Having gone without pay raises for several years, Moran Township officials voted themselves a 3% increase Wednesday, December 3, at their scheduled monthly meeting.

The raise applies only to the highest three elected township board officials. Trustees got a raise about a year ago.

Supervisor Jim Durm's pay goes from $17,109 to $17,622. He last got a raise in 2000. The salary for Treasurer Susan Dionne and Clerk Kris Vallier will increase from $15,000 to $15,450. Mrs. Dionne's last raise was in 2004 and Mrs. Vallier's was in 2002.

In approving the increases, the board agreed also to review salaries on an annual basis.

In other matters, the board approved a resolution requesting that Governor Jennifer Granholm look into reestablishing a museum at the Father Marquette National Memorial site in St. Ignace. The museum was hit by lightening and destroyed by fire in 2000.

A French Jesuit missionary, Jacques Marquette established Michigan's earliest European settlements at Sault Ste. Marie and St. Ignace in 1668 and 1671. He lived among the Great Lakes Indians from 1666 to his death in 1675. During that period, Father Marquette mastered several native languages and helped Louis Jolliet map the Mississippi River.