Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties

Matonich gives yearly crime report to council

By IAN MINIELLY

[email protected]

Bessemer - Gogebic County Sheriff Pete Matonich provided the end of year results of the police work done by the Sheriff's office for the city of Bessemer. The GCSD received 722 complaints, resulting in 234 citations issued and 86 arrests made in 2017. A total of 47 accidents happened on Bessemer's roads.

In reviewing the month to month comparison, some incidents stand out in 2017.

-There were two incidents for methamphetamine possession and one for delivery.

-There was one recorded incident of criminal sexual conduct in February.

-Bessemer had 12 simple assault and battery calls and 20 non-aggravated domestic assaults.

-Forced burglaries with intent were registered 18 times.

-Stolen property offenses, either receiving, concealing or other happened 5 times.

-There were 12 violations of the controlled substance abuse act.

-and the GCSD registered 2 sex offenses against children.

Matonich said the number of crimes in 2017 across Bessemer were similar to prior years, without any significant differences year over year.

The council agreed Dustin Filippini did such a good job with the city's new website they would not enforce the contractual agreement to cut his payment due to being late. The council recognized Filippini provided the city more than they expected and it works better then advertised and some of the lateness of the delivery was out of his hands and it would not be fair to punish him for a job well done. The council voted 4-0 to pay Filippini the full $1,250 remaining on the contract.

The council debated what constitutes an offensive odor and recognized it would be nearly impossible to enforce the current odor ordinance because odor is subjective. The council agreed to shelve current efforts to enforce odor controls. The council did agree on the first reading of proposed changes to the General Utility and Street permitting process. While mostly impacting contractors, residents will face increased permitting fees and the potential for providing the city a retainer to ensure right of ways and sidewalks are returned to their original condition in the future. The public hearing and second reading on the GUS permitting issue is scheduled for Mar. 5.

In a matter of required house cleaning city manager Charly Loper recommended the city adopt federal poverty guidelines and an exemption of up to 150 percent of the poverty level for property taxes, which the council agreed to 4-0.

 
 
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