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Good news for 2016 county audit report

ALPENA — The Alpena County Board of Commissioners received the county’s 2016 audit report and for the most part the news was good.

Auditor Mark Sandula of Straley, Lamp & Kraenzlein told the the commissioners all of the departments were at or under their annual budget, which helped the county to end the fiscal year in the black. He said after accruals the county added $408,110 to its fund balance. The increase pushes the unassigned portion of fund balance to $3,808,641, or 42.4 percent. That amount is enough to operate the county for 154 days at the current expense rate of $24,603 a day.

“You started the year with grim projections that you would lose $122,000, but the budget did $275,000 better than you thought,” Sandula said.

Sandula said the county’s MERS pension liability also was reduced by $1.2 million in 2016. He said a good year in investments helped it to draw down retirement obligations.

The county’s taxable value slipped by about $13 million, Sandula said, which was due to the state eliminating personal property tax and not fully allocating the full amount of the lost revenue back to the county. He said for fiscal year 2016, the state sent the county $216,000.

“It appears that the county lost more in personal property tax than the state gave it,” he said.

Chairman Cam Habermehl credited the staff and former finance committee chairman Lyle Van Wormer with limiting spending and monitoring the budget so there weren’t any overruns.

“The departments have really held the line the last couple years and I credit Lyle for keeping things where they should be,” Habermehl said. “I just hope we can end this year as good because it would be pretty embarrassing if we don’t.”

In other business:

∫ the board voted to allow Alpena Area Chamber of Commerce to place the new welcome signs on county property near the airport. There is a 90 day escape clause in the agreement.

∫ the voted to approve on-call wages for the assistant IT director at $10 a day and $30 per weekend.

∫ the board voted to advertise and hire a full-time assistant veterans counselor.

∫ the board voted to approve the 2018 Victims Rights Grant for $64,566.

Commissioner Nick Modrzynski was absent from the meeting and was excused to address a health issue of a family member.

Steve Schulwitz can be reached via email at sschulwitz@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5689. Follow Steve on Twitter ss_alpenanews.

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