George Green, a sixteen-year commissioner and one of only two Republicans on the seven-member board of commissioners, was unanimously elected chairman on Jan. 2. Green takes over for long-time chairman David Ling.

Green said it was “surprising” to be elected chairman, but it was not surprising to see the Democrats on the board cross party lines.

“Over the sixteen years Dave and I have been on the board, there have been 5-2 or 4-3 Democratic majorities every year,” Ling said. “But it’s rare, and I mean super rare, to see a vote come across party lines.”

Ling said votes typically reflect differences between those who represent metropolitan areas and those who represent rural areas.

“This is a group that knows how to work together and George has been terrific in being able to work out problems and differences,” Ling said.

Green said he will continue to collaborate with his fellow commissioners to work to find solutions to the problems Isabella County faces.

“I’m looking for (financial) sustainability so that the county can function as a county should,” Green said. “I know we’re going to be short on money next year, but I believe we can overcome that.”

Ling will remain on the board but said he is stepping aside to give himself more freedom to pursue other projects. He said he has complete confidence Green will be able to follow in his footsteps well.

“We’ve become good friends over the years, and he’s very bright,” Ling said. “He has a real sense of what the county needs and a real passion to provide some leadership.”

Green, who represents District 1, had similar praise for Ling.

“(Ling) and I started on the board at the same time back in 1996,” Green said. “We’ve gone through many diversions in that time, and we’ve handled them. David has relied on me as much as I’ve relied on him.”

Initially, Ling endorsed Vice Chairman Frances Lichtman to replace him as Chairman. Lichtman declined the opportunity to replace him, however. He will remain Vice Chairman after a unanimous vote in.

Graduate Assistant Michelle Campbell said the goal was reached before 2 p.m.

Campbell, one of the volunteers at the auction, is also a board member of Friends of Theodore Roethke, the organization the money raised is benefitting.

“The Roethke program and center is an important cultural addition to the broader mid-Michigan area,” said David Ling, Isabella County Commission chair and former political science professor.

Ling came to the auction with his wife because they are good friends with Ronald Primeau, professor of English language and literature and avid Roethke house supporter.

“As a result, we became more aware and interested in supporting the cause,” David said.

The ballroom was filled with many items ranging from books, CDs, a tea set, ornaments, original paintings, tickets to sporting events, jewelry and a dinner for six at University President George Ross’s home with his wife valued at $600.

Political Science Professor James Hill said he bid on just about everything.

“Auctions are my favorite things,” Hill said.

City Commissioner Kathy Ling said she thought the auction was benefitting a great cause and was also a great opportunity for Christmas shopping.

“We’re celebrating Christmas the day after Thanksgiving,” Kathy said.

Graduate Assistant Regan Schaeffer said she and a few other dedicated graduate assistants spent Sunday afternoon cataloging a portion of the items.

“We searched for each item on Amazon and decided the minimum bids from there,” Schaeffer said. “There are some opportunities to get some good deals.”

Leadership Institute Coordinator Dan Gaken won the dinner at the Ross residence for $80. He was the only eligible bid on the prize, although a faculty member bid $2.99.

Any special care inmates need that is not included in the contract will be covered, as long as it is under the new $42,000 cap allowed for a 16-month period.

Any cap money that is not utilized by the end of the period will be reimbursed to the jail. The county will be paying $283,592 for this contract. The amount includes the cap money, so the grand total could be less if all of the cap money is not used.

Likewise, the total amount could be increased if the cap money does not cover all of the special needs. This is not likely to happen, said Lt. Tom Recker, jail administrator.

“History shows we have never spent more than $30,000 for one year so we thought this cap would be safe,” Recker said.

Health Professions, Ltd., the jail’s health care provider, is requiring caps on all contracts now. Recker said HPL is one of the largest providing inmate health care companies.

“There are some counties in our state that provide inmate health care with no cost to the county, such as Mason and Osceola,” said Tim Dolehanty, Isabella County administrator.

Dolehanty sent a letter in November 2010 to Community Mental Health for Central Michigan, requesting Isabella County to be granted the status as well. He said he has not yet received a response

“Unfortunately, the mental health services we provide now are very limited,” Recker said.

With HPL, the inmates can receive all health care on site, including X-rays. Inmates used to be transported outside, which led to security issues, Recker said.

Sheriff Leo Mioduszewski said he has been satisfied with the provider so far.

“On behalf of the sheriff’s department, we are very happy with the HPL,” Mioduszewski said. “They have been phenomenal.”

County commissioners approved the changed adoption fees Tuesday. Effective immediately, cats will now cost $80 and dogs will cost $175 to adopt.

“When HATS started in 2002, the original prices were $100 for dogs and $190 for cats,” said Commissioner George Greene. “But with the recession, we are decreasing the prices.”

Commissioner William Dailey said all dogs will have already received rabies vaccinations, dog licenses, neutering and everything else they need. Those services are included in the new price of adoption.

Greene said everyone has been impressed with the quality of the shelter and is confident in its success.

The HATS shelter was originally brought to Mount Pleasant on a six-month trial, but the commission later granted a contract.

“HATS has heart in it that it just didn’t before,” Greene said. “They have volunteers walking dogs and a sanitary environment and much more.”

Greene said he has not received many complaints since HATS took over.

Lee Fabiano, director of HATS, has had a lot of experience in the business.

“She has handled adoptions from all over,” Greene said.

The commission also approved the sheriff’s budget amendment on Tuesday night. This allowed the department to move the funds to allow for the purchase of a transport van.  The amendment moved $25,500 to increase the equipment line.

Commissioners also authorized two employees from Central Dispatch to attend the Navigator 2011 conference in Las Vegas, in which the cost is not to exceed $3,000.

“This is basically a training for dispatchers to be the first on the scene of birth delivery, fire departments, ambulance service and so on,” said Commissioner John Haupt.

The trial was filed in 2005, and had not been part of the public’s consciousness for years. This changed when the Mount Pleasant City Commission approved the agreements of the during a closed session at their Nov. 8 meeting. The court must receive concerned citizens’ comments in the mail before Nov. 19, a relatively small window of time.

All parties entered negotiations in 2009 and verbally agreed to the 12 agreements of understanding before the Mount Pleasant City and the Isabella County commissions approved the agreements on Nov. 8 and 9 respectively. Though he had a representative at the negotiation, Attorney General Mike Cox filed an objection Wednesday.

His objection may delay an important and already time-intensive decision, but Cox voices some equally important concerns.

First it was the lack of transparency, as he argues the constituents have not had enough time to look over the terms of the agreement and have not received enough information. He also states the details of the agreement will not be publicly available until after the state, city and county have adopted it.

After five years of pending litigation, starting with the tribe against the governor, attorney general and the treasurer of Michigan, adding the U.S. on the side of the tribe in 2006 and Isabella County and the city of Mount Pleasant on the side of the state in 2007, not much has changed.

The city will continue to have limited jurisdiction on tribal land, especially within the “tribal enclave” outlined in the agreement. However, the city and the tribe will collaborate more in terms of law enforcement, from sharing documents to applying zoning ordinances.

It is important they reached this agreement so both parties can move on. Though the borders of the tribe had stood uncontested for more than 150 years, leaving this dispute in a judicial moratorium makes court cases and other decisions more difficult for residents.

The confusion stems from the differences in the trial process for crimes that occur in “Indian country” and those that do not.

This does allow residents to hold their elected officials responsible since the public can only petition the court after these three parties have approved the agreement.

As of 1 a.m. today, only a few precincts had reported and complete results undetermined. Candidate Chris Zimmerman said he was not concerned about waiting.

“I’m not going to worry until I have something to worry about,” he said.

Candidate James Moreno said he was frustrated, but understood there were computer problems that could not be avoided.

“I’m just going to go to bed and accept it,” Moreno said.

Moreno, a pet food salesman from Mount Pleasant, has already served two years on the board, along with six years on the Mount Pleasant City Commission.

Moreno said his biggest goal is to get Isabella County to embrace the “new knowledge economy” and increase efficiency by using new technology and social networking.

Zimmerman, an insurance salesman, has no previous experience in local government, but said his experience helping others in his 20-year career has given him valuable business and problem-solving skills that he would bring to the board. He said his interest in government began last March when the health care bill was approved.

In Isabella County, Zimmerman hopes to give residents the opportunity to vote to lower their taxes. He also wants to establish rules for behavior along the Chippewa River, designating certain areas as family-friendly and others as “almost anything goes.”

Country Road Commission

Three candidates ran for three open seats on the Isabella County Road Commission. All three candidates are Republicans and have already served on the commission.

Steve Jackson and Terry Turnwald will serve a six-year term. Dave Livermore will serve a two-year term.

Livermore and Turnwald both said their biggest concern for the commission was a lack of funding, as the only source of income for the roads is a tax on gasoline.

For incumbent Commissioner Jim Moreno, a Democrat, the main concern is getting the county “to embrace new knowledge economy.”

“I have learned infrastructure of the county and the important players involved. Now, if I should be re-elected, I can make good policy decisions,” he said. “I know the rules of the game.”

Utilizing new technology and social media would help the county stretch its shrinking funding, Moreno said.

Republican challenger Chris Zimmerman said he thinks the people of Isabella County should be able to vote to lower their taxes in order to stimulate the local economy.

“If it’s okay for the road commission and the libraries to ask the residents for a tax increase, it should be okay for the residents to have a say on a tax decrease,” Zimmerman said.

Moreno previously served two three-year terms on the Mount Pleasant City Commission.

Zimmerman said he recently became interested in politics after the approval of President Barack Obama’s health care reform bill.

“The anger I was experiencing turned into motivation and the motivation transformed into my candidacy for county commissioner,” he said.

Zimmerman’s 20 years of experience as an insurance salesman has given him business, he said, and problem-solving skills that will be useful as county commissioner.

He said he would also like to see more rules for behavior along the Chippewa River.

“I’d like to have certain sections of the river be good for ‘almost anything goes’ and other sections delineated for families such as my own,” he said.

Moreno said his experience makes him a clear choice for the position.

“I know the issues of the county and I have almost eight year’s experience as an elected official,” he said. “My opponent has never been to a county commission meeting.”

Zimmerman said the election is about a change in philosophy.

“Jim is a liberal Democrat; I am a conservative Republican,” Zimmerman said. “If they want a fresh voice with new ideas and conservative values, then they can choose me.”

Road Commission

Three candidates are running for re-election in three vacant seats on the Isabella County Road Commission. Steve Jackson, Terry Turnwald and Dave Livermore are all serving terms that will expire Dec. 31.

Livermore, an electrical contractor, and Turnwald, a farmer, both said the biggest issue the commission faces is a lack of funding. Jackson could not be reached for comment.

“We need funding. The road funding is based strictly on the gas fuel tax,” Livermore said. “There’s not enough to go around. Lansing needs to fix that.”

Turnwald said a future road millage would be very beneficial to the county.

“We tried to pass a millage, but it failed,” he said. “That would have done wonders.”

Burglaries saw consistency through the majority of the decade, but spiked to 34 in 2008 from 13 in 2007. So far this year, there have been 26 reported burglaries, according to statistics provided by Central Michigan University Police Chief Bill Yeagley.

Larcenies at CMU also showed little change leading up to 2009. CMU Police investigated 193 such crimes in 2008 — fairly similar to other recent years.

However, there have been only 98 reported cases this year.

Based on his brief tenure with the CMU police, Yeagley said he can attribute the sudden decrease to programs organized by the university to prevent thefts.

“I think all of the recent prevention efforts have helped,” he said. “In past years, you could walk through the library and there would be laptops lying all over the place unattended.”

The higher number of breaking and enterings this year has mainly been because of a serial burglar, Yeagley said.

“It’s pretty uncommon to have a serial burglar but, fortunately, we were able to find him and arrest him,” he said.

County: increase in larcenies

The Isabella County Sheriff’s Department has witnessed the opposite. Larcenies have seen a significant increase to 463 during the 2008/09 fiscal year, which the agency now measures its statistics by, from 307 in 2007.

Meanwhile, burglaries have slightly decreased to 211 from 268 during that same time period.

“Larceny is up, and that may be a sign of the hard economic times,” said Sheriff Leo Mioduszewski.

Mioduszewski echoed Yeagley’s thoughts on spreading awareness about how to prevent breaking and enterings. The word needs to be better relayed to off-campus students, he said.

The department’s annual report was presented to the county Board of Commissioners last Tuesday, and also indicated a decrease in traffic stops to 4,678 over the past fiscal year from 8,896 in 2007.

Isabella County Commissioner John Haupt said the sheriff’s report was very helpful financially.

“We had a lot of questions about financial items, and he helped us answer those,” he said.

The Mount Pleasant Police Department has not seen major changes in larcenies and burglaries.

Burglaries went to 132 so far in 2009 from 156 in 2008. Larcenies decreased to 309 from 369.

Because the calendar year is not completely finished, those numbers do not show a very significant decrease, said MPPD Capt. Tom Forsberg

Staff Reporter Ed Schutter contributed to this report.

“Each store is going to have one deputy,” said Isabella County Sheriff Leo Mioduszewski. “They are there to be visible.”

Wal-Mart, 4730 Encore Blvd., will have an extra officer for six and a half hours on Black Friday, and Target, 4097 E. Blue Grass Road, will have an extra officer for eight hours.

The stores approached the County Commission on Nov. 3 to ask for extra security. Employees from both stores were unable to comment on security matters.

County Commissioner John Haupt said the extra security will be concentrated in one area.

“Most of that patrol will be outside of the building,” he said.

Extra supervision

Black Friday is considered the biggest shopping day of the year and falls on Nov. 27.

Commissioner George Green said the stores are just looking for someone to help look over the customers.

“This is Black Friday supervision,” he said.

Black Friday is known to be a crazy shopping day because stores host some of the best deals of the year. Last year, a Wal-Mart employee in Valley Stream, N.Y., was trampled to death on the morning of Black Friday.

Mioduszewski said stories like that receive attention from other places of business.

“They are just being proactive and want extra security to be there to help prevent an incident,” he said.

However, Mioduszewski said there have not been any big issues in the past in the area and believes Mount Pleasant will not have any problems.

“I’m not aware of any major problems in the past,” he said. “It is just a proactive measure.”

The two one-week training sessions put on by Dive Rescue International, a Colorado-based company, will allow local and non-local police officers a chance to train in underwater diving situations. The training dates have yet to be determined.

One session will train officers in underwater investigating and the other will train officers in underwater technology used in crime scene investigations.

“A larger part of our reason for diving is for evidence,” said Isabella County Undersheriff Laude Hartrum.

The program will not generate revenue for the county, but the host county is allowed two free participants in the training sessions. Hartrum said it is a good opportunity for Isabella County’s Sheriff’s deputies to get good training for free.

“Isabella County has great conditions for the training because we have deep bodies of water and the water is fairly clear,” he said. “Plus, since we host, we can send our guys for nothing, which is a great opportunity.”

Isabella County has 3.48 square miles of water within its borders, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Web site.

The project will require prep time to set up the training sites. Dive Rescue International, along with members of the Isabella County Sheriff’s Department, will determine the sites used for training.

County Commissioner John Haupt said the program will be good opportunity for the county.

“This training is valuable for gathering evidence and we get to send our guys for free,” he said.