News Photo by Crystal Nelson Rogers City Area Schools is pictured here on Friday.

ROGERS CITY — The Presque Isle County Board of Commissioners on Friday approved language for two property tax renewals to be placed on the Aug. 4 ballot.

Layoffs also are possible for county employees, commissioners said.

The Presque Isle County Board of Commissioners will ask voters to renew a 0.33-mill property tax to fund school resource officers and a 0.75-mill tax the Presque Isle County Council on Aging will use for services fo those 60 and older.

The property tax for the school resource officer would cost the owner of a $100,000 home about $16.50 per year over four years. The millage would raise about $232,498 a year.

The senior services tax would cost the owner of a $100,000 home about $37.50 per year over six years. The millage would raise an estimated $548,400 in the first year.

County Clerk Ann Marie Main told commissioners the tax would not pay for 100% of the school resource officers’ salary. The county currently pays for eight weeks of salary during the summer.

Main said the county would need to ask for at least 0.36 mills for those salaries to be 100% covered, as Rogers City officials would like to see.

“I don’t think it’s a very good time to be asking taxpayers to pay more taxes when they’re all unemployed — maybe not all — but the majority of our residents are unemployed and I don’t think that’s proper,” Commissioner Nancy Shutes said.

Earlier this month, commissioners approved ballot language for a 1-mill property tax renewal to fund Presque Isle County District Library operations, also to be placed on the Aug. 4 ballot. The millage would cost the owner of a $100,000 home about $50 per year over 20 years and raise about $714,000 annually.

LAYOFFS POSSIBLE

The board’s Personnel Committee will meet with county department heads on Monday to discuss either possible layoffs or a reduction in hours for county employees.

“Everybody, including myself, could find a reason why to not lay anybody off and keep the status quo,” Main said. “But then we also had to look at what is the responsible thing to do as we are all working with taxpayer money.”

Employees could also take a voluntary layoff, Main said.

A special board meeting would be called following the personnel meeting, should the board need to take any action on a recommendation from the personnel committee.

Crystal Nelson can be reached at 989-358-5687 or cnelson@thealpenanews.com.