News File Photo Alpena High School freshman forward Anden Marceau (15) scores a goal during a game against Cadillac at Northern Lights Arena. The Alpena County Board of Commissioners is considering using Youth and Recreation money to subsidize the arena.

ALPENA — In a tense meeting on Tuesday, the Alpena County Board of Commissioners debated using $150,000 from the county’s Youth and Recreation fund — against the wishes of the committee in charge of that money — to help stabilize Northern Lights Arena’s finances yet again.

Commissioners ultimately tabled a decision on whether to allocate $75,000 for each of the next two years from the Youth and Recreation account funded by a voter-approved property tax. The decision will go before the county board’s Finance Committee before a final vote on the matter takes place on Aug. 25.

Commissioners Bob Adrian and Bill Peterson recommended the move.

The board-appointed Youth and Recreation Committee, which reviews and approves funding for projects, is against the money being taken. Some committee members, including Chairman Tony Suszek, are so displeased with the idea they are prepared to resign if the county takes the funds.

Suszek said not one member on the eight-person committee supports what the commissioners are considering, which he said could rub voters the wrong way when the county seeks a renewal of the Youth and Recreation tax in 2022.

“They are jeopardizing the future of this millage and possibly others,” he said. “They are cutting out the transparency and accountability to the public. If they do this, there are going to be other good, quality projects all over the county that we won’t be able to fund for the next two years.”

Money from the Youth and Recreation tax — a 0.5-mill levy costing the owner of a $100,000 house about $25 a year — is dedicated to local recreation projects, such as youth sports, the Boys and Girls Club of Alpena, and Girl Scouts. About $550,000 was awarded this year.

The arena has struggled to pay its bills because a diminishing number of area hockey teams means the arena struggles to rent out its ice. The arena closed in mid-March as part of state-ordered closures related to the coronavirus pandemic, and has not reopened. The arena is making some money renting space to a local manufacturer for storage.

The arena did not seek 2021 funding by the Youth and Recreation Committee’s deadline.

Adrian said the arena management group, Northern Lights Arena-Community, received a $150,000 loan from the federal government. There was no match requirement, but Northern Lights Arena-Community asked the county to add an additional $150,000 to help pay down its debt.

The arena is required to repay a portion of bond debt the county took on for a 2012 project that updated all of the county facilities to make them more energy-efficient. Officials hoped the savings from those upgrades would cover the cost of the debt payment.

Adrian said commissioners don’t know if there have been any savings, or, if there are, how much they are. He said that, looking back, maybe doing the bond project handcuffed the arena — as well as Plaza Pool, another county-owned facility — and it’s time to help out those facilities.

“I have a different opinion than the committee,” Adrian said. “I respect the work that they do, for really nothing, and they should get all of the credit for how the millage money has been used so far. The commissioners should get the blame. It is time to move forward, and we can’t look back to what happened in the past.”

The arena’s monthly bond payment was reduced once already last year after an audit of energy efficiency at the county’s facilities caused the board to redistribute the bond debt among the facilities.

The arena still owed $414,172 toward bond debt as of Jan.1. This year, it is slated to pay $39,136. The payment escalates each year until 2028, when it peaks at $52,443.

The county still owes $1.4 million.

Commissioner Brenda Fournier said the county has the right to use the money as it sees fit, but using it to help the arena, which now has a $600-plus monthly loan payment and is still suffering financial hardships, isn’t the way to go if the committee doesn’t approve.

“That committee has done exactly what it was designed to do: allocate the money fairly,” she said. “The committee was formed to help prevent the board from dipping its hands into the money. If members of that committee walk away, I wouldn’t blame them one bit.”

Adrian said a pair of commissioners will meet with members of the arena board and Youth and Recreation Committee to try to work out a deal. No date has been set for that meeting.

Currently, the county has more than $4 million in savings, but more than $1 million of that is set aside to cover a shortfall for the current budget year.