Isabella County Sheriff's Office service fee to increase
Left to right: Steven Weber, Steve Swaney and Jerry Jaloszynski at the Isabella County Board of Commissioners meeting on Jan. 20, 2026. (CM-Life | Ethan Wallace)
The Isabella County Board of Commissioners approved cost increases for notarizations and fingerprint scanning at the Isabella County Sheriff's Office, along with several financial adjustments and amendments on March 3.
Fingerprint scanning was originally $15 at the sheriff's office. Individuals who live or work in Isabella County will have to pay $25, and anyone who lives outside of the county will have to pay $50.
The Sheriff's Office will also now charge a $10 fee for notarizations done at its office.
Sheriff Michael Main requested the changes. The cost increase is meant to help compensate for the increase in resources being used and the workload for staff, Main said.
The board also approved several budget amendments for direct care workers, on-call stipends and indirect costs.
The drain commissioner has put a Special Assessment District (SAD) at Stevenson Lake, Craig Russon, homeowner at Stevenson Lake, said during public comments.
A special assessment is an improvement or service that will benefit residents living in the area, according to Michigan.gov. Some common examples are road repairs, street lighting and recycling services.
The costs will be allocated to local property owners to help fund projects that wouldn’t be possible otherwise. Some assessments can get more financial support through some outside sources, such as grants or general fund revenues.
"We got a notice that the township wants to raise our property taxes," Russon said. "This makes it harder on regular folks like me and my wife."
The board of commissioners said it could not leave any comment because this issue was related to the drain commissioner and not the board.
In other news:
The county also left its financial reports from its committee of the whole meeting from Feb. 24, 2026.
The county wouldn't normally have these in its regular meetings, Frank Engler, chairman and district 4 representative, said. The financial reports for the 4th quarter preliminary fiscal year 25' and 1st quarter fiscal year 26' are for the commissioners to file and have for reference.
