Osmer suggests fairgrounds move to Parks and Recreation
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ALPENA -- Alpena County Administrator Jesse Osmer opened discussion regarding restructuring the Parks and Recreation committee to include authority and management of the Alpena County Fairgrounds at the Alpena County Facilities committee meeting on Wednesday. Osmer also suggested moving the Michigan State University (MSU) Extension office elsewhere.
During Wednesday's meeting, Osmer told the commissioners that the county will have to start getting "creative" with long-term planning and budgeting.
"I would highly suggest that we either find a savings or a new revenue, at least $150,000 per quarter, if we want to actually stabilize this budget and make it healthy rather than just being able to pay the bills," he said. "If we don't move things around, if we don't change things, it's not going to get better."
One option he gave committee members was to move MSU Extension off the fairgrounds property because the building they occupy right now the county pays utilities and does not collect rent.
"We're paying them for services so it’s not like we are getting a profit from them," Osmer said.
Ultimately the committee said that it would not be in favor of moving MSU off of the property.
A second suggestion that Osmer made was to move the fairgrounds under purview of the Parks and Recreation committee. He said this would alleviate pressure on the general fund.
"It's just to alleviate some pressure off the general fund into a fund that's growing and healthy," Osmer said.
Osmer explained that the Parks and Recreation committee has about half a million dollars in its general fund. Moving the fairgrounds to the Parks and Recreation committee would allow that money to be spent on necessary improvements.
"We're seeing a decrease in people using facilities," he said. "We've all been in the Merchant's Building. It's not getting any better anytime soon."
Osmer added that the Parks and Recreation committee could potentially have a more significant impact than the county's general fund could.
"It could probably take this under their wing and do some good work," he said. "The general fund, we are carrying a lot on that fund right now. This is just one more item that we could probably move off into another area where I think it could do better."
Kozlowski and Fournier said that they would not be in favor of moving the fairgrounds to the Parks and Recreation committee.
Osmer and board members noted that the fairgrounds lost $6,827 in 2025, and projected losses for 2026 and 2027 are $4,875 and $26,408, respectively. He added that the projected losses for 2026 does not account for an increased interest in storage at the fairgrounds.
There were budget gains in 2023 and 2024.
Below are the year-end budget amounts for the fairgrounds:
- 2020: $6,520 loss
- 2021: $1,642 loss
- 2022: $13,982 loss
- 2023: $16,822 gain
- 2024: $26,518 gain
- 2025: $6,827 loss
Kayla Wikaryasz can be reached at 989-358-5688 or kwikaryasz@TheAlpenaNews.com.