The county road match program is legal, a township supervisor asserted Thursday, January 14, and county commissioners, who have questioned its legality and cut it from the county's 2010 budget, told him they'll discuss the road improvement program again with their attorney at a commission meeting January 28. Commissioners also approved a building lease with the health department and heard a proposal for photographic mapping Thursday.

Hudson Township Supervisor Al Garavaglia notified county commissioners at their meeting that the Michigan County Road Commissioners' Handbook says money from the county general fund can be used to pay for road purposes. According to that passage, he said, it is legal for the commissioners to fund the county match program through the general fund. He gave copies of the handbook excerpt supporting his claim to the commissioners in attendance. Chair Dawn Nelson did not attend the meeting.

"It makes no sense why we can't take county money and put it back into the county so long as we do it equally to each township," Commissioner Mike Patrick said of the program's legality.

"What are they paying taxes for?" asked Commissioner Calvin McPhee.

Commissioners said the match program will be addressed at the next regular meeting Thursday, January 28. Their attorney will be present to discuss the program.

The road match program's legality was debated Wednesday, December 30, when the county's attorney, Cohl Stoker, Toskey and Mc-Glinchey, submitted an opinion stating it is illegal for the county to give money from the general fund directly to townships. County commissioners had asked their attorneys to investigate the legality of the arrangement. Each year, Mackinac County townships receive $10,000 to use specifically for road projects, which is matched with $10,000 from the Road Commission and another $10,000 from the township. The program costs the county $130,000 annually, but the program was not included in the 2010 county budget. Commissioners said they are supportive of the program and are seeking ways to continue it.

"One way or another, we'll get it done," Mr. Patrick promised.

Building Leases Examined

for LMAS and Allied EMS

Commissioners examined leases for county-owned buildings used by Allied EMS and Luce, Mackinac, Alger, and Schoolcraft (LMAS) Health Department.

The Allied lease outlines a monthly payment for a building on Burdette Street in St. Ignace for $1,250. Mark Wilk, Allied EMS coordinator, said he wants to negotiate with the commissioners for a lower cost as well as add a clause for exiting the contract. Although the lease is monthly, Mr. Wilk said it would be best to give the commissioners advance notice if Allied planned to move out of the building. Mackinac Staits Hospital is planning to build a new ambulance garage on North State Street, and has secured $165,000 of $500,000 needed to design and construct it. The project is on hold until the hospital obtains the necessary funding.

Commissioners decided they should wait to approve any changes to the lease until all commissioners are present. Commissioner McPhee agreed to meet with Mr. Wilk to work on the lease Monday, January 18, to be presented for approval by the commission at a later date.

Allied uses the building to store ambulances, conduct meetings, and house out-of-town Allied employees.

A 10-year-lease with LMAS was approved shortly afterward. The health department will pay $2,350 to operate in the building on 749 Hombach in St. Ignace. Health Officer Nick Derusha told The St. Ignace News the department originally paid the Northern Health Foundation for the building, but the county purchased it in April 2009. Since then, the county and LMAS have worked on a lease agreement, while the health department continued to operate its branch from there. In addition to the $2,350 monthly payment, the department will also pay an additional bill each month for the months that no lease was in place.

Commissioners are unsure what will happen to the lease agreement if the county separates from LMAS. The county board proposed splitting from the four-county health department in November. Luce, Schoolcraft, and Alger county LMAS health board representatives have formed a special subcommittee to investigate the split. Mackinac County has not formed its own subcommittee yet.

Company Offers Mapping

Services

Commissioners said they likely will not purchase a photographic mapping system based on a presentation made by Jim Olson, of the consulting firm MGT America. He proposed commissioners sign a $321,687 agreement with his firm and its partner, Allied Information Solutions, for services including geographic mapping and organizing information.

Mr. Olson proposed the county hire his firm to take aerial photographs of the county, which could be used for property assessments, to help identify any parcels that have improvements that are not being taxed. The information gathered could also be organized so that it would be easily accessible on a Web site that the county would control access to. Information gathered by the photographs could also be sold to real estate and title companies for a profit.

Mr. Olson said he assumed about 10% of property in Mackinac County has additions that are not on the tax roll, and based on that, about $2.5 million in potential property tax revenue could be generated by finding them through his process. The project would take about a year, and the proposed revenues would not appear until 2011.

The county already has similar mapping data, called Geographic Information Services, that it uses for tax mapping purposes, Equalization Director Jim Fenlon said. Townships also use the maps to plan for zoning or maintenance projects, and could also sell the information to others if they wanted to.

Mr. Fenlon explained to The St. Ignace News he disagrees with the assumption 10% of properties are not properly assessed. He believes county assessors performed much better than that, and that potential revenues may not be as high as projected. The potential recovered revenue, he also noted, would go to a variety recipients, such as schools, hospital, and townships, not just to the county.

The county would only be able to use a portion of the services offered, as well, Mr. Fenlon said, because it requires the use of special software that only a few county employees have. Overall, he is not receptive to accepting the proposal.

Commissioners said they would consider the proposal, although they appeared unmoved. Commissioner Lawrence Leveille said he does not expect the commission to accept the services.

February Board Meeting

Changed, Application

Review Date Set

The regular county commission board meeting has been changed from Thursday, February 11, to Wednesday, February 10, at 4 p.m. at the Mackinac County Courthouse annex meeting room. Commissioners also scheduled reviews of the part-time animal shelter applications for February 4 at 4 p.m. in the meeting room. Four applications for the two part-time positions were received by the January 13 deadline.