five, shows you the headly reduction for the fact that you cannot collect more dollars than the taxpayers approved. That's why millages get rolled back through that headly amendment. Column 6 shows you the millage reduction fraction you're required to follow through with for this year. Note that the newest of the millages, those last four, do not have a reduction fraction. That's because the voters approved those dollars this year. Therefore, no reduction is necessary. Moving all the way over column 11 is the recommended rate for collection. You'll note that in every one of those line items, it matches column 9, which is the maximum amount to be levied. It's very much so our recommendation to fulfill your budgeted commitments that you would levy the total that is approved by the voters. That last column tells you the expiration dates of each of those millages. As you'll note, there are no expirations for the remainder of this year. However, there will be some that you will look at for next year. Let's see. This form was compiled under the provisions of Michigan Compiled Law 211.24 , which is truth in taxation. MCL to 11.34 which is truth in County equalization and truth in assessing MCL to 1134 D. Which is that Headley amendment in? MCL to 11.37 apportionment Do you have questions for me?

Does anybody have any questions?

One of the follow-ups that I could help you with, in May we discussed the uncertainty of the price of consumable goods and how that may or may not impact your inflation rate. for 2027. Inflation rate for 2027, as you know, very much so is on your minds as you're looking at budgeting. And so in that aspect, I can tell you that in May when we discussed this, my opinion at that time was approximately a 3% to a 3.8% inflation rate multiplier. I also told you at that point that the price of gasoline at the pump if it fluctuated much this summer would indicate that higher amount versus the lower. That said, our consumers did see a little bit of an increase that was tax related, not inflation related. And as such, ultimately what we saw is with just two months left to be collected in this cycle, I believe you'll be looking at a flat 3%, potentially 3.1% inflation rate multiplier. The next of their series comes out on September 16th, 8.30 in the morning, the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics. If that number is a 233 or greater, I'm going to say you'll be at 3.1. Please reach out to me if you need to know that number after that September 16th, and I can get you that as well. That said, that should give you enough for budgeting purposes going forward at that 3% to 3.1% mark. Did you have questions beyond that that I might help with?

Yes.

Correct. So ultimately our voters get to look at millage questions when they go to the polls and those millage questions will let them know whether this has been expired and it's something that they've already seen in the past or if it's a new millage to them. I can tell you in each of these cases those were expired millages that in order to continue those programs our voters wanted those overwhelmingly actually and approved those millages. And that's why you're seeing those on there. Well, they're not subject to headly rollback because they're being collected the year that they were approved in. And so there's been no movement in those numbers is why there's no rollback.

Yeah.

There is, and that's why you'll actually see where the road millage, for example, which is the county road maintenance program that's a countywide through our Ross Common County Road Commission, it was approved by the voters at a .4760. That was not the original millage when this item first started. They were probably at a .5 many years ago. So when they asked for a renewal, they're asking for a renewal of just what they were already reduced to through the Headley Amendment. That said, some of our programs, as you know, cannot function on what they're being originally approved at because of the changes in our world. changes in security, changes in technology, this type of thing, inflation. And in those cases, we're going back to the voters and we're not asking just for a straight renewal. We're asking for renewal and an increase back to that original millage rate. And then you saw that in the 911 and in the Sheriff's Department road patrol millages. That's not what you saw in the county road maintenance or the veterans. In those cases, they were able to maintain on what they had. Any other questions for me?

Yes.

I appreciate you. Okay.

Chair, sorry. Quick question, too. So the townships have to send this similar form to you by the end of October? Does that change any of this, or is that just for... Township collection.

So we govern for you as commissioners, my office governs for you the data collection piece of each of those local municipalities that you were talking about. And so each township, the village, let's see, there's Holt Lake Ambulance Authority, there's some schools there's some libraries uh... those types of of municipalities each report to us what they want to collect on their tax rate request form just like you're looking at it doesn't impact what we do the next piece of that that you see come out of my office will be in in the month of october we go into the apportionment process That's where we take each of those 4029 tax rate requests, compile those together, you look at those in totality, and then you as a Board of Commissioners say, yes, these are approvable to be collected or no, they're not. And all of that done under the guise of legal compliance. And I can tell you at this point we're headed towards being legally compliant to do that. So I don't see an issue.

Thank you.

You're welcome. The only other question you occasionally ask me about involves some work that I do with your county clerk, and that is whether or not there's elections in a current year that still want to be collected in that year. I can tell you that I did get with your county clerk, Michelle Stevenson, and she did let me know that there are no millages that the voters are looking at at November that still want to be collected this year. There's one millage Question, I believe that will be on our ballot involving Holton Lake Community Schools, and it would be a 2027 Collection item if it were approved so so for that we won't be revisiting this there are years Well, you'll see where we'll revisit the 4029 because we need to based on what we're looking at at November questions Okay With that then, I respectfully request that the following motion be adopted at the September 23rd, 2026 regular meeting of the Board of Commission. A motion to levy the ad valorem tax rates for Roscommon County for 2026 for the winter tax levy. E911 at one mil. Road Patrol, 1.5 mils. Senior Services, 0.9252 Mills Gypsy moth which is now spongy moth 0.2413 Mills Animal Shelter 0.3790 Mills Veterans 0.1588 Mills Road Maintenance 0.4760 Mills and Emergency Management 0.09 65 mills. And I'd also ask that you would authorize chairperson Darlene Sensor and county clerk Michelle Stevenson to then sign your L4029 tax rate request.

All right. Thank you. Next, we have the sale contract of the annex building to the Northern Michigan Children's Assessment Center, our administrator controller.

This is the initial draft of finally moving forward with the sale of the annex property next door to the Northern Michigan Children's Assessment Center. This would be our draft of a proposal to them. It is a first draft because, obviously, I need board guidance and direction on where you would like to see this document go. We do, obviously, own the property outright. The purchase price of the property is based on the average commercial value per square foot. So that is, I'll have to zoom back up to it again, $859,460. that building is roughly 14,000 square feet. We do currently have in about 1,400 square feet the Emergency Management Operations Center that operates through this annex building. As a part of this sale, we need to figure in what a leaseback option looks like. So basically a leaseback in kind of the purchase price. That is really Probably the biggest area that I think guidance is needed, but I know that there will be questions comments from you So I'm here to get those Their board meets at the end of September, so if we could have that second draft available to them for them to review then That would be great Yes Originally we thought we could sell this for a dollar

Yes There's nineteen thousand four hundred and sixty left. I assume that was for surveys and documentation and everything yes Release is for five years and And unless it's for life lease, after five years, we could be stuck with paying a lease of like $168,000.

So that's something that we need to address as a board. In my opinion, but...

Okay. Sorry. Okay. The lease for five years at $168,000, the staff is... Not only do we get use of the building, but it offsets the purchase price. But the lease agreement is only for five years. At the end of five years, someone could come along and say, hey, your lease is $168,000 a year, unless we have a life lease or a lease for the term of us using it.

purpose You'd like to see that you'd like to see adjustment to include that as a life lease Or as the in-kind lease well, I mean I think that's at least as long as emergency management wants to use the building yeah As long as you know urgency

Yeah term of usage because I don't know Are we really concerned about? Once if emergency management decides it no longer needs that are we really concerned about keeping that portion of that yeah, I

I mean, that's short-sighted for me to judge that far down the road, but I don't see that that place would provide any other value other than them having that as that command center and a separate entrance. I mean, there's a purpose for it being where it's at.

And that was the whole intent of all this, is being able to keep emergency management there through this process. And once we've achieved that goal, should they decide they no longer need it, then I don't think we should tie somebody's hands with it.

I can absolutely make that adjustment.

But I don't think we should be open to additional lease payments after five years.

Right.

I like that. And Jody, if I'm not mistaken, like right now, the county, we pay for phones, we pay for IT, we pay for all of that. Utilities. Building-and-grounds all of that. Yes. Yep. So when this goes through They would be responsible for their portion IT would still fall under us. Yes, that is correct.

Okay, and If emergency management decides they don't need it. We need to wash our hands of the IT part. That would be correct My only other question is Are they going to pay us this in one lump sum, and we're going to pay $168,000 every year for five years, or how that's going to work?

We're going to shake hands. You might want to explain that a little bit more because it sounds pretty vague to the public. It will be a paper payment, and it will be payment on paper. So essentially what it would be is if you're going to have a life lease for, 859,000 and whatever the total was 859 460 so essentially the sale of the building for the sale price of 859 460 is going to be Wash a wash with the in-kind So we're gonna pay the lease of trust correct.

We're paying up front and then a check for nineteen thousand four hundred sixty will be issued to Roscom County Hopefully yes Okay

Okay, I'm lost.

I'll just say it So the actual and so if we're going for and this would just be my kind of my question to the board as a whole so if we're gonna take the 859 460 which is the fair market value price and are we going to ask then for a totality of for that total cost for fair market value in exchange for Instead of asking for the difference back, that will be lease of that property for emergency management for as long as Roscommon County is in need instead of asking for money. So it would be an even trade at that point, I think, versus a five-year lease with there's some money left over they have to cut us a check for.

There's a $19,000 difference, but it costs money to have it surveyed. Got it.

This really stems from, we cannot say basically we're going to give this to you for a dollar. Correct. That's not the way it's legally done. This is to show, this is how much we contribute to your organization as an in-kind. This building now will be yours, but you're going to take care of all your... Your electric, your phone, your IT. You're going to do that all on your own. We get to keep this portion, and we'll deduct that amount from that bigger dollar, basically. Because there's no money exchange. This is how this works in order for you to be able to have that property. Correct. OK. Got it. I do like the inclusion of the text that as long as we still need that.

Is this a warranty deed, or how is the deed?

That'll be the determination. Of the attorneys? Yes.

OK.

Odds are it will be a warranty deed.

I'm good. OK.

I would say that if there's anything else that comes up as you continue to look through this that you want seen, make sure you get that information to Jody ASAP so that When it comes time to deliver this, she's able to do so.

Oh, just making sure that we have the language correct.

As long as we need that facility for emergency management. Yeah. Because that's what Rex had brought up, too. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. Any other questions or comments for Jodi? No.

Okay.

Last but not least, we have the allocation of fund balance overage, our administrator controller.

So obviously, I'll just do the brief introduction of the document that I had prepared for you. And then it'll be up to you guys to decide what you'd like to do. We currently have our cash available of $660,959.90, maybe a little bit more now just because of interest as it's accrued. But at the time, the document was prepared. Our fund balance overage from the general fund is $800,147.15. So we have a total funding pool available of $1,461,107.05 for the board to determine where that could potentially move forward per your policy. Obviously the 660 959 90 is already in fund 401 that is already cash in the bank in the capital Capital improvements fund capital projects fund so there were several project proposals that have been brought forward one of which Two of which that have already been voted on and approved by this board the server replacement which was voted on, that has already been approved today at the earlier meeting. The other portion of this, the largest chunk, is the boiler upgrade and replacement for the 560-424. And then along with that, the building systems control of 37-495. So those three items, the board has already chosen to allocate funding. for that. There then remain the BS&A Cloud initial contract payment, the aerial imagery, which I know you'll have questions on, the HSA set-aside, which the discussion last meeting was looking at roughly $200,000 for a set-aside for that, set-aside of $50,000 for the child care fund balance buildup, sidewalk replacement project for the rest of the building which is probably roughly three-fifths of the building estimated maybe 32,000 and then the final BSNA cloud payment in 2028 of 54 150 so those are all available options that have been proposed through our department head meetings and Bring to the board for consideration in future capital planning Not all of them would need to have decisions made today, but that is Kind of the matrix that I put together for you to be able to use move around To make those discussions and decisions Madam chair yes does this fully fund every employees HSA It would be for the $200,000, it would be slightly short, probably about $12,500 for 2028.

2027, 2027?

2027 is being budgeted for full funding currently. So successfully so far. Yes.

So this is for 2028?

Yes. OK. Yeah. You'd be locking it up in 2026 for 2028. The 200 is slightly shy. That was just the number that was thrown out at the last meeting, so I plugged that in. Yes, it will be more.

Well, it depends on what insurance we wind up with.

No, because the HSA funding model will stay the same. Yes.

So Jody basically added that But we do we need the 322 148 05 do we still need to allocate that or is this all broken up the 800,000 is this all broken up so the 322 148 05

would be, I'll call that, leftover from the projects that have been asked for. So that's unallocated and could be simply put towards your future, put towards the capital budget plan. I think my biggest thought was what information, in order to make some final decisions, what information would the board still like? to move that forward. Are there any of the, I know in speaking with our treasurer, the bid for the BS&A Cloud, we actually have to send that initial payment in by October 1st. So that would be one that we kind of need to know a yes or a no on by the September meeting, September 23rd meeting, to move forward. So I can update but I can update this with the server replacements as well, but looking at those different projects that are out there I'm going to gas a commissioner Wolfson would like a final number for HSA what that actual number is I? Don't care what the actual number is as long as it's fully funded right so Which is easy enough? But what other information might you need in order to make decisions and And obviously not all of these require a decision immediately.

Madam Chair? Yes. Can we look at that BS&A cloud? Because I do know that is pretty quick. We need to do it. We need to get that initial. We need a motion next. We do. So if I remember my notes, because this is the 24, 890, is the initial start, I'll say a down payment. Got to get started. Exactly.

Yes.

I have notes that in 2028, $84,000. Once they've done completion and training, another $54,000. And an annual amount for, I'll say, just having it is $84,000.

Did I? Yes. OK. So we have budgeted in that $84,000, which will continue to be the annual amount, the three departments that will be affected by that change and increase. which are the Administrator Controller's Office, the Treasurer's Office, and Equalization. We have budgeted in in our forecasted budgets for 28 and 29, that $84,000. All right.

That's a maintenance fee.

That will be a maintenance fee moving forward, correct.

We picked this one. We're going to need to put the $24,890 out of this capital fund. We need to select that as one of the ones. That is what we were asking for, yes. And then where does that other $84,000 and the completion have to go?

Are those built in? So the $84,000 is built into the 2020-2029 budget. So those will be ongoing budget increases. Okay.

The $54,000 for completion and training, is that going to need to come out of this budget or this bucket? The $54,000?

The $54,000. So the $54,000 could come out of this bucket. It's not due until 2028. Okay. To me, it is something that if there was money set aside still in capital projects, it could be revisited at that budget time when we are doing that budgeting. If it can't be included in that, then there might be another bucket that it would need to come for. The 2027, the only payment in 2027 is the $84,000. Nope. The only payment for 2027, well, actually, we don't have a 2027 payment. The 2028 payment is the $84,000 plus the $54,150.

OK. And one could possibly come out of this, and the rest is being budgeted in 2028, 2029. That's what I thought. OK. Because that has to be in the budget from here on out.

From 2028 moving forward, that has to be in the budget.

So when I add up the server... Sorry.

He said his tractor's cheaper.

So the server replacement, boiler upgrade, and building systems controls, those three we've already agreed on. When you add those up, is that, I think they're a little over $700,000? And then if you add that to our remaining unallocated, are those the two we're still... Did I do that right?

So if I, hold on, let me play around a little bit.

I'm just trying to get an idea of the 322 that's remaining.

That 322, 148.05, is just the difference between our total funding pool and the total capital request. So we've only asked the total. The 14 and the 113. Yes.

OK. Got it. If we did it all, that would be what would be left. That would be what was left in that. Yes. Capital improvement.

OK. Yeah, because we put $200,000 roughly. She has $50,000 for the child care. And basically, the rest of it got dumped into capital improvements for future use.

I don't think there's one thing on this list that doesn't need to be done. I mean, they're all incredible. I didn't hear any arguments that I said when we were going through each of the budgets in the request where I went, we really don't need that. There was none of that. I mean, I think they're important. I think it's a matter of we really need to prioritize, do we want to use it all now and be left with 322 and hopefully grow that? Or do we want to put some of these into the second year of using capital? Is that a fair statement? Yes.

And on the sidewalk replacement, did we? I know we talked about that grant. Were we able to fill out that information? Yep.

So for our current sidewalk replacement project, we did fill out and submit the $5,000 grant for that. OK. We are also working on submitting a cyber grant for our changes to potentially district court and or the server replacement project.

One more clarity question so I make sure I keep all my notes in the same spot. So the server replacement right now is a 110. But I think the quote that we got from IT was 113.645. Yes. I mean, we have a little bit of extra.

I'll have to make that adjustment on the sheet. When I put that together, I didn't have that final quote. Right. Okay.

I mean, there's not a huge difference, but. You know what? I like to be accurate.

And this is for Ogema?

Not that one. No.

That's for us. This is for us. Ogema thing isn't in here. 107 so the server is 107 245 18 I Like less that's what we approved today.

I think wasn't it. Mm-hmm. Yeah, and Then the aerial imagery that is for equalization and I believe Jamie is still working on a quote for that and before we pull any triggers we'll have to have a a better understanding of, because that's just, that would be a yearly type thing. So how does that look with all of our townships and everything if we chose?

What is the purpose of that?

Amy was here.

I think the purpose goes back to when somebody is doing the assessing of properties and not being able to walk on people's property to do those assessments. This imagery gives them a better look, the assessors, a better look from the sky, basically, versus being able to walk.

So you now want to measure buildings.

Not to that degree. Not to that degree. Not according to Jamie.

It might be helpful to share the difference in what those two views look and the information that they're required to get versus what we see. I would know, oh, that looks fine to me. But it may not be giving them the information that they need in order to do those assessments.

And once she got the final estimates, she was willing to come back in front of the board to go over all of that. But that estimate isn't in.

It may be more of a zoom in type thing.

It's like one inch versus six or whatever it is.

Measure by feet right now.

Right. I would agree that we can maybe keep an eye on that one until we get a better piece.

Keep it included in this for right now.

Because it is a request. It's something we'll probably need. We just need to figure out if it's going to be this year or next year. What can we do?

Or what exactly it looks like and how it's going to be funded in the future.

We're not approving the expenditure yet. Is that correct?

That's correct. I'll go on record that I'm OK with each of these proposed projects. And when do we need to select which ones?

So that we're all- Actually, today, it's just an approval of the allocation going into the capital improvement, the child care, and the HSA funding.

So I would, yes. So at the September meeting, essentially, it would be just breaking it down into those buckets that you would instruct that this amount gets transferred to the capital projects fund. that there is X amount for set aside for the child care fund fund balance and X amount set aside for HSA funding.

And then for sure in the next meeting, we do need to have the BS&A initial brought back for a motion, because that would have to be signed right away in order to get on their docket.

I'm good with the information. I mean, the extra little detail that we're going to need and clean that up, you know, but I think those are some of the key things, especially the three we've already approved and try to see if we can get as much of this in as we can. Whittling down too low on that fund makes me a little nervous because there's always things that creep up that we do not. Proofs? Yes. Yeah, could be anything. So I want to be a little, in my opinion, a little bit more conservative on not dwindling that down. But I don't really understand, if we took it down all the way and left 322 in there, where will that gain us next year? Like, where could we be next year in a fund balance? And that might help me kind of figure out, do I want to go down that low if I think we can recoup it in another year or if we can't? I don't even know if that's doable.

I think once we get to the point where our 27, 28, and 29 budgets are more established, that information of where we'd be looking at that potential for fund balance will be increased or flat, will be a lot more apparent.

Okay. That helps me. I'm just not ready to say, yeah, spend it all now. Sorry. As far as he gets.

Yes.

I think we also need to be careful of committing to annual payments type things. I mean, you're potentially looking at more than $70,000 annually. I mean, there's things that we need to keep an eye out for.

I would 100% agree, Commissioner Wolfson. To me, capital projects and capital, these funds should be for one-time needs that we need to get done, not longevity costs, because we won't be able to sustain that. I agree. Yep.

Marcy's itching.

I just want to address something that Kim had said regarding dwindling down the fund to too much. I just wanted to say, keep in mind, I am still the interest that the delinquent tax revolving fund is earning in Michigan class. That gets transferred every month into capital improvement. And right now, that's running an average of about $20,000 a month. you're seeing going back into capital improvement. So it's not just generating based on your fund balance overage. It is earning some money every month based on that movement. So keep that in mind. It's not fully depleting itself. It's going to be replenished if the interest rates stay where they're at.

Well, and the class is pretty, I mean, that's pretty conservative, like a 3.2. Like, they stay a pretty conservative. So it's not like this. Yes, percentage, right? Yeah.

Yep, and they're still at like 3.8% per month. So we're still doing quite well with that interest. But I just wanted to address that to keep that in mind. Super.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Jodi, do you have what you need? I do, yes. Okay. Wanted to make sure does anybody else have any questions? No questions, then this meeting is adjourned and our lake level meeting will start at 11 11 20 yeah, there's lake level control structure meeting for September 9th at 11

We stand for the pledge.

We pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Roll call, please. Milburn.

Here.

Morley. Here. Russo. Censor. Here. Wolfson. Here.

Approval of the agenda.

Second.

Any discussion? Roll call, please. Morley.

Yes.

Censor. Yes. Milburn. Yes. Wolfson. Yes. Motion carried. Public comment for agenda items only. Is there any public comment for agenda items? Amana?

Nope need it green Can you hear me now darling I can hear you okay? We're still repairing our properties after the flood We're gonna strip a grass a full length by about four foot that got eroded away and I'm trying to grow grass here. I'm not I've grown really nice weeds, but of course they'll help stabilize my soil there next to the sea wall, the flood wall. I finally took down my cement blocks and put them down on the lot. FEMA did come out the other day, about a week ago, Looked around, I gave them bills for my cement blocks that I fortified my flood wall with. We had a row of dock sections, then we had a row of sandbags I was able to turn my slips into for my sandbags that I had ordered. Bought two pumps, sump pumps. My cousin John brought me up stuff he had, and we bought More hoses, you know, to fight the flooding. A very nice gentleman come out, surveyed the property. I gave him a ledger of what I'd spent and the slips, and I see I have a check in the mail, or a check in the account now, cover the costs. Others in the neighborhood are trying to, put their places back together. I'm still running a fan in the crawl space on the family cabin. I got dry mish coming out next week. No, excuse me. I got dry mish coming Thursday for a crawl space inspection. I had some duct work that got soaked, and I did pull some of that down, but I haven't pulled it out yet. So I'm going to have them and see what they're built. Crawling around in my narrow crawl space is something when you get older you don't like doing. I see you're still banking water. We do have a legal lake level for Houghton Lake. I know your operations manual has been dubbed as a comic book, but nothing's going on here is actually funny. Nothing's happening here is funny. How do we address the flooding in Houghton Lake if we cover up? How can we address the flooding in Houghton Lake If we cover up all the flooding we've had in the past, if we cover up the groundings that we've had at Houghton Lake that may be attributed to this water banking or these wind-driven tides, I think we live on the deadliest inland lake in Michigan. We've got to address these issues. We've got tons of science. We've got 40 years of lake level data. You can pull up averages. Our average springtime is almost a foot high. This winter, if you're seeing we have average snowfall, average snowpack, I can guarantee you there'll be flooding in the spring. If we have above average, we're going to have worse flooding. You're banking water now. You need to realize that if winters are normal, we're going to have flooding. Thank you.

Thank you. Public comment for agenda items? Come on up.

Dave Bisbee. I'm going to kick off where Craig left off. FEMA was there. FEMA took a lot of applications for damage. I would like to know if there's a way we can get a total from them on the cost for damage replacement, which is only a small portion of it because any property that isn't a permanent residence doesn't qualify. So we have all sorts of neighbors with property that was severely damaged that's coming out of their pockets. because most people didn't have flood insurance because it wasn't a requirement. And all of this came about because of misjudgment of actions and not following proper protocol with results to the manual. You can say you opened the gates in January, bless your soul, but you were above winter level before you got there. And you were never down to winter level. So all you did was exaggerate the damage by your actions. Please consider following the proper guidelines. The manual mentions that it's an 88 datum. And for some reason, everyone wants to be a dinosaur and go back to 29 datum, because it looks better and they can hide things. Time to stop hiding. Time to be open and realize exactly what's going on. I've got all sorts of things I have to do. I have to raise my generac now because of the issues we had this year. That's ridiculous. I had flooding all the way into my backyard towards the road. This isn't normal. This is man-made, most of it. Yeah, we did have a lot of snow. We had rain. We had winds, but we started out with almost a foot above where we should have been. And that foot is what caused most of the damage. So please, use your heads on this manual and this dam. And if you try to cut it off before you get to winter level, you're going to have ice ups in that channel because low trickle allows the ice to build up. So don't let that happen before you're down to winter level. Just to save the process. Hard thing to do. I hope that you take my advice because, man, there was a lot of people who really received a lot of damage, and they're not going to recover it. I have a little bit of time. I'd like to address a couple other things. Maybe they're not agenda items. I was exposed to a rabid bat. My whole family and the whole house had to get rabies shots, a series of four shots spaced out in days. You know there's not one place in Roscommon County where you can get those bad infusions? Not one. I had to travel to Clare. I had to go to West Branch, Clare, and then West Branch. Our Health and Human Services didn't even contact me, even though they were notified, because my son took the bat to Grand Rapids back with him and had the county health department test it. And they notified our people in Roscommon. But they never contacted me and told me I needed to get the shots. My son did. That's missing the target big time. And getting back to my generator. The reason I have the generator is, guess what? Roscommon County's 83rd out of 83 counties in reliable electricity. 83rd. Doesn't reflect well on the focus of business that this group is doing. Wasting too much time chasing their tails on the water issues.

Thank you any other public comment for agenda items Houghton Lake the delegated authority update I Over the weekend, as you know, we've had actually for a few weeks now, we've had that one gate open 25%. After Labor Day, the target level is the legal court-ordered summer level of the 1138.1. So we will be drawing down to that. Maintenance has been instructed to open. The additional gate 100% so they were going to be out there later today working on that and getting that opened Let's see In the last meeting, we had a gentleman that had stated he had asked me a question, and he was still waiting for a response. And I had let everybody know that I was still waiting for a response from our engineers. So the question was, have you asked the engineers to study or provide reassurances that widening the structure toward our homes is not going to eat away the front yards? There are eight water lots on Fred Crooks and none on the cul-de-sac side. If you do not intend to allow the public on the structure, why not eliminate the cul-de-sac parking on that side as it would no longer be needed and no risk of ruining people's property? When Rex was out to speak with the neighbor, he said, you intended to come approximately 40 feet in this direction. If the opposing bank was to recede the same 40 feet, we could quite literally fish out our front door. So I sent that exact quote over to Prine and Newhoff. And the first response I got is, we are working. We are working on a response for you. Their comments are not unreasonable. Anytime we open up a structure, we have the potential for increasing the downstream flows. EGLE permits projects that open up bridges and outlet structures all the time, even though it could increase the downstream velocities and shear stresses for a given condition. In this case, a lot of other cases, the difference in shear stress and velocity for the different locations of the proposed structure are basically negligible. Moving the opening to the west could be better, but again, the difference is negligible. Showing this is not always easy, but we will work on it. So I did email the findings. to you guys and it said, we're working to provide something that we can share with the residents. It is a good observation that the potential expansion of the dam gates to the east could create an increase in velocities and shear stress on the shoreline. Anytime a structure is enlarged, we have the potential for increasing the downstream flow impacts. For this case, however, the downstream impacts on the shoreline is negligible. We have performed a 2D hydraulic modeling using HEC-RAS software for the proposed outlet gates open and worst case 100-year event. This analysis simulates the water movement in detail showing the velocity vectors throughout the stream width, specifically to address the concerns. We have prepared some figures showing profiles of the maximum velocities and shear stresses along the right bank at both the top and bottom of the bank. Results show that the difference is basically negligible. In addition, the magnitude of the shear stresses on the shoreline is not as severe as in the center of the channel and is not especially high due to the geometry of the Muskegon River both upstream and downstream of the outlet structure. Attached graphs show the velocities and shear stresses are similar. The maximum velocity during a 100-year event is 0.8 FPS along the north and east shoreline, and the maximum shear stress is 0.03 pounds per square foot. Please reach out with any questions. So you guys all received those maps. I will make sure to get this information over to the gentleman who had initially asked the question. And then if there's any questions, we can reach back out to the engineers. Unless you guys have any initial questions. Commissioner Watson? No?

Okay.

No, I think the river controls most of it.

Okay. I also had reached out to the DNR regarding the flats project. They call it the Flats Wildlife Flooding Control Structure and Pump Facility Improvements. This is not the same as our structure. This is the one right off of old 27. The progress of work, this was back in September. Let's go back here. First one was back in August where the Greenscape Remobilization was there Monday, July 20th to start construction on the South Dike. Silt fence will continue to be installed and anticipated to be completed that week. Sheet piling is being delivered to the site and anticipated to continue until the end of the week. Installation of the cofferdam is anticipated to start mid to end of next week and take approximately two weeks. Wade trim has verified the benchmark for the south dike. The beaver debris in the existing culvert below West Shore Drive has been removed by the Roscommon County Road Commission. All stop logs have been removed at the control structure. The water elevation in the flats has receded approximately 15 inches. Field rep will be on site next week and may have drone pictures that could be shared for MDNR social media outlets. The turnaround on the south dike is a 12-foot wide and 16-foot long in addition to the top of the dike. I received another update yesterday. Clay material is being placed on the south dike approximately two to four weeks to be installed. Well, to be installed next week and is anticipated to take three days, the X lift station has been removed. Remove existing control structure this week. Start installing the silt fence on Z dyke next week. Salvage memorial rock to be reset following construction. A long-reach excavator is anticipated to be on site to dredge out the canal between Houghton Lake and Old 127. The dredging of the channel leading to the mouth of Houghton Lake started today. This activity was permitted by EGLE as part of a larger project in the Roscommon County Road Commission. We are also partnering with the Road Commission to replace a culvert on West Shore Drive. They are providing the culvert, and we are doing the work. So that was the update on the flats. And that is all I have for Houghton Lake. Lake St. Helen. Madam Chair?

Yes. For Commissioner's information, the object of the culvert change and clearing out the channel and digging it deeper is they're putting in pumps that have higher velocity. So it's going to make... Water get to their pumps faster when they want to fill it, but it also, when they want to pull boards and empty it, it happens faster. So the exchange between Houghton Lake and the flats will be in a faster mode once they're done.

And we have no control over that. That is something that they control 100%. Lake St. Helen. Commissioner Wolfson?

Most of the boards are out of Lake St. Helen. Even though we haven't had a lot of rain, it's a little stubborn and going down. We're working on that and it's finally making headway. I sent an email out to Luke O'Brien from Spicers for an update on the structure. Haven't heard anything from him.

It's only one say no One quick thing to go back on Houghton Lake I was informed yesterday that the permitting process for the new structure the initial part of just submitting for the permit Was initiated so That process will take a little while. I have asked Prine and Newhoff if they still anticipate the construction to take place next year. I have not heard back on that yet. When I do, I will make sure to let everybody know. Higgins Lake. The maintenance department went last week to fully open up gate one. Yesterday they opened up gate two. And, of course, the unrestricted spillway is open. We will continue to open up the spillways gradually until we achieve the legal summer level. Drawdown for the winter level begins November 1st. I don't have anything other than that, unless you do.

Not on Higgins.

Okay. Any questions or comments for Higgins? unfinished business Lake operator discussion um I know that commissioner Wilson took the applicant mr.. Keys around each of the structured when the job was offered And that offer was 11,000 seven seven okay For the year after looking at the structure he was concerned especially about Houghton Lake and I know that he came back with a counteroffer I believe it was 15 5 was that correct 15 5 and he wanted to be able to revisit it in two months and So after hearing that discussion, that got me to where I requested the logs that our prior delegated authority, Chase Shepke and Lake operator, that he turned into those logs. I did email all of you that same information and kind of broke things down as far as what that looks like monetary-wise. I gave you a copy of the job description that the individual would be. I gave a copy of the 2026 Wage and Salary Committee report and the 2026 wage scale. When I look at what was reported for 2025, 2026, and then I estimated out, tried to a little bit, it looks roughly, if he was to take over all three structures, that he would only have about 13.4 hours a month. between, depending. And that's, you know, a lot has to depend upon how often you're going out there and everything, but I'm doing this on a monthly, yearly type thing. At 15.5 at 125 hours per year is $125 an hour. At 15.5 at 160 hours per year would be $96.88. Wage and salary reported that they should be making between nineteen point two one dollars an hour up to 22 The other I Guess thing that I started kind of Questioning was that I know mr. Keyes according to Commissioner Wolfson was a little offset about Holton Lake because of the size of the the boards that have to come in and out. That is not a one-person job. According to maintenance and after talking with Chase as well, that is, if you're lucky, a two-person job, but more like a three- to four-person job on Holton Lake. due just to the Sears size. So then that gets the question of if Mr. Keyes has to have somebody go help him, where does that liability fall if one of those guys get hurt? They're not a county employee. Mr. Keyes's would be, but those others helping him would not be. Thoughts? The biggest problem on Holden Lake is the system Our maintenance can continue to help I did speak with our controller and with Justin Personally and I told them that this was not something that I was telling him he had to do this was a question of whether they would be willing to do a And they would be willing to continue on if that is something that the board would like. They will keep track of hours. They will keep track of who goes to what structures. And it would kind of continue as is, from my understanding, if that's. No, they would be compensated. Yes. they're agreeing to take on the additional responsibilities within the building and grounds department. Yes.

Madam Chair?

Yes.

I'd like the more information on how you would structure that because I wouldn't want to short our maintenance guys from doing their normal duties. Would this be like overtime type job? How would this work?

So that actually, when we did have the meeting with our director in that conversation, our first question was really, is this something that you even think that you could manage? And if the answer was yes, then it would come to the board to kind of make that determination with the director on the best way to structure that. Because you will need to have, you're going to have to have an organized method of contacting out to request those opening closings. so that it can be planned into the day. Obviously, on a weekly basis, they already have somebody that site checks just for basic routine maintenance of county property. But there would have to be an organized approach to doing that. We do have 2.5 people during the day in our maintenance. So it would need to be something that two people Definitely Houghton Lake possibly st. Helen would have to be able to leave the building and go for They'd have to plan around it ideally it would not be overtime But there would be no guarantee on that depending on if there was an emergent situation or other projects going on Well then that brings a question are our employees willing to work overtime if needed I?

I guess we need a maintenance director to chime in a little bit. Not to put you on the spot, Justin, but... In other words, tell us how this will work for your department.

Well, the biggest thing is the coordination and all of it. Like we brought up in the meeting, we're out at the dams at least once a week to do our general inspections, to take care of the grounds, and... So we're trying to work it in as far as when the measurements are done. And we don't go out on our normal, like every week, usually like a Tuesday, we'd go out and do our structure maintenance. Now I'm just waiting to hear from the commissioners as to if there's an adjustment needed. So I mean, it could be on a Monday. It could be on a Friday. So if it's just one adjustment a week, it falls right into our plan. However, if there's other instances like yesterday, we had to go to the Higgins Lake Dam and the St. Helen Dam and the Holton Lake Dam. We were unable to fit the Holton Lake one into our schedule because that one takes not only the manpower but added time. It didn't fall into what we already had going on in the maintenance program. As far as the wages are concerned, I know we had briefly talked about it. So I guess there's need to be further discussion as far as that As far as the overtime It would be I guess Obviously anything above and beyond if it was an emergency call that we have to you know leave after hours and That's what it's got to have to be I think our maintenance program is pretty flexible in the fact that we're on call all the time anyway and We never know if we're going to get called into this structure or elsewhere. So it's just another added thing to be on call for.

Questions?

Correct. And it's one of those things like today I'm already short-handed. We have one guy out. Typically we have three guys on all the time, two part-time guys, two full-time guys, you know, so the part-time guys split their weeks. So usually I have three people in the building all the time. Today we're down to two. And, you know, it might be one of those things where we might have to in the busy times put three full-time people on and then leave one part-time in limbo. There has been times where we have gone out and then we get calls here. And so if we could have the flexibility of leaving one behind, that's ideal. But like Chairperson Sensor said, Holton Lake is the most extensive as far as making any adjustments to.

Madam Chair. Yes. Perhaps we need to put something in place that's permanent, not just a temporary. fix to our problem of operating the structures. And doing it through the maintenance department may be the answer to making it a permanent thing, be it more personnel or whatever. It's only my suggestion.

And I know we talked too about once the structures like Lake Saint Helen gets underway and what that looks like, you know, for your final structure, Houghton Lakes will become a whole lot easier. A whole lot easier.

It's still going to require X number of hours to get there. Correct. And it may be a one-person job at that time. But if we set up something through the maintenance department, as long as the head of maintenance is willing to do so, we have a permanent solution in place.

And I believe that's how it used to be done, correct, Jody? Yes, that is exactly how it used to be done.

We can put together how we're going to call when somebody goes out. I mean, Darlene and I have been talking. In the future, it would be look at the daily average the day before we respond, that type of thing. And in most cases, one day or so is not going to make a difference. But I think if we could set something up through the maintenance, and of course, I think their time is all billable. Is that not correct? That's really the answer because we've been dealing with this back and forth for three years now. And since we can't come to an agreement of you know hiring somebody at a set rate Perhaps this is the answer I'm not getting a nod from our director.

Yeah, it's apprehensive not I was gonna go to you know, I've I As I look through all the data that you put together, the option of going where we were going does not make sense, especially when it is a maintenance type of role. They are not some high-end engineer that we've got to pay to do X, Y, and Z. That just did not make sense to me. So that secured that decision when I had first heard it. I applaud that you would think about your department to help us get through this. Willing is one thing. Capable is another and I understand that staffing can be an issue Do you feel if there was a process and a to follow that made it Easier for your team You currently have the team today that you think that can be manageable or does that make you nervous?

No, that's putting on the spot, but I mean no I believe we have the capabilities to do it. Okay the maintenance of it and I Operation of how the gates work we have the manpower to do it It's just we're leaving the maintenance department Unstaffed for the certain amount of time that we have to go make the adjustments So, you know my only concern is if we're you know We have a gate that is stuck at the whole like damn because of the way it's engineered It's gonna take us time so if I'm at the whole like structure for two or three hours And then I have a rooftop unit go down here What? You know where do I do I leave the gate? You know we already know we have angry homeowners behind us So there's got to be a priority list of where maintenance you know lies you feel that's doable It is but I also think in the busy times we're gonna have to talk about the manpower as far as possibly leaving a maintenance person here

We're going to have to have some flexibility.

Because it's not just this building. We have the animal shelter. We have the annex building. We have the airport, too. We're working on that annex building. But we still have EOC. We have a room there. So I mean, it's not just this building. And with this building, it's enough to keep 2 and 1 half guys busy all week long. And we do have aging equipment. So it's always a concern, even when we go home at night.

Oh, it's gonna have to be You know some fine talks of how we prioritize and in manpower for sure and how we fund that I mean when I looked at what this person countered I went Okay to go and do what we tell you to do and to just log it just does not seem From an accountability perspective, that's not even what commissioners do. Not that we do this for that. But the accountability and the responsibility was far less for that wage, personally. Not that the person couldn't do the job. I'm sure he's great. But that concerned me. And if we can come up with a solution that allows us to help your team and not Burn them out, not cause problems because you can't be here to fix something else. I think that's a good thing to explore.

Well, I think the only way it's going to work is if it makes sense for both sides.

Agreed.

Both sides have got to come to an agreement. It's got to make sense.

And if it doesn't, I understand that we need to come up with another option. But if we can figure this out to say, yes, it's doable, or you go, okay, we tried. It's not going to work. Go to Plan B. Then we can reconvene. We've done what we can do for a while, as is. Unfortunately, there's a lot more work on the two of you. I do know that. So... Making a decision and changing it right the second just to fill a gap and not be the right decision to me I'd rather wait figure it out It's me and see if it works for you guys, and if it doesn't then I mean for the for the immediate time right now We're we're gonna do it, but if you know moving forward Be some clear line set Agreed madam chair yes one consideration.

We need to take into account Was that in his job description?

It was not.

We definitely need his blessing to do it.

Yes. The other thing, just two thought processes that kind of have come through my head. The first one is, do you have any of the evening part-time janitorial staff that might be able to be flexible for maintenance hours? needed for coverage like during the summer because I know what's gonna be the summer when it gets gets busy there's one that could possibly okay and then this is kind of more for the for the board so we have worked into the budget for 2027 for maintenance to actually have like maintenance below shirts t-shirts to have some more uniform and honestly this is a direct result of the friendly People that come out to see them when they are out there adjusting things at all three lake level control structures And just making sure that the vehicles are clearly marked would be something we'd have to we're gonna get them wet suits, too Yeah, I am waiters waiters Might I suggest that I and Justin and Jody see what we can put together on this I

I would like to be there as well.

I was going to say, our chair put all that detail together. I think the two of you are kind of our link level committee, working that out and presenting it back. Like, is this doable? I appreciate that you would be honest. Don't just say yes to try to be the good employee. No, there's a lot that goes into that.

I've already voiced.

I don't think that about you, but I just want to make that. Because that's easy to go, man, we'll try to do it. We'll try to do it. Because it doesn't work. We need to be honest with each other. And we need to come up with something different. But I think exploring this, I would support you guys working on an option. And if it works, then.

Wow, one of the other things that we talked about was the boards on Houghton Lake are huge They are heavy and they fit very very tightly and the winch is broken so That being said if the structure Isn't going to be slated for next year those boards may be recreated to where it's easier for The maintenance department if they're still doing it able to do it without Having to use every well in the arsenal to get them in and out Mm-hmm, that's it's only got to be fair for both sides absolutely

Because essentially we're still part of the county, but this is just adding more.

And maybe. His employees aren't keen to this, I don't know. How do your employees feel about it?

Do you know they're apprehensive about it?

So I'll just say for all, I mean, I think we're at a point where we're okay with the two of you working with Jody and with Justin just to say, let's get more detail, figure it out. There is some apprehension. How do we work through that? Just present it back. I mean, I don't think we can answer any more until you guys sit down and have that conversation.

Correct.

I'm good with that. Thank you. Thank you.

New business SAD lawsuits updates our administrator So the board had just asked that for the handful of Ongoing lawsuits that the county has facing it in regards to lakes that I just give a brief update to you of you know kind of up just a back history of So I will start with Let's start with the lake level of Houghton Lake because that's the only lake level of Houghton Lake one that exists currently We had this is actually a appeal That was issued. It's pending in the Court of Appeals in regards to the operations manual and that was filed on behalf of Bumgarner's at all with with a few others and And I will add that all of these lawsuits have the same attorney Phil Ellison So I won't have to regurgitate who the who the representing attorney is But this is essentially pending the Court of Appeals opinion They place us in in 2025 after the operations manual was approved by the circuit court. So that's appealing that based on the thought process that this is actually a way to circumvent the change in the legal level. And we have no action currently on the Court of Appeals. They just kind of hang out there until the Court of Appeals decides to put it on the docket. So we all just wait and watch this as we go. Additionally, we have three suits still pending in regards to Higgins Lake. The first is Demmer versus Ross Common County that was filed in September of 2025 and then in January filed with the Court of Appeals This was actually originally filed after the creation of the special assessment district to actually appeal the creation of the district itself Again, this one's also pending in the Court of Appeals We have two more additional ones One is the HOPOA et al versus Ross Common County. Again, this was actually a suit filed on the creation of the Special Assessment District. And kind of two of these kind of go together, I guess is the best way to say it. This also involves now the county's assessments for Higgins Lake. It did go to the Court of Appeals. The Court of Appeals essentially said, initially on the creation of the Special Assessment District, wait until they actually charge you an assessment fee. And the Supreme Court had been asked to reveal that. Now we go back to the Court of Appeals again as far as, OK, now there's been an assessment filed. But this is, again, still sitting in both the Supreme Court for the one and the Court of Appeals for the other. So again, hanging out, waiting on our court systems for clear answers on that. The final one, we actually have oral arguments on for October 15. This is actually the Higgins Lake property owner's appeal of the actual assessment in our local circuit court. So Garrish Township also will be appealing, but we had agreed that Garrish Township could basically pen their filing until the decision on the HLPOA1 comes into bound. So depending on how this ruling goes in circuit court will depend on where garish moves forward with theirs as well Those are the four that we have any questions Madam chair, just a quick one between those two the both the HLPA ways.

They're both about the creation of it or is one the amounts that were assessed? Because there are two different things, right?

Yes. So the one that is going to be October 15 in our circuit court is specific to the amounts. But the original suit in regards to the creation of a special assessment, when it went to the Court of Appeals, the Court of Appeals basically said, you filed too early. Come back. Not us. They filed too early. Yes. You filed too early. They haven't charged you anything, so there's nothing here for you to appeal to. So obviously, there's kind of a dual track now that's going. Obviously, they have to start in circuit court, because that's the answer. but it will pend into, depending on that outcome, could pend into Court of Appeals. Additionally with that one, there was a request by Ellison to the Supreme Court that they look at how the Court of Appeals handled that ruling as well. And so that's also still out there in the wind.

Thank you.

Thank you. Any other questions for Jody on those? Motions and resolutions? We have none. So we are back to public comment. Come on up.

Craig Cotterman hope like My neighbor mr. Bisbee was talking about our infrastructure for Houghton Lake I've been there a long time I grew up on the lake There's consequences to these decisions we make We have a future out here and need to base the future on the data we have or likes one of the most studied lakes perhaps in the world we got mounds of data they have mounds of lake level data forty years of uh... uh... damn operations and guidelines from u s g s we have a hundred-year flood elevation for holton lake We have previous reports from engineers, all of which seem to say, make sure you manage the lake aggressively with the levels we have, which means don't bank water. Senator Newhoff come up with the operations manual that banks water. I don't know how we plan our future when we don't And we can't manage the water levels. This is a eat fish, eat safe fish. I grabbed it. It was down the hallway here. Our lakes are everything. Fish in Houghton Lake, one report says 11 metals, seven pesticides, and three organics. Lots of toxins in our lake. Again, lots of data. Lake's heavily polluted. We have an improvement board, public act. I think that one's 309. Did I get it right? I always get them mixed up. 309, the duties of a lake board, a Houghton Lake Improvement Board, number one is flooding, number two is pollution. They don't address the flooding and pollution. You raise the lake level, you didn't address the flooding or the pollution. Our shorelines are surrounded. Our whole shoreline now is a flood wall. Shorelines clean our lakes. They clean the debris. I got stones in front of my house, so I get to clean the debris up. Last year, I had 10 truckloads of debris or weed fragments or styrofoam and everything else that the people throw in the lake, beer cans. But for most of the flood walls, everybody just sheds their stuff on those that have a shoreline. I don't know if we can have a future at Houghton Lake if you don't address the flooding in a responsible manner. I don't know if we have a future at Houghton Lake if you can't address the pollution in our lake in a responsible manner. Lincoln improvement board this past year I believe there were over a million dollars in pesticides To kill plants to kill animals Some of these pesticides They're dangerous They're dangerous if you have a drop they're dangerous if you have a million dollars worth You put them out in the middle of the lake, and with the wind-driven tides, these plumes of pesticides, these plumes of lake treatments, I know they end up in front of my house because it kills the weeds by the end of my dock. We need to have a different future for Holton Lake. Open us. Tell us what you're doing, what chemicals you're doing. I just don't see where we're going anywhere. Thank you.

Thank you. Come on up, Dave.

I have some questions with respect to the operations manual. I believe the manual was mandated we use 88 datum, not the Dinosaur 29. But all the information that's posted on your website for the lake levels in 29 data. That's a violation of the court order on the operations manual. That's wrong. We shouldn't go back and be dinosaurs. We should be doing what is now the proper response and level and utilization of information we have. Another thing I'm gravely concerned about is All the studies and stuff that were done by Pranit Nuhaf on the control structure said that as you multiply the number of gates, each gate reduces the volume that it sends through it. Now we're going to try to add two more gates, which is the way it's been presented and going. And we're not going to gain anything because downstream you can't move that water. So the extra property issue and all that should be null and void. There's no reason for that. We have the scientific data. Brian and Newhoff actually presented it. So we really should use our heads a little bit more and do basically what the design of that manual was, to perceive what the increase of Material and water coming to the lake is going to be and be proactive because it's I think every one of you is aware You can do one inch a week That's all you could control And that doesn't get it when you have spring floods fall floods Three inches of rain you get three inches of rain you raise that lake level six inches and It's a multiple factor because of the size of the drainage, 200 square miles of drainage into there. Another thing, talking about this DNR with the Houghton Lake, Muskegon River marsh area, moving water into Houghton Lake, is that a coordinated event to the water control people, the structure that you people and people on the lake have knowledge of? that we're trying to control the lake level with, is if they drop that 15 inches and that water went into Holton Lake, we got to get it out of there. How long does it take to get 15 inches of water in that size of volume of that marsh out of there? Does it take a month, two months, one inch a week, people? Think about it. Something that we really have to understand and we don't have control of that channel and if they're going to do something with that channel that's on the State because that's state property. It's not Property that people on the lake should have to pay for that improvement Keep that in mind because that could be a real stinger with it came to be I appreciate My ability to give you input, and I hope you listen. Thank you Thank you.

Any other public comment? Come on up.

Rick Reeves, Houghton Lake.

You had mentioned the permit process started. I know you, well, supposedly planned to close it to the public, whatnot. Have you considered, I mean, I know St. Helen, the fishing was an issue with doing the hydraulics. They don't want it. We have no representative from Lake Township, which is where the dam is, that's even part of these discussions, which I think is kind of a bummer. But that's a big recreational spot. There's a lot of boats that go through there, a lot of kayaks that portage there every day. This past weekend was extremely busy on that dam. The canoe race has been going on for half a dozen years now. Have we thought about that? None of these, you mentioned the permit process has started, but no one has been shown the design You actually intend to, well, sort of encroach into our property without us even knowing what's going on. And I think the people not addressing that, it's going to be more than you think. I mean, those boats are just going to get drug through our front yard. Those people aren't going to stop. When Chase was coming out and actively speaking, have you thought about a portage there? Is there going to be an actual dedicated portage for our people? Tons of hunters go through in the winter when the dams open. live there right it's in my front yard for anybody doesn't know that and I Watch this every day, so it's not Maybe valuable information. Maybe not, but I see everything that goes on there How much it gets used? It's not defense they put up now helps considerably, but when you try to shut it down completely and There's going to be a lot more people than you realize. I mean, can we make that public knowledge, maybe talk about it with somebody, especially since our township's not represented here in these discussions? Something to think about? Like I said, it was a very quick discussion when they said, we don't want this in St. Helen. We want to fish. If a person shows up and says this in Houghton Lake, are we just going to rediscuss this whole thing? It sounds like the minds have already been made if the permits have already been applied for. Just something to think about. Appreciate it. And as far as the water shear, yeah, very little. That dam, in most times of the year, it is wide open and it doesn't do crap. For everybody that thinks it's going to wash out the lake or it's going to fail and we're not going to have one, that's not true. Most of the time, it is wide open and your lake's still there. There's no issues. The few times that you close it up, like right now, Okay, most of the gates, some have been rebuilt. The center logs have been replaced. Chase built some that overlapped, et cetera, et cetera. But the two on the very ends do still function as a weir gate. So we're just an inch over right now over the 8-1, and there's a tiny bit of water flowing over them this morning. The rest of them are all higher for some reason or another and don't operate as a weir gate. But truth is, even with them all closed, you got about this much of a difference in water level from one side to the other. It's a very minimal what that dam does. So for everybody that thinks the lake's going to disappear, that's not real true. You know, it seems like hydraulics, I understand the ease of opening the boards, but it seems like a lot of expense and

Like I said that the plans just keep getting grander and grander and you're landlocked as it is That's all this considerations, thank you Any other public comment Or comment mr. Morley Commissioner Milburn Commissioner Wolfson The one thing that I did want to mention as far as with the DNR is when Commissioner Wolfson and I sat down and we spoke with them regarding the whole Reedsburg, the flats, things like that, yes, there's an open communication that will be going. One of the reasons that they held off The flat projects was because of how high Houghton like was for so long That's one of the things we asked for was there every two weeks. They supposedly have an update to try to keep us out at Reedsburg, I think they Talked about the Levels at the benchmark levels and things of that nature and they actually went up the river looking for obstructions and And things of that. So they did admit that in the spring, their I-5 gauge was off. And so therefore, the benchmark that they were going off of wasn't. So.

Also concerning the flats, we were not notified they were draining the flats. And we're trying to keep an open line so that in the future we're notified when things like that happen. Because it drained in its own right when we were high. Plain and simple. So we're working on that.

And as far as the permitting process, that's just basically the initial permit saying that they're going to be submitting for a new structure. It doesn't say anything about what that structure is going to look like. The final design approval hasn't even been brought before the board yet. So we're not that far. A permitting process is months. before we'll get to the final. And there will be lots of communications, I'm sure, back and forth with the engineers, just like there was every time Chase applied for a permit.

Thank you, Madam Chair, for clarifying that, because it did initially sound like the permit meant that. But if I understood from what I've heard, and I'm the newest one on this group to hear all of it, that permit has to be done before you even do the next type of permit. That's kind of that process that the DNR requires

for us to go through? So you have to basically apply and pay for a joint permit to even start the process. And that's what that permit is, is just starting the process. They're comfortable with where they are in their phase of stuff. Come to the board and present the board we've talked about you know that property on the east We are doing that land swap with the DNR that is going as planned and The question was proposed, if we didn't want to use property on the east, could we take and move that over to the west? And would EGLE and DNR have any issues with that, or would there be any foreseen issues? They have taken a look at that. DNR both, DNR and EGLE both have responded back to the engineers that they do not foresee any issues. No wetlands would be impacted. So moving it to the west is, and that's property that the county then will own. So then we can keep that in mind if we continue, want to keep that structure private. Because now that property, we will own the county itself. It won't be on anybody else's. It'll be on ours.

Well, I'm glad that we're starting that DNR conversation more frequently. I think from what I've heard in the past, it's not been a connection and a discussion. We can't control them, obviously. We don't run them. But knowing that they understand where we're at, the impacts of what they do impact our lakes, that at least that dialogue is better than where it used to be. So thanks.

With no more board comment, this meeting would be adjourned.