The $28,888.10 was awarded to Boyne Area Free Clinic for their patient testing and project fund-raising program. $20,435 was awarded to BCPS for development and enhancement of physical education program. A $10,000 grant was awarded to Boyne City for a sidewalk project.

“Over the years we have been able to apply for a number of grants and have received through the generosity of the band a number of projects,” said Boyne City Manager Michael Cain.

George Lasater of the Boyne Area Free Clinic accepted the check from the city commission on behalf of the free clinic.

“Hopefully everybody in our community is aware of our free clinic and the generosity of the Grand Traverse Bay Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians,” said Boyne City Mayor Ron Grunch.

Cain said the city is also working with the BCPS and local businesses on possibly establishing a vocational education program.

Cain said the program would help students, “To attain the necessary skills to be successful employees with good paying jobs in businesses right here in our community. This would allow them if they so chose, to stay in our area and raise families of their own.”

Cain said IMI and Precision Edge are both supportive of the idea.

“Precision Edge has a similar program to this up in their facility in Sault Ste. Marie,” Cain said. “The school sent some representatives … up to the Sault to check out the facilities and check out the training program to see if that was something we wanted to try here.”

Cain said while details are still being considered, officials are confident this program could be implemented in the near future.

Cain said the Local Finance Development Authority in Boyne City may be approached for help with funding the proposed program.

New energy efficiency efforts have been implemented at Boyne City Hall. These measures include motion sensors which turn lights on and off in bathrooms to help save money.

Cain said the New Bay Winds Credit Union may be open in the next week or so.

Applications are being sought for the Boyne City Board of Review, Election Commission and Housing Commission.

Applications are available on the city’s website.

Devlon had appealed to the court in late 2011, to overturn the Boyne City Planning Commission’s decision that the Devlon Corporation’s Boyne City Beach Club development was no longer eligible to continue because it was not proceeding to completion.

“We prevailed on all the issues,” said Boyne City Planning Director Scott McPherson. “The next step is to go back to judge May (Richard May, 90th District Court) for the enforcement order on the citation – that decision was pending Judge Pajtas determination on the expiration of the permit.”

The citation in question, McPherson said, deals with the city’s desire to see the rubble piles cleaned and fencing removed from Devlon’s property.

On May 18, 2011, Devlon was informed that a stagnation of construction over at least two years caused its zoning permit and development plan to expire.

Devlon appealed to the Boyne City Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) and on Aug. 2, 2011, the ZBA denied Devlon’s appeal.

Pajtas’ opinion addressed several issues brought by Devlon.

“Initially, the appellant (Devlon) alleged as a major reason to reverse the ZBA a violation of the Open Meetings Act. It brought a separate lawsuit against the ZBA with the same allegations in this court. That lawsuit and this claim on appeal have been abandoned by the appellant as unsustainable,” Pajtas wrote. “The appellant next argues that the ZBA applied the wrong standard in determining what was necessary to keep appellant’s permits alive. It claims that the ZBA applied a stringent “substantial construction” standard instead of the proper and more lenient “proceeding toward completion” standard. The ZBA contends that it considered both standards, and the appellant fails under both.”

According to Pajtas, zoning permits are generally issued for a specific amount of time, in this case, under current law, two years.

The issuance of a zoning or building permit, without substantially more, does not create a vested property right.

The making of preparatory plans, landscaping, and the removal of an existing structure is not sufficient to create a vested property right.

Permits expire, wrote Pajtas, on their own terms unless substantial construction has commenced.

Pajtas cited Schubiner vs. West Bloomfield Township of 1984.

“The appellant does not claim it meets the ‘substantial construction’ mandate. It simply states that the ‘substantial construction test’ dos not apply in this case,” he wrote. “The position of the appellant is that, since the ZBA issued the zoning permit, a different, more lenient standard applies. “

According to Pajtas findings, though Devlon argued that their zoning permit was issued via ZBA order and the two-year time-line should not apply.

The portion of the Boyne City zoning ordinance, 27.65, relevant to the case is as follows:

“No order of the zoning board of appeals permitting the erection … of a building … shall be valid for longer than six months unless such use is established within such period … and such erection … is commenced and proceeds to completion in accordance with the terms of the permit. However, where such use permitted is dependent upon the erection … of a building, such order shall continue in force and effect if a zoning permit for the erection … is obtained within such period and such erection … is started and proceeds to completion in accordance with such permit.”

Pajtas wrote that, while it does not seem an anomaly that 27.65 would apply to the zoning permit in this case and a different test would apply, the ordinance provision is clear on its face and unambiguous.

“Therefore it must be enforced as written,” Pajtas wrote. “The omission of a provision in one part of a statute that is included in another should be construed as intentional.”

He added, “The drafters of the Boyne City Zoning Ordinance excluded the ‘substantial construction’ test by using the phrase ‘ proceeds to completion’ for determining whether a zoning permit continues or expires when the permit is issued pursuant to ZBA order.”

According to Pajtas’ opinion, a particular section of a zoning ordinance must be considered in conjunction with the entire ordinance.

“A common reading of 27.65, in conjunction with the definition of erection establishes that a zoning permit issued by the ZBA remains in effect for a period of six months and may be continued in effect if physical construction of the project has begun and erection of the structure is proceeding to completion,” he wrote. “The activity necessary to keep a permit alive does not include activity short of physical construction. The ordinance does not allow erecting a structure by commencement of minimal construction, then stopping all physical activity for more than three years.”

Pajtas agreed with the ZBA’s determination that the zoning permit expired by “failure to proceed to completion.”

Also on may 18, 2011, Devlon was notified that its building site was inconsistent with the approved development plan due to rubble piles on the property.

Devlon appealed to the ZBA within the proper time-line but the ZBA refused to hear Devlon’s appeal ruling it untimely.

Pajtas reversed the ZBA’s decision on that issue, citing that Devlon should have been heard by the ZBA.

The ZBA also upheld the Boyne City planner’s direction for Devlon to remove the fence around its site once it is safe to do so.

“Devlon contends that the property is not safe at this time and, thus, the fence should remain,” Pajtas wrote. “The court finds that this issue is not ripe for judicial review.”

The last issue before Pajtas was Devlon’s claim that the ZBA erred by relying on advice from an attorney who also represented the city.

“The appellant cites no caselaw or other authority for this argument. Therefore, the issue is considered abandoned,” Pajtas wrote. “A party may not leave it to this court to search for authority to sustain or reject its position.”

He added, “The court does not believe such representation presents any error let alone error that would warrant a reversal of the ZBA’s confirmation of the expiration of appellant’s zoning permit and development plan.”

During the commissioner comments portion at the end of the Charlevoix County Board of Commissioners’ Wednesday Feb. 8, meeting Charlevoix County Commissioner Shirlene Tripp (R-District 1) said she has received phone calls expressing concerns over whether Charlevoix County will be forced to pay Hartman’s fees.

“Are we addressing that and going to file proper paperwork?” Tripp said.

Jarema said the paperwork for the appeal has been filed accordingly with the attorney general’s office and the county will seek to have the Michigan Supreme Court hear their case.

“I personally talked with Attorney General Schuette on Friday, I talked with his appellate counsel Monday, I overnight-ed the paperwork that they asked for and they said that they were going to file that,” Jarema said.

How it all began

Hartman took over the Merriman case pro bono – for free – assuming it would last the scheduled 5 days. The trial ended up taking 16 days, and Hartman felt he should be compensated for 710 hours worth of work at a rate of $75 per hour.

The Charlevoix Circuit Court authorized $5,641.14 in attorney fees on the case and Hartman took the issue up with the Michigan Court of Appeals.

The Michigan Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 that Hartman should receive more compensation and sent the matter back to Charlevoix County Circuit Judge Richard Pajtas to review and determine a reasonable amount of compensation for Hartman.

As Jarema does with all appellate matters, he sent the paperwork for an appeal on the decision to the Michigan State Attorney General’s Office.

“They act as our proxy on all criminal appeals and I thought they would handle this,” Jarema said. “I get notice saying no brief was filed so I called them and they said they don’t handle those kind of cases.”

He added, “Appellate work is so specialized that I don’t handle any of it, in fact larger counties have their own appellate division to handle this kind of work.”

Jarema said if the Michigan Supreme Court rejects hearing the case then it will come back to Pajtas to decide a payment amount that the regardless.

“I understood it sort of put one of those attorneys sort of at the edge of bankruptcy because he worked for almost six months without pay to do this and they were not very happy,” said Tripp who again asked Jarema if he was on top of the matter.

Charlevoix County Commissioner Bob Drebenstedt (R-District 5) asked if Jarema is going to support Pajtas in the matter.

“Is he going to support Judge Pajtas and try to save us this $67,000 lawyer fee they are hitting us with?” Drebenstedt said.

Jarema said he has supported, and will continue to support, Pajtas’ opinion in the matter.

“I thought that the dissent (Michigan Court of Appeals) in that opinion was the proper one so that is what the AG’s office is going to appeal,” Jarema said. “I went and argued the original motion in front of Judge Pajtas when he made the original ruling.”

After the meeting Drebenstedt expressed concern that Jarema had written a letter of recommendation for Hartman.

Jarema said he believes some are trying to draw correlations that do not exist between unrelated issues surrounding the matter.

“Because I submitted a letter of recommendation for Hartman, who is looking to become the prosecutor in Otsego County, somehow I purposely didn’t do that appeal?” Jarema questioned. “The appeal was due back in October/November and the attorney just decided within two weeks ago he was stepping down as Otsego’s prosecutor.”

Jarema said it sounds suspiciously as though he were being accused of botching the appeal in hopes that Hartman would be paid, despite the fact that he argued against Hartman in the murder trial.

Jarema said he has been asked to give letters of recommendation, letters of reference and to be used as a reference by numerous people.

“It happens fairly frequently, and I would not give a letter of recommendation or verbal recommendation if I did not feel the person genuinely was worthy of that,” Jarema said. “I don’t know how anyone could think this would benefit myself.”

Charlevoix County Road Commission Manager Pat Harmon had estimated the total cost to reconstruct the remaining 10 miles of road would be around $3.5 million, but the low bids opened on Feb. 3 in both Boyne City and down in Lansing totaled closer to $4.5 million.

“We’re short a million dollars and if the board (Charlevoix Charlevoix County Commissioners) can’t come up with another way to pay for it, they’ll have to cut approximately three miles out of it (road project,)” Harmon said, adding that the shortfall would likely result in no construction somewhere near the halfway point of the unfinished road.

Charlevoix County Commissioners will meet at 9:30 a.m. On Friday Feb. 17, for a meeting of the whole to discuss their options.

No decisions will be made at the meeting and the public is welcome.

Harmon had projected the lower cost with the assumption that asphalt prices would not jump substantially.

The low bid for the portion of road from Sumner to Stephens was $1,468,950 and the remaining 7.5-mile portion put out for bids by the State of Michigan was $2,968,628.90 for a total of roughly $4.437 million.

Charlevoix County Commissioner Rich Gillespie (R-District 6) said he was dismayed by the news.

“They did surprise me, and the fact that the bids were literally $2,000 apart proves the numbers were crunched as hard as they could be,” he said.

Gillespie said there is no time to waste in finding a solution.

“It’s time to get this done for the best interest of Charlevoix County,” he said. “Waiting’s not going to do any good.”

Cutler introduced a plan to abolish the city’s properties fund, sell the former fire department building and refund that money back to taxpayers during the Tuesday Feb. 7 regular East Jordan City Commission meeting.

“Our millage is definitely high,” Cutler said. “Right now we charge roughly 18.2 mills and we kind of break it up by charging 17.77 operating millage and .4448 for fire services – by law the most we can charge is 17.77, so there is going to be a point where we are overcharging and we have to reduce that.”

Cutler said the former fire/emergency services building could sell for roughly $60,000, and instead of putting that money into what is currently the city’s properties fund – a fund established in 1993 to allow the city to buy land and buildings for city use – and use it as a tax cut.

East Jordan City Commissioner Thomas Breakey said he is in favor of cutting taxes when it is possible, but said he’s not sure the town can afford to cut revenue by 11 percent.

“It’s nice to save some money, but I don’t particularly go for abolishing the property fund,” Breakey said. “And, I really don’t like doing away with half a mil for fire equipment – once you abolish that, what happens down the road when you need a piece of equipment?”

Breakey said he thinks Cutler has the city’s best intentions in mind, but disagrees with how he wants to save the taxpayers money.

“As far as cutting taxes I think we need to cut back on some of the spending the city’s doing,” he said. “I think we could trim the police department budget a considerable amount because there is no reason for a little town of 2,200 people to have a police budget of $400,000-plus.”

One of the disadvantages East Jordan has is its plummeting property values.

While Boyne City generates nearly $160,000 per mil levied on taxpayers, East Jordan only reaps around $58,000.

“If you charge higher taxes on a lower tax base you still have less revenue,” Cutler said. “We need to focus on activities that will turn home sales around, that will give people an incentive to buy homes and build businesses here.”

He added, “If we want to become competitive, then we’ve got to be making steps to move forward.”

East Jordan’s millage rate is 18.2401

Boyne City’s millage rate is 15.76

City of Charlevoix’s millage rate is 12.5

Property values by city according to Charlevoix County:

Charlevoix: $299,095,200

Boyne City: $196,888,016

East Jordan: $60,709,350.

“The tax cut may be difficult to accept, however, we can finance this investment by making some changes in the way we do business and using the sale of community assets,” Culter said in his proposal to the commission.

The city’s current tax revenue is $1,088,005. An anticipated 2% decline in taxable value would equal a total of $1,066,245. Reducing taxes by 11% will leave the city with $117,287 less in its coffers.

However, Cutler said revenue from new fire contacts of $31,666 plus $60,000 from sale of the old fire hall plus a $25,297 change from water billing would actually pay for the tax cut within approximately $300.

This will finance the first year of the tax cut, and if necessary, we could consider allocating the fund balance in the current “Properties Fund” to finance the second year,” Cutler said in his proposal. “This tax cut is a way to make cuts without disrupting city services and give back to the citizens of East Jordan as well as to begin making an investment in our future.”
He added, “We need to position ourselves to be more competitive so that we can grow and expand our city and our tax base to alleviate the high taxes and water bills in the long run.”

Cutler’s proposals have been tabled for further discussion during the city’s next regular meeting scheduled for 7 p.m. On Tuesday Feb. 21.

So far, at least three people have applied for the seat which has most of its two-year term left, but a decision to appoint was not made during last week’s meeting after East Jordan City Commissioner Tony Cutler introduced an idea to reduce the number of seats on the East Jordan City Commission from seven to five.

Tony Cutler, Commissioner

“We are currently governed by seven people and a lot of the surrounding communities operate with five commissioners,” Cutler said. “We had seven commissioners back when we did not have a manager system and I think that was designed to handled the day-to-day operations, but we need to get to the point where we embrace the manager system and let him (East Jordan City Administrator Bob Anderson) do his job so we can focus on operating in an oversight capacity.”

Cutler’s proposal met with skepticism and concerns from several of his fellow commissioners.

But, Cutler said not only would the move save taxpayers money – at least $900 annually in stipends – but it would reduce the amount of time wasted when there are too many overseers.

“We have seen a lot of success in communities with more streamlined and efficient government,” Cutler said. “

Cutler’s plan would involve not appointing a replacement for Fisher and eliminating one more seat at the next election in addition to staggering the terms of the remaining five seats.

“East Jordan has a population of about 2,200 people – the number of representatives per capita would still be higher than that of surrounding communities,” he said. “

One concern raised was that the East Jordan City Charter calls for an appointment to be made in the event of a mid-term resignation.

Anderson said his reading of the meeting is that the commission does not want to endure the cost or time necessary to hold a special election.

“Hopefully enough of them can agree that they will accept one candidate,” Anderson said.

He added, jokingly, “The mayor has vowed to lock the doors until they agree on somebody.”

The special meeting will begin at 7 p.m. On Wednesday Feb. 15 at East Jordan City Hall.

“We received an email asking us if we were interested in the program, and the principal passed it on,” said Thomason. “I had seen something like this on television before, and I thought it would be a nice opportunity for the kids.”

The team is called The Boyne City Blaze, and consists of around 18 students, both male and female.

“I joined because I wanted to enhance my knowledge of robotics and engineering,” said Kelly Ballant, a freshman at Boyne City High School. “I think that it is very interesting, right now I know that I want to go to college but I don’t really have a career choice yet.”

“I chose electrical engineering for my career and I wanted to see what it’s like so that’s why I joined the team, ” said Chris Moore, a senior at Boyne City High School. “I’ll be attending Olivet Nazarene University.”

“I think that it’s going to be a good experience and it will look good on my resume” said Kayla Johnson. “This is a great club for girls, robots aren’t just for boys anymore.”

Johnson will be attending Western Michigan University to pursue an educational degree at the high school or college level.

Robotics teams have a short season, running from January until March and are based on a themed challenge, which teams have to build a robot to complete the challenge the quickest.

“Rebound rumble is this year’s challenge and has the robot picking up small sized basketballs and shooting them at basketball goals.”, said Thomason. “It also has the robot crossing the barriers to get to the other side and pick up balls.”

Along with Thomason, students work with mentors, which are adults that have practical knowledge of the industry.

Mike Webster of Melrose Manufacturing has been helping students with different welding forms and is also teaching them how to use a plasma cutter.

Webster is president of the Boyne City Booster Foundation and is also a substitute teacher at the school.

“I hope that being in the robotics club will give the students experience that they will be able to put on their resume for when they enter college.”, said Webster. “They’re applying the mathematical skills you learn in school to build the robot.”

Debbie Rushlow and her husband Gordy also mentor students, they are both in the engineering industry.

“I became a mentor for the team because our son David has been involved in the First Robotics program since he was in elementary school.”, said Rushlow. “We moved here from downstate and were very excited when this program started.”

IMI has been very helpful in the design of the robot, donating the use of its facilities, a laser table and CNC brake press so that the students could use it to aid in the design process of the robot.

Josh Habel, an employee of IMI has been mentoring the students in the use of CAD cam for the design process.

Thomason reiterated about the program saying, “This team isn’t just about building a robot, it’s about helping kids develop leadership skills, showing them how to be able to think independently and grow mentally.”

The robotics team was able to show off their robot at a home basketball game by driving it on the sidelines.

“We’ve had numerous discussion over what we want to do with our facilities,” Cain said.

Cain said the department of public works want to move to the north Boyne site while the fire and EMS wish to remain north of the Boyne River.

The projected cost of building either a public works or fire/EMS is $850,000.

“if we were building either facility … it would leave us with the operating costs of their existing joint facility,” Cain said.

The estimated costs to build all new facilities including city hall would be around $3 million.

“From my perspective as the city’s manager I think our future financial situation, at least at the current time while it may be better than many other communities in the state … remains guarded,” Cain said. “In addition we have lots of other needs and wants around the community in addition to city facilities.”

Cain said he prefers to serve the public rather than upgrading facilities, adding that the current facilities are perfectly functional.

“I think there’s a lot of ways we can use this site,” he said.

Cain said having a concentration of city offices in one location, as it is now, creates numerous efficiencies.

Cain said there is a space issue with the storage of emergency services and public works vehicles.

“There isn’t a piece of city owned property that we didn’t look at,” Cain said. “Where most of the departments wanted to be in the first place … kept coming back to this (current) facility.”

Boyne City Mayor Ron Grunch said he wants more feedback from the community on this matter.

“It’s really open for discussion,” he said.

Boyne City Commissioner Delbert “Gene” Towne said he wants to move forward but in phases.

Boyne City Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) member Roger Reynolds asked if an appraisal had been completed to determine the value of the current city facilities’ waterfront property.

Cain said the city should not sell any of its lakefront property and, if anything, should acquire more.

“We have not done an appraisal on this property. I have received no direction from the city commission to do anything of that nature and I would be surprised if the city commission gave me such direction,” Cain said.

Reynolds asked Cain how the city could determine the best course of action unless it knows what the property is worth.

“I would agree with you if I ever thought there was an ability that you were going to sell that property,” Cain said.

Reynolds responded: “So you’re pre-assuming that that’s the way it’s going to be and there’s no reason to get all the facts together then?”

Cain said, “Correct … the piece of information that I see as critical is there is no desire to sell that piece of property in the first place, so why spend the time and effort to find out something that doesn’t do you any good.”

Reynolds said if the city knew it was never going to sell its current property, then looking for other facilities and/or spaces was little more than a waste of time.

“I didn’t see the effort with regards to looking at other sites as a waste,” Cain said. “There is always a possibility that we could have moved one or some of our facilities to other locations if the ultimate desire was to have this as a clean site.”

Cain said there hasn’t been a consensus on what should be done with the current facilities.

“We’re still in the fact-gathering stage,” Cain said.

The city is still awaiting results from the soil tests it has had done to determine what, if any, construction could occur on the site.

Barb Brooks opened the recent Boyne City joint work-session by giving a brief summary from the Jan. 12 public input meeting on Boyne City’s goal-setting session.

Brooks said 53 percent of the nearly 60 people who attended the event were newcomers.

“95 percent of the people who took the survey had not come to the goal-setting session itself,” Brooks said. “The majority of the people lived within the city – 70 percent.”

Nearly a quarter – 26 percent – of the people who took the survey own business property within the city.

Brooks said 74 percent of the people surveyed said Boyne City is moving in the right direction.

Boyne City Manager Michael Cain said you never really know what the people are thinking until you ask them.

“I found it somewhat encouraging,” Cain said.

The Boyne City Commission will be presented a finalized list of goals at the Feb. 28 meeting.