News Photo by Reagan Voetberg Members of the Huron Undercover Narcotics Team board are pictured at their quarterly meeting Friday at the Alpena County Sheriff’s Office.

ALPENA — The potential closure of the Grayling forensic laboratory was the topic of discussion at the The Huron Undercover Narcotics Team (HUNT) quarterly board meeting Friday.

The laboratory supports law enforcement and prosecuting attorneys by providing services including body fluid identification, crime scene response, firearms and toolmarks, latent prints, and seized drugs. There are currently seven labs across the state.

Recommendations in the Fiscal Year 2027 state budget suggest closing the Grayling laboratory, which is included in the Michigan State Police (MSP) budget.

Karen Brooks, a forensic scientist at the Grayling laboratory, said at Friday’s meeting that the City of Grayling will no longer be leasing the lab’s current space to them in 2027.

Talks of either keeping the lab in Grayling or moving it to Gaylord are in the works.

“Now with the budget, we don’t know,” she said. “But hopefully we relocate and not close. There is support obviously to have a northern lab because you’re talking Marquette to Bridgeport with no crime scene, no officer drop-offs, or anything.”

The Marquette and Bridgeport forensic laboratories would be the closest to HUNT’s four county coverage area of Alpena, Alcona, Montmorency, and Presque Isle counties, should the Grayling lab close. Marquette is in the upper peninsula while Bridgeport is just south of Saginaw.

Brooks said that the Michigan Department of Technology, Management & Budget (DTMB) will ultimately decide what happens to the lab.

“I would hope that someone somewhere is looking at the cost of Alpena to Bridgeport,” Brooks said. “Your crime scene would double, your officer time would double.”

MSP Inspector Mike Bush said that there were four requests for proposals submitted to find a new location for the Grayling laboratory. Three were in the Gaylord area and the fourth was on the Kirtland Community College campus.

“It’s kind of a mix between DTMB and MSP to decide which one, if any of them, they’re going to move forward on,” Bush said.

“Definitely on the MSP side of the house, we’re advocating selfishly on our own behalf and on all of your guys behalf too, the transporting property and waiting for crime scene responses from well outside the district doesn’t serve the public up here,” he said.

IN OTHER BUSINESS

*Board members discussed using money from interest in their adjudicated fund to help offset the cost of overtime pay for officers supplied to HUNT from local law enforcement agencies.

*Discussed that the new vehicle purchased through a grant from Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement Standards (MCOLES) is outfitted and ready to be used in HUNT operations.

*Board members approved a motion to submit the application for Byrne Jag grant funding for Fiscal Year 2027.

*Discussed the sentencing of Jeffrey Kortman in Presque Isle County. He was sentenced to a minimum of 16 years in prison for multiple drug related charges. Presque Isle County Prosecuting Attorney Zakary McLennan said it might have been the biggest drug bust in the county’s history.