Robin LaLonde

ALPENA — Alpena County Commissioner Robin LaLonde on Tuesday tendered her resignation from the board, citing a promotion at her day job for which she’ll move out of the area.

She declined to provide The News specifics about her new position or where she’s moving.

The board accepted LaLonde’s resignation following a roughly 15-minute behind-closed-doors meeting. LaLonde said after the board returned to open session that her resignation was the reason for the closed session. State law allows public bodies to meet in closed session for “the dismissal, suspension, or disciplining of” elected officials if the official requests a closed session.

LaLonde’s resignation takes effect at noon Sept. 6. The board is expected to fill the vacancy at its Sept. 24 meeting. Whomever the board appoints will serve until the end of the year.

LaLonde — a Republican who represents the county’s District 3, which covers Precincts 3 and 4 in Alpena — did not seek reelection this year.

Lucille Bray is running in the Nov. 5 election for that seat, appearing on the ballot as an independent, having not run in the primary earlier this month. Bray is currently unopposed.

The county board appointed LaLonde — known for her work with the Boys and Girls Club of Alpena — in May 2023, following the death of commissioner Dave Karschnick.

“Although I am excited to begin this next chapter, it saddens me that this opportunity prevents me from completing my term,” LaLonde read from a statement at the end of Tuesday’s county board meeting. “It has been an honor and a privilege to serve the people of Alpena’s 3rd District and to help work toward building the foundation for development of the upcoming budget, support updating policy changes, and carry out the important work on the many committees on which I sat.

“Although I am stepping away,” LaLonde added, “Alpena is very near and dear to my heart, and I will be watching from afar and looking forward to each visit home to see what great things are yet to come.”

“Whether the issue before the commission was policy or budgetary, (LaLonde) never hesitated to offer thoughtful insight or take difficult positions, fighting hard for her district and the county,” board Chairman John Kozlowski said in a written statement issued after Tuesday’s meeting.

SPENDING HOTLY DEBATED

LaLonde’s resignation comes as the county board works to close an expected $1.4 million gap between general fund revenues and expenses, the consequences of which were on full display Tuesday as the board debated whether to spend money to repair a leaky boiler at the county-owned Plaza Pool.

The county board has frozen hiring, explored possible cuts, and asked voters to OK a tax hike to help overcome the deficit.

The county will on Nov. 5 ask voters to approve a 0.7-mill tax hike that would bring in an estimated $800,000 a year for the county and cost the owner of a $100,000 house about $35 a year, the owner of a $200,000 house about $70 a year.

Voters on Aug. 6 rejected that tax increase by a 51%-to-49% margin, but the county board will try again this fall with simpler ballot language.

Any shortfall remaining at the end of the year will have to be covered by the county’s cash savings. The county used more than $850,000 from that account to cover a 2023 deficit, leaving about $3.8 million in savings — used to pay bills and cover payroll in between tax collections and to handle unplanned emergency expenses — on a roughly $13.5 million annual budget.

Against that backdrop, county Maintenance Superintendent Wes Wilder on Tuesday brought the board two options: Replace the heat exchanger on the pool boiler for $18,475 or replace the boiler itself for nearly $36,000. He told the board the boiler has a lifespan of about 20 to 25 years and is 18 years old.

The pool remains operable, Wilder told the board.

The money would come not from the county’s general fund but from its building and grounds maintenance fund, which has about $280,000 in it, about $53,000 of which is already spoken for, county Treasurer Kim Ludlow told the board.

“At this time, I know of no plan to put money back into that fund,” Ludlow said.

“We haven’t been putting money into those funds to try to save the general fund,” LaLonde said.

“I’m just wondering how much longer the county’s gonna put up with putting money into that pool,” Commissioner Brenda Fournier said.

In the end, the board voted three-to-four to replace the heat exchanger, with LaLonde, Fournier, and Commissioner Travis Konarzewski voting against and Commissioner Bill Peterson absent.

“Don’t break anything else,” Kozlowski joked to Wilder after the vote.

Justin A. Hinkley can be reached at 989-354-3112 or jhinkley@thealpenanews.com. Follow him on Twitter @JustinHinkley.

IN OTHER BUSINESS

The Alpena County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday also:

* voted unanimously to spend up to $400,000 for the purchase and outfitting of a new ambulance. More than half of that money would come from a reserve fund for equipment purchases. Rob Edmonds, chief of the Alpena Fire Department, which provides ambulance services countywide through a contract with the county, said he expects the final cost of the ambulance will be less than $400,000. The new ambulance, which should arrive as early as October, will replace an outdated ambulance, which will be returned to the county to dispose of.

* voted unanimously to spend about $37,000 from the county’s airport fund to pay the county’s required match for a $1.5 million grant the Alpena County Regional Airport received to buy two runway plows. The plows are expected to arrive in 2025.

* voted unanimously to authorize spending $13,473 out of the county’s reserve fund for the Alpena Senior Citizens Center to repair the roof over the kitchen of the senior center. The work had already begun.

* voted unanimously to authorize the hiring of a new program assistant in the county’s Home Improvement and Public Conservator offices. The position already is budgeted for, and, while the wages for that position come from the county’s general fund, the two offices bring in enough revenue to support themselves, so the hiring won’t violate a hiring freeze the county board implemented because of budget woes.

* voted unanimously before Tuesday’s meeting to authorize the hiring of one full-time and two part-time corrections officers at the Alpena County Jail. All of those positions already are budgeted for, so the hiring doesn’t violate the county’s hiring freeze.

* voted unanimously to extend until June 30, 2025 — retroactive to Jan. 1 — a contract with Mike Kieliszewski for soil erosion services in the county. The contract had expired Dec. 31, but Kieliszewski agreed to stay on because the county hadn’t found someone to replace him.

* heard from three residents during the public comment portion of Tuesday’s meeting who spoke in support of the Alpena County Library board or against the commissioners’ recent decision to begin the process of removing all of the board members over controversial books on the library’s teen’s and children’s shelves.