News Photo by Steve Schulwitz Alcona County Commission on Aging Director LeRoy Perrin displays basic design plans from a project in Crawford County where a new senior center is being built. Perrin said there might be some aspects of that plan that could be used for a project in Lincoln, where a new senior center and some senior housing could be built.

ALPENA — The clock is ticking for the Alcona County Commission on Aging to solidify its plans on how to spend $12.5 million it received from the state to use toward meeting the needs of the community and senior residents.

Amid fireworks during Tuesday’s Alcona County Commission on Aging meeting — where four board members resigned, and its executive director suspended without pay — an update was presented on a proposed senior center and housing project.

The state awarded ACCOA a $12.5 million allocation through its Economic Development and Workforce Grants program. ACCOA had previously proposed plans to use the grant to construct a community center, which would also serve as a senior center and include senior and public housing.

A newly proposed plan could scale back the project. If approved, it would be fully aimed at senior citizen amenities with public portions of the plan removed.

Some at ACCOA questioned whether it was legal to use the funding for community projects because in the ACCOA bylaws, it states expenditures must pertain to seniors.

That led some board members to wonder if not spending the money on a project dedicated solely for seniors could lead to the organization being stripped of its 501c3 non-profit status by the IRS.

Since the grant was announced and the early plan for the money was released, the scope of the project has been called into question. Many people supported the idea of having the project be community oriented, while others thought it should focus on seniors exclusively.

On Tuesday, Director LeRoy Perrin laid out a plan derived from a senior center plan from an ongoing project in Crawford County.

Perrin said the proposed plan for a senior center in Lincoln is for a facility about 30,000 square feet in size. He said the design plans for the facility in Crawford County are for a 12,000 square foot venue and many of the amenities the seniors in Alcona County want are included in the neighboring community’s design.

Perrin said that the design from Crawford County could be used as a template for the new facility in Alcona, but admitted the scope of the project would differ because in Crawford County an old building is being renovated, while the project in Alcona would require construction of a new building.

Another part of the plan would keep a portion of the senior housing and include an outdoor recreation area for seniors.

“We have been blessed to receive this tremendous grant to build a senior center and it has always been our purpose to build a senior center,” Perrin said. “In these plans, I think you will find everything a senior center needs, plus a few things. I’m not saying this is what we want to build, but I’m showing you this is what we can get in a senior center based on 12,000 square feet.”

Some board members are concerned that the large facility and adjacent housing will exceed the amount of the grant, and ACCOA or the city of Lincoln would be responsible for paying for the balance.

“The whole squabble for me this whole time, is we have $12 million to work with and we can’t afford the estimates of $20 million to $30 million to do this,” Perrin said. “We just can’t do it. It’s not fair to the county and it’s not fair to Lincoln to get into a project and maybe not finish it. I want to know going into the project, do we have the money?”

After the presentation, the board voted for Perrin and the others on the Building Committee to take the lead on working with a contractor on an updated contract with the architectural and engineering firm Sidock Group to move forward to the next phase of the project.

In 2020, Sidock Group was hired to devise a project program, which outlines and answers questions about how big the facility needs to be, what it needs in it, and where it should be built.

Senior Project Manager Brad Butcher said the work done to this point was elementary and involved breaking the proposed project down into its fundamental parts on what it could become

But, he added, nothing was set in stone and the project designs and details were still evolving.

Butcher said after the fallout from Tuesday’s meeting, he is unsure of the direction of the project, and what Sidock’s role in it is, especially since Executive Director Lenny Avery was suspended and four board members resigned.

“We have no idea what is next now that the executive director is no longer involved,” he said. “What happens next and what our role is, if any, is more up to the board than it is with us.”

Butcher said it isn’t uncommon for design plans for projects to change during the course of the project. He said there is always tweaking involved to add and remove things and to make sure the project stays within its budget.

During the meeting Tuesday, board President Mike Maturen, Vice President Will St. John, Secretary Pamela Ashford, and board member Jacquelyn Schwanz all resigned.

Avery was suspended after he refused to resign.

The board is beginning the process of filling the board vacancies, but it is still unknown what the board will do to address Avery and the executive director’s position.