News photo by Kayla Wikaryasz Nick Akins, Alpena County maintenance superintendent, is seen presenting to the Alpena County Board of Commissioners durring its monthly Facilities, Capital, and Strategic Planning Committee meeting on Wednesday.

ALPENA — The Alpena County Board of Commissioners met for its monthly Facilities, Capital and Strategic Planning Committee on Wednesday to discuss various orders of business which included, but were not limited to, Alpena County Fairgrounds maintenance, fairgrounds property rezoning, and delays in the construction of the new recycling facility.

FAIRGROUNDS

County Administrator Jesse Osmer gave his report to the committee and noted the continued search for an engineering company to do an independent inspection of the fairgrounds after recent community discussion has prompted increased visibility on the condition of the property.

Osmer referenced a list of safety violations of the fairgrounds provided to The News from Blackwaters NE. Blackwaters is the developer company seeking to lease the fairgrounds property from the county.

“We obviously all saw the paper and the list from Blackwater and different things that they thought needed to be addressed,” Osmer said. “Throughout the discussions on what to do moving forward, there’s been a lot of concerns brought about the safety.”

Osmer stated that he has reached out to various companies to do an independent inspection of the fairgrounds. He said that R.S. Scott Associates is three months behind and two other companies declined the offer. A company from Traverse City quoted the county an amount Osmer said was “a tad high” and would not be available for another three to four weeks. He said that he has left voicemails with engineers from Cheboygan and Gaylord as well.

“I just wanted to give you an update that we are continuing the hunt, but this has been about three weeks and we’re not able to locate anybody that can fit it in anytime soon,” Osmer said.

Osmer added that a previous “study” was done of various county facilities. He said this was a limited “bird’s eye view” of county owned facilities, which included the fairgrounds.

Board Chairman John Kozlowski said that about six years ago the county board had entertained the idea of getting an inspection of the grandstands but that was estimated to cost $100,000.

Osmer also addressed zoning issues of the fairgrounds property in which the property is incorrectly zoned as residential. He said that the rezoning process will take about three to four months.

“It still has to be addressed,” he said. “Obviously, to continue utilizing the fairgrounds for pretty much anything other than housing. I believe we can continue the camping, but I’m still looking into that.”

Osmer said that there should be no issues utilizing the property as it has been until it is rezoned unless “somebody reports something.”

Alpena County Commissioner Travis Konarzewski said that rezoning the property should be done “sooner than later since it’s our property … regardless, I think, if we got a tenant.”

Kozlowski noted that the county board has not been receiving quarterly financial reports from the fairgrounds required by its contract.

“We haven’t been getting those financial reports and those are also due quarterly to us,” he said. “When we get those reports, they’ll be added to the agenda.”

RECYCLING FACILITY PROJECT

Alpena County Commissioner Todd Britton presented the recycling report and asked Kozlowski for an update regarding the new Northeast Michigan Materials Management Authority (NMMMA) recycling facility being built on M-32. Kozlowski said the project has been stalled due to a lack of funding.

“We don’t have … there’s not enough funding,” he said. “They’ve been making changes to the actual facility to try to fit it into the budget that we have. But I’m not happy with the facility that is getting downsized to.”

In December, The News reported that NMMMA received only one bid and awarded the facility project to Devere Industrial, LLC for $3.9 million. This original bid added an additional $500,000 to $700,000 to the initial cost estimate.

NMMMA Executive Director Bailey Barr said that the authority and Devere were working to lower the final project cost to $3.2 million.

Kozlowski said at the meeting that the new facility isn’t looking like much of an upgrade from the current facility.

“It’s going to be so small that we’re, we’re just doing ourselves barely a favor by moving from where we are to the new place,” he said.

He said that the project will be discussed at NMMMA’s next meeting.

OTHER BUSINESS

The county posted on its Alpena County Facebook page regarding a glitch in streaming access of the meeting on Wednesday. Those who were attending the meeting virtually were subsequently thrown off the call as the committee board went into closed session, allegedly cutting off part of the fairgrounds report discussion.

The News has not watched the meeting recording to determine when the video stopped streaming.

The News’ audio recording captured the discussion which lasted about four minutes. Britton presented the report which included required maintenance to the grounds which included ice storm debris cleanup, painting, and the installation of gutters at the Caretaker’s House.

Kayla Wikaryasz can be reached at 989-358-5688 or kwikaryasz@TheAlpenaNews.com.