Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By ZACHARY MARANO
Bessemer — Following a public hearing, the Gogebic County Board of Commissioners adopted guidelines for their Rehab Emergency Repair Program at their regular meeting on Wednesday.
According to a packet provided at the meeting, this will allow a third party – the Gogebic-Ontonagon Community Action Agency – to administer loan repayments and recaptured funds from the Gogebic County Rehab Program on emergency home repairs.
The program income for the 2021-2022 fiscal year was $37,958. GOCAA can use these funds to offer emergency assistance to eligible homeowners from June 30, 2022, with any unspent funds returning to the state of Michigan at the end of the current fiscal year.
Eligible assistance includes repairs to a roof that is leaking, but the whole house is not rehabilitated; furnace replacement; foundation repair; broken window repair/replacement; emergency handicapped accessibility improvements; and any emergency health or safety item in the home. Assistance is limited to once per address and $15,000 per household.
The county board also received communication from the Van Buren County Board of Commissioners on the Michigan No-Fault Insurance Reform Act of 2019. According to the Van Buren County board, this act set an “unsustainable” 55% reimbursement cap on home care providers caring for auto accident victims.
After reviewing the communication from their peers in the Lower Peninsula, the Gogebic County board authorized county clerk Ramona Collins to draft a similar resolution for them to consider at a future meeting.
“People who were injured prior to that change in insurance got shafted when they reduced the amount of compensation that they paid to the providers of those people,” Bonovetz said.
The county board also approved a budget amendment for NorthCare Network, reimbursing them $17,101.75. NorthCare is the prepaid health plan for all Upper Peninsula Medicaid recipients needing mental health and support services. The Gogebic County Community Mental Health Authority is the local provider.
The Gogebic County Fair concluded Aug. 14 but continued to be a point of contention at Wednesday’s meeting, with Commissioner Dan Siirla complaining about criticism that he’s received about the county board’s handling of the fair.
Acting on recommendations from U.P. Engineers and Architects, the county board passed a motion prohibiting the use of several fairground buildings on July 27, unless repairs were overseen by a licensed contractor and certified by a structural engineer.
Siirla insisted to the Daily Globe at Wednesday’s meeting that the county board actually prohibited the use of the buildings much earlier, when the board received most of the buildings study in February. He said that the county board simply repeated this decision on July 27.
To support his claim, Siirla presented minutes from a special fair board meeting held on March 16. According to the minutes, the fair board discussed a report identifying some fairgrounds buildings as structurally unsound. The minutes do not say whether the county board prohibited the use of the buildings at the time.
The Gogebic County Fair called for volunteers to shore up the buildings for the fair on Aug. 8. Siirla said the county board should have prevented this work bee and questioned the fair board’s claim that the volunteers’ repairs were certified before the fair opened on Aug. 11.
“This board did nothing wrong. This board did not want to close the fair. This board does everything we can in this county,” Siirla said. “The only thing I can say this board did wrong (is) we did not stop people going into those buildings when they shouldn’t have on Aug. 8.”
During public comment, Linda Nelson of Ironwood Township announced her plans to hold a fundraiser for the repair of the fairground buildings.
She said that she will present the fundraiser to the fair board at their next meeting, which will be held at the fairgrounds in Ironwood on Tuesday at 6 p.m.
