ROGERS CITY — The Michigan State Police on Wednesday defended troopers’ actions during Rogers City’s Nautical Festival, one day after city leaders criticized the state agency for over-policing the festival without notifying city officials.

MSP 1st Lt. John Grimshaw said his office did contact the Presque Isle County Sheriff’s Department before troopers were in the area during the Nautical Festival this past weekend.

During the Tuesday City Council meeting, the MSP presence at the Nautical Festival was discussed. Council members and the city manager brought up the number of complaints they received from people about the MSP.

The council considered an official resolution slamming the MSP, but ultimately tabled it for further discussion.

“We had contacted the sheriff and jail administrator that our team would be working in the county,” Grimshaw said Wednesday. “We didn’t contact the (Rogers City Police) chief because we weren’t in the festival. We were working outside of the festival. We were working on the outside of the city areas and in the townships around it.”

Rogers City Mayor Scott McLennan, however, said Wednesday he saw a few trooper cars himself in the city limits.

“They were very much in the city of Rogers City,” he said. “I support the State Police. We just want some courtesy and respect.”

McLennan said he’s always been and always will be supportive of law enforcement. He said that, while he volunteered during the festival, it was a regular occurrence for someone to come up to him with a story about all the MSP cars, or about being pulled over by them.

He conceded the sheriff’s office was notified, but said city police and officials were not.

“Our problem here is that we expect the chief would be informed and then there would be a coordination of effort,” McLennan said.

McLennan said he was a bit vocal during Tuesday’s city council meeting, but he only voiced his concerns because he heard from citizens of the community.

McLennan said he will meet with MSP members this week and he hopes they will be able to come to an understanding.

Grimshaw noted there is an MSP force that helps cover many Northern Michigan counties and the festivals and events that take place in them.

He said they help to combat drugs, human trafficking and drunk driving during these events. He said they made a total of 83 traffic stops for three days this weekend, some of which were outside of Presque Isle County. He added they arrested four felons over the weekend and helped when a driver was having a stroke.

Rogers City Police Chief Matt Quaine said in an email to The News on Wednesday that his officers often see the State Police presence in and around Rogers City, primarily troopers from the Alpena Post.

“We welcome them and work well together for the purpose of public safety,” Quaine said.

He added that city staffs their police department for the needs of the festival. Officers typically aren’t approved for vacation or time off during the festival so they can devote their time to law enforcement and public safety.

“The festival has generally run fairly peaceful in the past several years,” Quaine said in the email. “It certainly is a busy week, and when that many people are concentrated in Rogers City, there are going to be issues, but we staff for the week appropriately and if additional services are needed, we have in the past called on the Presque Isle County Sheriff Department and MSP Alpena Post for assistance when needed. Some of the typical calls for service are traffic control details, fireworks complaints, medical assists, noise complaints, suspicious persons/ activity/ vehicle complaints, larceny complaints, property damage complaints along with possession of controlled substance and (operating a vehicle while intoxicated) arrests.”

From the Rogers City Police Department’s perspective, this year’s festival ran fairly peacefully, Quaine said.

Jordan Spence can be reached at jspence@thealpenanews.com or 989-358-5687.