County Pledges $10,000 To Help Develop Naubinway Snowmobile Museum
Commission Denies EDC Request for Funds
By Karen Gould

A proposed antique and vintage snowmobile museum in Naubinway will receive $10,000 from Mackinac County, contingent on the museum committee acquiring land for the project. The Mackinac County Board of Commissioners voiced their support of the idea at their meeting Thursday, September 14.

The request for funding for a future nonprofit museum came from Charles Vallier of Engadine, chairman of the museum organizing committee, and Lynne Batchelder of Naubinway, a board member on Mackinac County's Economic Development Corporation (EDC).

"Naubinway is now noted for the largest snowmobile show in Michigan," said Mr. Vallier. "We get people from all over the United States and Canada."

He said the show began with approximately four people displaying sleds to more than 80 people displaying approximately 250 sleds. The committee is working with the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians to lease land along US-2 for the museum site, he noted.

County funds, he said, would be used for start-up costs and matching funds for grants. The committee would like to erect a 60-foot by 80-foot building for $112,200 and may allocate space for visitor information.

Mr. Vallier said talk of developing an antique snowmobile museum began approximately four years ago with the growing success of the town's annual snowmobile show, which is in its 15th year. He said people are interested in displaying their sleds year-around.

The first rear-engine snowmobiles, he said, were first used as utility sleds by commercial fisherman.

This is the third economic development grant commissioners have made this year, after withdrawing financial support from the county EDC. Commissioners also contributed $5,000 to the St. Ignace lighthouse project, and in August, they gave $10,000 to the proposed North Huron Scenic Pathway fund to help with an engineering and feasibility study.

In a related matter during the meeting, commissioners denied an EDC budget amendment request for $1,600, unless the organization can provide a reason commissioners should provide the funding. Commissioners suggested the organization use existing EDC funds to cover payment to members for meetings and mileage from September to the end of the year. EDC members are paid $60 per meeting.

The EDC has no existing funds, the county clerk's office reported.

In other matters, commissioners also listened as Dafter resident John Lechner, owner of Lechner Construction, voiced complaints regarding the county road commission's credit card charges for hotel rooms and restaurants, and he questioned receipts from discount stores, all from 2001 through 2006. He had obtained the records through the Freedom of Information Act.

Commissioners told Mr. Lechner that they had no control over the road commission's budget. Craig Kelso, road commission engineer and manager, attended the meeting and said some of the expenses were approved by the road board for candy for parades around the county and for safety training materials. In response to a question raised from Mr. Lechner, he said the commission never purchased alcohol.

Mr. Lechner also questioned actions by County Prosecutor Clayton Graham, although the commissioners stopped Mr. Lechner and advised him they were not the forum for concerns over an upcoming trial.

During the meeting, commissioners were advised by Mr. Graham he would be requesting more than $29,000 for trial costs, including expert witness testimony, for a trial scheduled for November.

Commissioners voted to close the window for an early-out retirement program for Sheriff's Department employees. Commissioners already had voted against the program for courthouse employees, elected officials, and non-union employees. Commissioners noted that costs for the program over the next 30 years would be more than $475,000. The county would be responsible for the initial exit costs plus a yearly increase to that amount of 4.5 percent, explained Commissioner Chairman Dawn Nelson.

"I would have liked to have done it," she said of the program. "I felt it was wrong to burden this county for 30 years, this kind of money."

Commissioner Joe Durm agreed.

"I won't burden my fellow commissioners for the next 30 years to deal with this," he said.

Commissioner Jim Farero noted the commission had sought the advice of Bonnie Toskey of the law firm Cohl, Stoker, Toskey, and

McGlinchey of Lansing, who had recommended they not offer the early-out retirement program.

In an ongoing wage dispute between the commission and court employee Kathy Kittell, commissioners asked County Clerk Mary Kay Tamlyn to give Mrs. Kittell a copy of the tape of the commission's June 15 meeting. Part of the meeting was held in closed session with Mrs. Kittell and that tape is sealed, noted commissioners. The board agreed Mrs. Tamlyn would provide Mrs. Kittell with a copy of that day's regular meeting tape.

A payroll error had been made when Mrs. Kittell changed job classifications and the county had overpaid her a reported $2,395.35. When the error was discovered, commissioners sought repayment, and finally began deducting the overpayment from Mrs. Kittell's check. Meeting after the June closed session, commissioners agreed to forgive $1,459.35 of the overpayment.

At that time, Mrs. Nelson voted against the decision, saying she would have liked to have forgiven more of the overpayment owed by Mrs. Kittell.

Lani White of the Bois Blanc Township Planning Commission complained to commissioners the health department is not forcing mobile home owners install septic systems.

Marvin Henderson, administrator for Luce, Mackinac, Alger, Schoolcraft District Health Department, also attended the meeting and explained that before a lot owner is required to have a sewage system, power and water has to be available.

"If it's not a permanent structure, and there is no sewer or water, then quite frankly, there is no sewer requirement," said Mr. Henderson.

He said the health department can address sewage on the ground or if someone opens a private dump. He said staff had found one sewage site on Bois Blanc Island and the situation was resolved.

"Those are clearly public health hazards," he said. "That's the authority that the health department has to operate under."

Commissioners made two appointments, including Elizabeth Dunn of Cedarville to the Hiawathaland Library Cooperative Board and Bruce Zimmerman, director of Mackinac Island's public works department, to the Solid Waste Board.

County Commissioners next meet Thursday, September 28, at 2 p.m. at the county annex building in the commissioners' room.