“Staple It to a Dinosaur and Send It Over”

A report on the January 16, 2024, regular council meeting

As always, the official minutes are available on the Village website.

Rowan (aka Mountain Ash) Month on the Celtic calendar began January 21. So let’s think about how things are sometimes green. The mountain ash that grew in the crotch of a 120-year-old black locust tree in front of my house seemed dead at the end of this summer. For a few years there, it was flowering and producing its vermilion fruits for birds. Maybe the birds will plant another one.

Epiphytic mountain ash in flower on black locust, May 31, 2023.

In Celtic folklore (and the Google), the rowan/mountain ash is said to protect households from dark magic. Did an evil enchantment win a fight against my mountain ash, or is the ash only biding its time, playing possum? Rowan wood is traditionally used to make spinning wheels. If you feel you’re spinning your wheels this month, remember that late winter is a great time, on that rare sunny day, to prune trees, whether it’s to collect weavers for your wattle fence, or just clear the way for more sunlight. I make a mixture of hydrated lime and diatomaceous earth to coat my trees’ wounds. By the way, there was a great picture in the January 22 Benzie County Record Patriot of the guy who (I think) built my house, a cooper named Glen Pierce. In the picture he is rolling deep with a nattily dressed crew in front of an erstwhile Elberta watering hole called the Brick. I imagine he planted those black locust trees.

“I’ll never forgive Ronald Reagan for changing the Pledge,” said Ken Holmes, after we stumbled through another rendition of it. “I thought Eisenhower did that,” I said. (We may have been referring to different changes.) During fact-checking, I learned that it was a Michigan representative who introduced the legislation to add the words “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance, perhaps to gain favor with a newly Presbyterian president. By not using that phrase, it seems I’m violating the Flag Code. The Balch and Bellamy salutes were never part of the code, and they went out of fashion.

Correspondence: Our Beloved Attorney Is Retiring

We received a letter from the law firm of Young, Graham & Wendling telling us they are transferring their municipal practice to Bauckham, Thall, Seeger, Kaufman & Koches as of February 1. Bryan Graham will still be available as a consultant to that firm (and to us) during their transition. I don’t hope we have a lot of urgent legal questions before Mr. Graham fully retires, but I hope we can take advantage of the time we have left with him. He’s been a valuable (and delightful) help to us, especially on zoning issues. Before we sign a new contract, Brett McGregor volunteered to look into law firms that are a little closer to home. YG&W were in Bellaire, and Bauckham Thall is in Portage. “Municipal attorneys don’t grow on trees, so we’ll see,” Brett said. We will definitely miss Bryan.

My heavily and somewhat pointlessly annotated agenda.

Fire & Safety

Chief Cederholm said the department now has 24 regular members, three fill-ins, and four cadets. The latest cadet is from Bear Lake, where the local fire department doesn’t have a cadet program, so the Wexford/Missaukee County career tech center reached out to Cederholm. The budget for next year is looking real good, Cederholm said—substantially less than last year, but wasn’t final yet. The fire advisory board meeting where we take a hard look at the budget is February 27 (I’ll be there!). The Frankfort fire department still has the most runs in the county: They made 789 runs in the 61 square miles, about 80 percent of those being medical, the chief said. The department now has four medical staff members: Aaron Shaver, Zachary Severson, Al Gruss, and Heather Atkinson. Severson was a firefighter and hazmat specialist in the Air Force, but for some reason at meeting time the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services hadn’t yet recognized his military-grade first responder credential.

In the realm of community risk reduction, the department had installed 17 smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. Fires have dropped 10% statewide, which is good, but Cederholm said 49% of fire deaths are caused by alarms that have dead batteries or are more than 10 years old (even wired-in smoke detectors are only good for 10 years). A publicity campaign, “Put a finger on it,” has been launched to remind people to check their smoke detectors. Maybe you could do this as part of your daylight saving time ritual, or when you change your furnace filter (my idea). The department has had several nuisance calls related to wired-in alarms going off because one alarm is faulty. “It’s always at 3 o’clock in the morning,” Cederholm said. Incidentally, Cederholm is the only full-time fire department employee. He said part-time (30 paid hours) staff do tend to hang out at HQ because they like it. And that makes for quicker response times to calls, nuisance or otherwise.

The department had done a lockdown drill at the school the previous week, which is not Cederholm’s favorite thing to have to do. The pancake breakfast raised $1,284 at the Mayfair Burger Bar. Another such feed is planned for June.

Paying the Bills

Wilkins recused herself from payroll, since she is earning $18 per hour (the deputy clerk rate) to train and help our new staff at the office; she expects to retire from that job very soon. This payroll cycle happened to include council trustees’ wages, and I wondered aloud for the first time how that works. I had forgotten that we did ask Bryan once, and he said we just vote for it without recusal, what are ya gonna do. In this fiscal year, trustees made $40 per meeting, and the president made $80 per meeting. Among the items in accounts payable, there was a reimbursement payment to clerk Rachel Perkins for her notary supplies (yay!), and a reimbursement to Grace Williams for the Jammin’ Mondays amphitheater rental deposit (also yay).

Revenue and Expense Report

“It will get better, I promise,” said our new treasurer, Janice Erlewein, referring to the accuracy of specifically the revenues portion of the report. “We all know the sewer money is in there, but this report only shows $13,000,” said Wilkins. The inaccuracy has to do with data entered incorrectly by the previous treasurer, which is still being untangled, with the help of UHY. “It’s going to take a lot of Craig,” said Wilkins, referring to our consultant accountant. But actually, Wilkins said, less Craig than before, since Erlewein has managed to finish the W2s and 1099s and year-end reports, which Craig had to do last year.

Holmes is generally not in favor of the largeness of the revenue and expenses report, but he is even less in favor of double-sided printouts. “You go through 30 or 40 pages and all the sudden you turn one over and there’s something behind there,” Holmes said. “I hate it.”

We’ve been trying for months to add money from our Parks fund (which has a big chunk of endowment for EDNA just sitting there) to a MiClass account so it can earn respectable interest. The holdup seems to be at State Savings Bank. We’ve also had a lot of trouble getting bank signatory paperwork expedited. For example, we finally got those documents for tonight’s meeting, and our new employees have been in for over a month, unable to sign checks. “I think this Village should be officially a dissatisfied customer,” Brett said. “We can’t make a resolution about that because it’s not on the agenda. But we are losing money [on potential MiClass investments] at the rate of 4.6, 4.8, 5.2 percent every time they can’t get us the paperwork.” Brett asked that a discussion of switching banks be added to the February meeting agenda along with the attorney question, the budget, the wage resolutions… “It’s going to be a great meeting,” said Wilkins.

If you’re interested in being a part of the Budget, Grant, Finance, and Audit Committee, there is an open slot, and we could really use some fresh blood, to replenish the long-suffering unfresh blood belonging to Jennifer Wilkins and Brett McGregor.

Fireworks Policy

This is something I’m supposed to be researching, so Wilkins moved to remove this agenda item until we have a policy amendment ready for consideration. The issue is whether and how to allow fireworks at private weddings and other events held at the Life Saving Station. Currently when people have a fireworks display for their event, according to our LSS manager, Kristi Mills, they rent a barge on the opposite side of the bay in Frankfort. This requires Coast Guard permission, insurance, and a professional fireworks company. When there were fireworks at the Elberta Solstice Festival, they were launched from Elberta Land Holding Company property, with their permission. (By state law, fireworks cannot be launched on public property, but only on private property with the landowner’s permission, and large displays require special state permits.)

Ironman 2025: September 14

Wilkins had attended another long organizational meeting regarding the event but didn’t feel like her presence was actually necessary in the end. Still, we have to “approve” the event because of the portions that go along old M168 (Frankfort/Furnace Avenue), and because of the partial closure of M22 through the Village, and this was the agenda item. “If we voted no on it, what would happen?” I asked. Commissioner Sauer said, “They would reroute it.” In the future, I said I would like to see the agenda item read “Approval of Ironman” or something to that effect so that people know it’s up for discussion and not a foregone conclusion. Council approved the Ironman; it will run along the same route as last year.

UHY Services

Up next was a vote on authorizing more accounting help from UHY and paying for it. “[The leftover inaccuracy in our accounts] is so tangled, it even stumped the BS&A trainer,” Wilkins said. At the time of the meeting, the bank reconciliations were caught up in the General Fund to September, and “we’re basically at a repeat of last year,” when we were behind on bank reconciliations and had to hire UHY, at a rate of $168 per hour, to catch us up. Wilkins said she thought one more session with Craig to advise on how to untangle the knots would suffice, and then Jan can take it from there. Wilkins was going to request yet more funds from State Treasury to cover the cost. “We did receive the grant reimbursement for BS&A from last year, so we have that $15,000 we can spend on accounting help.” Also helpful is the fact that the audit fees came in well under budget. Jan said that the only end-of-year help she needed was the uploading of the W2s and 1099s to the IRS and Social Security, because UHY has the software and the code to do that, and we don’t. “You need a code that the IRS mails to you, through the mail—they can’t email it—and that can take two to three weeks, and it’s due January 31,” Erlewein said. “But I have everything else finished. That will be a savings over last year.”

Brett asked for a scope of work from UHY specifying how many hours of Craig we’d need. Wilkins said it was a “really gut-wrenching accounting nightmare. I can see why it took so long [last year], and then it was continuing to happen.” “If he tells me in three and a half weeks that the problem is solved, then I think it’s money well spent,” Brett said. “But if we’re only five percent closer to the goal then, this is ludicrous.”

Jan said, “Craig is working on the General Fund, which is the largest ball of yarn, and it’s so twisted. And as he’s straightening that out, I can handle the smaller ones easier.” She and Craig had spent one of his days just trying to figure out what had gone wrong in the water and sewer fund, but she’s hopeful. Wilkins said we still have some money left from the $15,000 we approved in September. Council voted to approve the expense of further UHY untangling help with a cap of $25,000 and the expectation that not all of that would be needed.

Switching and Expanding Our Online Payment Options

Our fairly brief relationship (a year and change) with Point&Pay is over. It makes sense to switch to BS&A’s online payment system, which will cost the customer the same fee to use but will allow us to easily add more online payment options, including utility billing, facilities rentals, short-term rental license fees, property tax, and even donations, seamlessly integrated with our accounting software. Every payment made is automatically accounted for in the correct funds, freeing up valuable staff time, and the user interface both on the computer and phone is much better. “So what we’re doing now is looking into breaking up with Point&Pay,” Wilkins said.

We will send out a notification when we make the switch over. There will be a window of about 48 hours during the transition when you will not be able to pay bills online.

Commissioner’s Report

Gary Sauer noted the sale of the Crystal Lake Elementary building to the Benzie Wellness and Aquatic Center for $425K. He said the school will use the proceeds to build an equipment and vehicle storage facility. Electronics and hazardous waste collections will happen June 21 in Frankfort and August 23 at the Road Commission; tire collection to be announced. The BOC approved an agreement with Correctional Recovery, a company that negotiates or collects money erroneously charged to the county for healthcare costs (once you get arrested you become a ward of the county and the county pays your healthcare costs, since Medicaid and other programs stop when you get arrested, Sauer said). I went to the company’s website to get some clarity on what Sauer was actually saying and I didn’t, but as Sauer said, “The Sheriff’s happy with it, so we keep moving.” New very bright lights have been installed at the county building parking lot. Two state troopers now have a base at the Sheriff department. A study session was held to discuss various proposals for how to spend the opioid money. Art Jeannot was elected chair of board of commissioners and Rhonda Nye is the vice chair. The Road Commission held their organizational meeting and nothing changed there. The primary road projects this year are Valley Road and Betsie River Road, and the local road projects are Nugent Road, Johnson Road, and Demerly Road. At the Betsie Valley Trail meeting the management council gave the go-ahead to Elmer’s to pave “that section from Beulah to Case Road or whatever that is over there.”

Planning Commission

In Ryan Fiebing’s absence (he was on a trip), Jon Ottinger, our utility billing clerk and planning commission chair, gave the report. The new draft zoning ordinance arrived, only a week late. “It’s a snooze.” The commission were to review it ahead of the February meeting, which is tomorrow at 5:30 p.m., and a Beckett and Raeder consultant will be at the meeting to answer questions.

DPW

Wilkins is holding nonrecreational Winter Fridays with DPW to discuss MDOT, Act 51, street management, review the capital improvement plans for roads, and catch up on administrative tasks. A new wellhead is being considered. Brett noted that once the zoning ordinance is complete, another purview of the planning commission should be capital improvement projects. Wilkins wants to teach DPW how to use the capital improvement plan in their budget requests in the future. Justin Towle is drawing up a sign map and had about a quarter of it done, starting with the parks. The radar sign was to go up the next day on the utility pole at the corner of Van Brocklin and M22 (it’s not up as of today). A meter replacement plan is coming together. The big plow truck was to go back to Arcadia for repairs the next day; there was a possible air system failure. They built a wall of snow to prevent people from driving through the park to get to the water’s edge to ice fish and so far it seemed to have worked. Fine Line Fencing was to look at our baseball field for possible new fencing. The M22 curb in front of the Lighthouse Café, according to one MDOT person, is not part of their jurisdiction, but they are double-checking, and if it isn’t, a regular square curb will be made instead of the two-tiered curb that’s there now and that some feel is a safety issue.

Clerk and Treasurer

Rachel Perkins was working on getting direct deposit set up for payroll, and she thought it would be ready for the next cycle. She is clearing up a lot of duplicate files on the clerk’s computer and getting that organized. (She is also doing a ton of other things, but she kept her report brief.)

Jan said there’s a lot of learning involved in undoing the previous mistakes in addition to learning the right way to do things in BS&A. She said she appreciated Wilkins being there and that they really need her. “I think we’re a great team right now. We work well together, we scream well together.”

Ottinger said he had a great BS&A utility billing training session. He is hoping to get as many people as possible on paperless billing, which will save the Village a lot on postage. “If 100 people go on paperless billing, that’s $60 a month right there.” (Actually, it’s now $73 a month.) Plus the postcards are expensive. He said he’d eliminated the cases where people were getting both paper and paperless bills.

* If you haven’t signed up for paperless billing, please do so by sending an email to utilitybilling@villageofelberta.com, and Jon Ottinger will set you up. *

Budget, Grant, Finance, and Audit Committee

Looks like there will just be one grant this year, the “acquisition grant” from the DNR whereby the Village would have the money to purchase the 16 acres of western former Elberta Land Holding Co. property from the GTRLC. Bree McGregor has expressed some interest in writing this grant. We can always use more grant writers, though, so if you’re experienced in grant writing and interested in helping, please let me know.

BLUA

Holmes said the bond people are finally going to give over the money for the sewage treatment facility improvements, and hauling is a lot slower than usual for this time of year.

February 20 Is the Budget Hearing Meeting

A 7 pm. A draft budget will be posted soon.

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Executive Orders and Whatnot

I watched a webinar with Elissa Slotkin on January 30 concerning the funding freeze and immigration questions. In a follow-up email, she provided a list of immigrant advocacy organizations, which I reproduce here below. As of that day she wasn’t sure what the legal status of DACA students was. She urged communities to get two-page summaries of “shovel-ready” projects worth about $1 million to her or Gary Peters by late February in case more Congressionally Directed Spending projects can be funded. If you’re interested in contacting Senator Slotkin, she suggested going through Tom Bratton, her Northern Michigan regional manager, whose email is below. I had a nice conversation Senator Peters’s staff member Stevie Quijas, a Benzie Central grad, at 231-947-7773. Slotkin said in spite of the term “shovel-ready” the projects that win these grants tend to be vehicle and equipment related. She said the school lunch program was probably safe but Title I was in doubt. Here’s a link to the Department of Education Title I page, which at post time is still up.