really appreciate this, finally coming to fruition because it's been a dream of mine to start doing these. In all of the counties that I represent, since I got elected to the Senate, I used to do these when I was a house member in Dickinson, delta Menominee counties, and is basically just supposed to be structured as kind of like coffee hours for local, local leadership, local government, and other local community leaders. So that's, you know, I do the public coffee hours, where anybody can come in, but I like I was trying to do these as well, because it just gives us a chance to, for you guys to know what we're doing in Lansing, and for me to know what you need us to be doing in Lansing. So it's really just supposed to be kind of a conversational thing. And, Judy, I was facilitating those meetings for me when I was in the house by, you know, getting in everybody's agenda items, so I can come as prepared as possible, and, you know,
take to take some notes, because I don't so.
So anyway, that's all it's supposed to be I know, there's been a little like, you know, what, what's it all about and everything, and I'm sorry, there's some confusion about that. It's just supposed to be opportunity to do this. And I will, you know, COVID gonna first I was, I was going to start these when I first got elected. But then I was really busy on the mental health issue across up and was conducting meetings all over on that issue. And then COVID heads and really been a bit afraid to improve where I'm not invited. So lifetime. Anyway, I really wanted to start here in holding, because if I hadn't done anything like this up here yet, so and then Greg has graciously agreed to participate in these and just across the bridge. Right, and Rep. Lafave is, is coming to the one in escanaba later today. So I hope that we can make this kind of a, you know, a quarterly quarterly thing. So, anyway,
so before all that again, COVID. thank both of you for getting the $5.1 million appropriation for the fiscal year 21. I mean, it is, you know, that's been that took a while to get that, but we appreciate that very much the 4 million from the state infrastructure bank, and I know,
I know, to try and pretend
we all we all try to appreciate that very much as 3.3 million 600,000 counting the 1,100,002 will be the county which our share was actually 400,000 that you know, so presumably, that's resolved appreciate that, and percent was vetoed twice by Republican governor. So we appreciate your efforts on that, because that's a big deal. Both of those are a big deal for us.
Thanks, Ben Been a long winding road on those issues. It's just I felt so bad for surname Janine and go give it county and
Julie and Julie Yeah,
I mean, cuz I, we got it. We got it. It's all set and everything. And then the next week, the governor had to veto a cause of COVID. Just, yeah, it's been a roller coaster on that one. Thank you, though. Thank you glad that we were able to get it done. So anyway, I just give you you know, a couple of way I see things right now in Lansing. And like Greg tell you, but he's seen where things things are really strange in my now, eight years, and a couple of months that I've been in state government COVID has just completely altered all the dynamics in a way that I don't think anybody ever imagined. And, you know, what, it's the the partisan nature of the bodies is not even adequate to really explain just how different the dynamics are right now. And
so,
you know, I had interesting debates, even on the Senate floor yesterday, because we were talking about high school athletics and restaurants and all of these things. And you've got my colleague from Southfield, Michigan, who could show me a text message he has from a mayor saying, you've got to go to the governor and get her to not open up
the restaurants.
And then I've got resolutions, and text messages and communications from all over my district, saying the exact opposite. And so you've just got, like two different worlds, right? And you've got one world that same, let's double mask, let's triple mask another world that says, No masks at all. And so it is really frustrating, and to my way of thinking. The hardest part about all this is that when we have these kinds of disputes, that's why we have a democratic process. That's why we have debate and then the majority opinion wins out the day and we go forward, even if we're wrong. I mean, you can Look at our country's history and see we don't have to vote the right way. Right? Sometimes we make dumb mistakes, but that's the way it's supposed to be. But right now, that process has basically been put on hold because of laws that the legislature in the past have passed through that give the executive the authority to walk away from the bargaining table and and prosecute her own agenda to the way she sees fit. And perhaps that is, maybe that's better in the long run, but it's leaving a lot of us who are elected. And I think a lot of our citizens feel very disempowered. No, just left with no recourse to have their opinion, heard. And then to be sure that it was heard, and then to be sure that it's not the minority opinion, right. Everybody just wants to know that they lost fair and square. And right now you don't know. It's like, I feel like I'm in the majority. My opinion rule the day, but we don't take a vote, then we don't know. So it's a really weird and frustrating feeling for everybody. And right now, we're getting started with budgets. And the we're hearing lots from the new leadership in the house, that there and I'll let Greg, you know, give you more detail on it as he can, but that they're much more willing than the previous leadership was to play hardball on the budget with with the governor over the COVID situation. And so that's going to drive tensions up, I think, just to a lot of extent, but that's really not. Ultimately, we're not passing a budget till October anyway. So that's kind of 10 months of discussion to follow. And who knows what's going to happen with COVID during that time period. So I guess that's just a 10,000 foot view of things that I see. How would
you, Greg? Well, yeah, I would challenge anyone to spend a day in our office. And like the senator said, we're being pulled in two different directions. We're getting phone calls, like for the mask, against the mask, open up, stay closed, even across 110th. District. It's, and I have people in my office, I have Nico gounder lives over in Ripley, Chris Hatton, who's my policy man, we know the district when people call we know where bariga is, or Auntie noggin is where crystal falls, ironwood iron river is we know the pulse. We're hearing the pulse of the people. And it is very, it feels like you're being pulled apart. It really does. And even on the floor of the house. You know, there's there's a divide between the Democrats and the Republicans. But, you know, we have a new budget director, budget Chairman, Representative Tom Albert, he's a former Marine Corps officer, devout Christian, he took over for representative Hernandez. And, you know, we have decided that, you know, in order to get some control over the situation, we're going to use the budget to try to get the governor and her administration to the table and try to work things out. Because people want, you know, there's that segment of the population that wants to open segment of population, and we have it right here in Hamilton County. So it's, it's like walking the razor's edge, and we're trying to serve everyone, and yet meet the meet the needs of the people. So it's like we're trying to land with the supplemental budget. We're trying to address education. We're trying to address sports, you know, across the board, so it's Yes, you
have requests to shut down and stay open? Or is it?
I'd say it's two thirds open thirds closed from this district? And I'd say for me for up wide, it's probably closer to 80 or 90%. Open.
Yeah. Versus closed. I'm just speaking on just speaking for this district. But up wide, it is higher. So it's interesting. People. You know, and the other issue is unemployment insurance. You know, we're trying to pump 150 million into the EIA to cover the fraud that the state of Michigan, you know, the Ag and, and the administration won't, you know, we got a big trouble
from the feds, I'm sorry that actually we don't, we got in trouble for the way our state had initiated unemployment payments last spring. And now you know, the feds came in and said you're paying people who shouldn't be getting money and so that's taken a lot of the bandwidth away. And so you already had an agency that was overwhelmed. And now there, it just continues to be a huge mess. And what's even made it more complicated now that I don't think any of us really saw coming is that people's taxes are due. And so people are getting people who the government says you've got your benefits, but haven't actually gotten them yet, are having to pay taxes on money they haven't received yet. And then we have people who the government mistakenly says you got money, and they didn't really get the money. And they're being taxed on money that they're never going to get. And so there's this huge problem. And so now we have this urgency to to fix for people whose taxes are messed up. So if the situation is not improving,
yeah, there's a couple school districts don't state that have had their, their teachers and their support staff, personal information hacked. And that information has been used to file fraudulent claims. And now these people are getting 1099. And they're saying, well, trying to call up and say we didn't ever get this money, and UAA isn't responding. So it's,
it's who's up Unemployment Insurance Agency, or perhaps one of the other things that I'm working on. And, and I haven't had much of a chance to talk to Greg about this yet. But I just had the conversation on the way home yesterday, and I'm hoping to work with Greg and bow on this. And Rep. Ken benzi is on trying to do forgiveness on licenses and fees for bars and restaurants in the coming year. Because I pay a lot of money for those. And then they've had so many days where they weren't allowed to utilize their their license or their permits, it's really complicated, and expensive for the state to rebate that. Or to offer grants back to people, the easiest thing that we can see to do is to just not charge them this year. So just give them this year off. And so we're going to be introducing some legislation on it. But that idea came out of this district, I have a number of bar owners up here, call me up and suggest this. And so I've been working on the rough drafts of that. Yeah, that's gonna be a big portion of supplemental budget is helping small businesses across the state. The property taxes is the other thing, of course, that everybody's asking for. And that's particularly relevant to all of you because of how much the property taxes come to the local units of government. So far, the legislature has twice proposed a property tax mechanism that would pay for the local share, they'll give you a break to the business owners twice that's been vetoed. So we're kind of back to the drawing board with trying to find a way that the governor will approve of that. That's so that's up for discussion yet. But that's a lot of money. It's a huge amount of money. It's done. Anything else you want to say, Greg, kind
of No, it's just we've tried to we're trying to be there for the people, you know, staff in our office, taking phone calls, or even having phone calls forwarded to our phones on the weekends. You know, we're open for business almost seven days a week now. So we're taking four, because we realized and we realized early on that you know, people need someone to vent someone to just pick up the phone and listen to them. So I'm very proud to say that there isn't too many offices that are doing that. We're taking calls seven days a week now.
I'm asking a tough
question, like cafe Rosetta course has been open and, you know, and fined by the state and then there's a court case downstairs. But you know, and the other the other 400 restaurants in the western v have all closed or they're all following takeout? I guess. So of course, some of them are quite upset, you know, that one is, at least has been shut down. Again, civil disobedience is not a bad thing. But at the same time, you know, it's not fair to the other hundreds well counted every number 4050 restaurants that have followed the law I guess this how do you address that as elected official? Like, I mean, that's an issue for us too. But I guess
how do you handle that? Well, for me, I mean, it's most of the communications I've had with restaurant and
bar owners are
really they're very proud of cafe Rosetta. Also the ones that communicate to me they're like, I wish I could have that much courage is what I hear from most of them. And so I haven't it hasn't been a difficult dichotomy for me to deal with. cafe Rosetta has been able to find a way to survive the threats thus far and deal with the legal fees that others didn't feel that they were prepared to do. So. I have, you know, the first shutdown A lot of my restaurants did what they could to survive on takeout. But right now I have more and more of them that are just closed the doors because takeout unless you're in the city and you have a lunch crowd and stuff. I mean, you guys know how it is. I mean, how is that restaurant and Covington supposed to survive. I mean, there's no lunch crowd there that's going to come in for takeout, or the ranville bar down in Dickinson County, there's no lunch crowd. And so, you know, some of them just open up Friday night for fish fry takeout. But other than that, they can't make a go. And so I have not gotten much blowback from places that are mad at Cafe Rosetta, because they mostly, it's just been some pride that somebody is fighting the fight for them.
So I appreciate that, Senator, because I serve that district. Intelligence, and the people are overwhelmingly in support. And it's a mixed crowd of people that go in there, if you observe it, there's many people who actually, there's misinformation spread that saying that that that group of people, whatever that means, is non masters that they discriminate against people who, if you sit there and watch that, that's restaurant front, there are tons of people that walk in with masks, get their order, sit down through a table and then remove their master following that protocol. There are people who said we would wish that they would adopt the mass protocol, which was present when restaurants world and that's, you know, that's that that's, I believe, is probably true. But the bottom line is, it's not a raffle. It is it is peaceful protest against this unfair shutdown.
There was some talk of people getting violent and stuff. And I immediately was, you know, did what I could with police communications to make sure that wasn't happening. It was there's no profit in that. That would be completely counterproductive. We did have
one gentleman who saw fit to stand there with a rifle slung on his shoulder, he was not from home county, he has been strongly advised not to continue to do that. And there's no need for that, that's not controlled to use to push or confuse the issue here. This is not, you know, right to carry or anything. No, it's a good peaceful operation. And it's unfortunate that and and I and as well as holding my breath to see what because I'm contacted by numerous business people who say they support they go there. And it's it's, it's, it's, it's a horrific situation and needs that we need opener. And
don't get me wrong, I got calls from people who were upset with me with them and felt differently. I'm not saying that there weren't at the end, I I'm just, you know, for
the same dynamics you gentlemen were talking about. But beyond that, we need to open our sports arenas. Alright. That that is the life of many of our young people, boys and girls. And there's no good reason for them to not be out there playing hockey. Statistically, there's hardly any COVID information on that
a true what's been really interesting to me, and I don't know how long you want to stick on targeting statistics and COVID. But, you know, the spikes that we experienced last fall in the Upper Peninsula, and for a few weeks, we were leading the nation for hotspot, right. But that spike was already coming down by 30%, or even 35%. According to DHHS, his own data, before the new stay at home or safe closure, whatever the pause, whenever it was caused, called, was initiated in November that was already trending downward. Now, the governor and her people believe that the continuation of that downward trend is directly attributable to their pause to their action. I look at that statistic and say, I don't know that that's that there's a causal or if it's correlation. And when I look at other states that went through the same kind of cycles to them shut down, and they saw massive spikes, and then downward trends and so all across the nation, I think you can look and see whether states have a really tight closure policy, or they have a wide open policy. Everybody's kind of going through the same waves and cycles. And I think the most, in my opinion, and this is why we should have a debate on this. I believe in Lansing. In my opinion, the data shows that all these closures and things doesn't actually alter the ultimate outcome. Because the biggest thing that impacts it is when our hospitals were suddenly very full. And mean, especially market was really overwhelmed there for a brief time period. And I've talked to them, they don't attribute the downward cycle to the governor's orders at all. But they attribute his peoples in the neighborhood said, things are bad, I'm not going to go places for a while, I'm going to stay home, no. And people took control of their own life instead of time to slow things down. And that that had more impact on the outcome than than legal, arm twisting. That's how I interpret the data. Obviously, other people interpreted differently. And in this country, when you have those differences, I think we should debate that, but I'm repeating myself in
virtually any other state in the union and conduct business in a fairly normal fashion, you know, with with some restrictions, some social distancing and so forth speaks volumes. I mean, isn't it something else, when you can drive, you can stop in Florence, Wisconsin, and pull over and have a normal dinner?
I'll tell you, these orders are as bad as it is for all of you up here. It's really killing us on the border. Yeah, Indiana, Ohio and Wisconsin border. those communities are, I mean, because why go to take out an Iron Mountain, if you can go across to Aurora and eat at the TNT or bartoletti. You know, and so it's really just my I have several colleagues in the Senate this week who are like, I'm going to the Free State of Indiana for you know, for dinner.
And all of our hockey programs are going to Wisconsin, a college level. A college is playing in Illinois this week, but even the small kids because they're not allowed to play here. Everybody's going to Wisconsin to play hockey, which is and how is that better? health wise? Yeah.
I mean, so Bay College because our state is saying you have to test your players six days a week. Bay College is like, well, if we go out of state then we don't have to. So they've scheduled all the way games no home games, because the way teams don't want to pay for that to come here. So they just go somewhere else. And that's not
variations can afford keep the eyes Yeah,
so I know guys, I know. We love round. Yeah, why don't we do that, Judy? That's a good idea. We'll start with the gentleman here because I know this one already.
My mail costs will open county commissioner, board chair.
Kevin capo and your Sheriff and 911 coordinator,
Tom ticket and
border commission.
Bread.
Milk is close.
Ryan McLean.
Larsen county administrator
john Dudley city old police. Gretchen Janssen,
Commissioner for District Four.
Anderson.
Roy bridge Commissioner, district five.
One of the other topics I want to talk about because I know we asked the police here, especially because of this is the transportation of patients. The involuntary transportation issues. And it's such a big one. Yeah. It's all over the UK. It's huge. We talked before I even got elected. I had been working on the issue and I was in the house.
It's
continued to get worse for everybody. And we are introducing our bill on this issue which we've asked to the Senate last year but it's called out in the house. But we're reintroducing it next week. And we've been meeting with Scott Rutter, we probably know from Iron Mountain. He is the Dickinson county sheriff. They have some concerns. We're gonna probably making some slight amendments to deal with ambulance issues. They had some concerns about that. But I think we're making really good progress the new chair in the house, Mary white furred is extremely supportive of the issue. Um, she's a nurse by training before she was in the legislature. And so I really think we have a great opportunity to get it done. It's I know, it's been a 10 year slog since I've been in trying to get all the hurdles cleared. But in case you don't know what the current version of the bill is, because the law says that you have to have an officer of the court to put somebody in this custody we've we've been trying so hard to find a way to thread this needle, even to repealing that but I couldn't get the support from the HHS to repeal that part of the law.
So
the current version that we've worked out that seems to be getting a lot of traction, would allow the county to create a panel that sort of similar to your old concealed carry panels that used to have and that panel would Then be allowed to hire or vet recommend a policy that would allow you to hire a private security firm to do the transportation. They would have to have certain credentialing, certain licensing. But we have one in up that's we've been modeling this after Delta Force. It's run by a couple of former police officers, right, Judy. Yep. And they they've been working really tight with us on this, she has exceptional level of training when it comes to dealing with folks with mental health issues already. And they would be able to contract with the counties then to provide this service. Or Tony is the bearer stage thing. So at this point, it would still be the county pay, but it would be less money, it'd be less money for all the different police entities involved. And I'm hoping it will give us the ability then to then go to state and get the money from the state because right now, the billing comes from such a disparate amount of parties that the DHHS can basically say, Oh, we don't, we can't do it. But once we get it narrowed down so that the county is I was paying for this, it's going to be a lot easier for me to say you pay for it in these other counties, which they do. They do pay for it and other counties, it's only up here in the up that we're getting the short end of the stick on this. And we've got
the longest running right now. How can we decrease, you know, I go to a call with somebody that has anxiety and you say, okay, we're gonna take you to the hospital, and we're gonna put you in a police car, drive you 500 miles away, improve your anxiety? Yeah, I mean, it doesn't make sense. I know, at one time, they were speaking that it wasn't only the limit of events in Marquette, that was a problem. It was that there was a something in the Michigan law that stated that a PA couldn't work for a psychiatrist, which limits the amount of people that could be in market, just because, you know, they one psychiatrists can only oversee so many people. And if they could change a law that would allow a PA to serve under that person and administer medications, they could increase the amount of people would
this that that exact issue is something when I was doing the tour across the UPM, mental health policy in general, yes, was sending we were very much tracking and hoping. No God and I worked hard on that for Yeah, for a year. And we were planning to have a up wide meeting to present to everybody what we found from all of our meetings across up, and then COVID hit and so all that's been put on ice, but that's still very much a law that we need to change and affect. I'm just still trying to pursue this transportation issue as kind of a stopgap measure because it costs all of us so much. And personally, a liability you all are potentially exposed to because it's amazing to me was how many folks were transporting that somebody hasn't died in a police car. And a family hasn't sued one of our agencies for that, because it's sued the state for allowing, and no offense to anybody on the force. But allowing folks who aren't really trained to deal with mental health emergency that might happen to be transporting somebody who's sick, basically, you know, as if they were a prisoner. And so I have one course it's a real disaster waiting to happen to me,
we share ourselves office we and we did put the numbers together for the commissioners and we're like, from a given year, we're in the high 90s mid 90s of transports. And 80% of them are downstate. And I think it cost us about I think we put the numbers together one time is $2,000 just get to go the bridge and back on our budget. So you go 80% times that number. But the one part and I wanted to ask you senator in that when I was reading them new things you are trying to do voice the ambulance ride. We pay 18 $100 to take a patient or an inmate from the home county jail to the hospital. So if you're gonna pay 18 $100 to do that, that cost bringing them down to Grand Rapids to say going out to whatever is going to kill my budget
that's um that's what's got runners brought to our attention to and so we're we're working on making sure that doesn't happen
because if we get to that point I'm still gonna send deputies known statements that I know because these people that are commissioners are gonna bark at me because we're spending $5,000 $6,000
remember nothing in the bill that I'm proposing as a mandate. I mean, this would be give you the authority to do this, to look at it and see if it saves you money. So, I mean, there's no mandate here.
So it's not all or nothing. So if you have a person that needs to be transported in, they're really hard to handle, you might want to call Delta Force to do it, they might get the worst of the worst,
what gives them the authority to throw him in handcuffs? Because we'll stop on a Sunday stretch and after wrestle with a guy? I mean, you're gonna have some kind of protection under the law.
You absolutely have to do that. That's, that's in the bill. Yes,
these guys are well prepared.
At Can I see a question I've been told. And of course, I've only started here since August, the third. But in the old days, it used to be some cost sharing. And I guess I appreciate all the stuff you're doing that you just mentioned. But what about the cost sharing? Is there somewhere that are you talking about to Kevin's point in our budget that obviously that's what I'm in charge of? What would it mean to us if we get some chance to get some share funds with mental health agencies, and
you're talking about cost sharing on this transportation issue? Specifically, that's, that's what I'm trying to say. I mean, right now, up counties,
what I've discovered is there's no
uniformity in how we're handling this issue. Except for the fact that we have to take them down state and it costs us a lot of money. There's really no uniformity. I mean, different counties are handling it differently. Some of them put all the burden on the sheriff's department. Some of them split up the burden on a rotational basis, on between different agencies. Some of them are whoever brings them in that that's their responsibility until the last day. So because there's no uniformity to it, it's been really difficult for me to go to DHHS, and say, you need to start sharing these costs. Because they're like, well, who are we going to pay? Who's billing different agencies charge different amounts, so they don't want it? they're just, they're closing their eyes to it. I mean, they it's wrong, but I'm having a hard time prosecuting the issue because there's no, I can't just bring them one formula and say, here it is, and fix it. So I'm hoping that if we can put this into play, and it saves money, because nobody's going to do it, if it doesn't save money. But if we can make this work, and it shows that it saves money, and several the counties take advantage of it, it's gonna be a lot easier for me to go to DHHS, and say, now you have a reason to, and a way to finance this.
When I look at it, it saves money, we still got to pay. And that's the part I hate doing. I know.
I know. I
can just be historically for our agency. Going back 40, almost 40 years.
Polk County was one of the last counties in the Upper Peninsula to get reimbursement from mental health. Apparently, some time before, there was an agreement between the local mental health board country mental health, and the Board of Commissioners where there was a some sort of program that came up they needed the support of the commissioners. And in return for that, they agreed to cover the costs of the transportation of these cases down to the hospitals once the certificate was issued. And the county did the billing. They billed for the actual costs of the trip, the hourly wage and benefits for the officers, the vehicle, the fuel and the per diem, etc, etc, etc. And once a month they build mental health, mental health and reimburse the county and we were able to handle the loan fine. Are then mental health Director Dr. Pollack, who was a very much of an advocate because we get along very well.
Over kind of overstepped his authority when the state actually came from State Department management budgets, and you will no longer pay any company anything. We actually existed another year or two, with his support, until they threatened him to just cut his budget all together. He didn't stop it. So apologetically, that program right then and there, but it was driven out of Lansing,
it wasn't driven out of our local cut
right here mental health center, because ours had been funded for years with the endowment from the rice fund. So they had money and they agreed to share it, because that was a local cooperative thing to do, which we don't see it from coming from Lansing, so but it's a recurring cost just under $100,000 a year anywhere from 60 to $90,000. A year that the company no funds, or our guys do it. Now, having said that, there, it seems to me, an immediate band aid for the problem was if we could convince them to reimburse counties for their actual costs, and we appreciate the legislation. It's a great idea because you know, We've always said, you know, to uniforms in a uniform car person mental problems. But we do run into the issues of what about the extreme patient? You know, by law, the police are the last ones the ability to lay hands on people, the restraining and all that. That's problematic, although it will probably could be ironed out in law. We see that legislation taking much, much longer than maybe the colonies could hang on. And I'm just making a suggestion that if we could start by supplementing the company budget back, and I know we have plans to meet with our local mental health board to start at the local level to see about them helping make that change. But I had a suggestion because that the other I think it's going to hammer Oh, 234 years down the line, we can certainly try to find the approach at once. your suggestion is that's fair. Definitely. Greg, and I can go back and talk to them about a two pronged approach. I think it's important to recognize that, you know, part of what made this all change to is the loss of a state hospital in the Upper Peninsula.
A lot of the trade magazines are saying it's time to bring back. I know, we've always said that.
Transport should do very was a lot simpler issue than rate
for the patient to use up it is like leaving it in Holland to get back.
Yeah, no.
That's not the way to treat treating patient. Services, I'm sorry. But the social services part of that got a big increase in the budget. And the mental health services were put down, Laurie, however, the mental health services are doing quite well around here. And I think that it would be the responsibility of instead, reimburse us for for their service. And if they can work that in their budget, and send it to Lansing and increase their budget to do that, and everything will be fine. You don't have to change it or have to hire nobody. And we'll just all them people and get paid for.
There's a guy I was talking to a to conversations with arrows named on course, I can't remember it. But the former mayor of Danny Carl, and he was a prison guard by trade. He works with a company out of Duluth, Minnesota that does mental health transports. However, there are only four the voluntarily voluntary, versus not the involuntary. So I said, well, that raises a whole lot of questions, because we got to get the judges to go along with it. We have to get the prosecutor we're going to get mental health cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But his company apparently is very interested in getting into Michigan, and New Jersey, use transports even voluntary legislation, as you mentioned, we'll have to change in order to accommodate that. But so yeah, people are thinking about it.
Well, it's all a work in progress, guys. And I like the idea of appreciate you pursuing the money on a different angle. And no, absolutely tried that. But I can't honestly hold out to a lot of hope, because it's a big chunk of money. I mean, you're talking almost six figures for this County alone. And there's 15 counties up here to deal with it.
The real problem is eartip, Wayne County will have to Holland very far. Right, don't realize that they're taking over Right, right.
That's the one thing they control, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, I know that's a big part of their thing is going across state lines. I would rather send my guys to Green Bay or Ashland, in three and a half, four hours that border. Our border counties are doing that. But I believe our judges are dead set against it. And because they're following some kind of obscure,
this is something else we found, as Judy and I toured up doing this is that there is a huge, huge disparity and what different officials, even sheriffs, and judges all believe they are allowed or not allowed to do. Or it's very inconsistent. And you'll go to one Sheriff's Department and they say, we're not allowed to do this and this other counties violating the law, then you go to that county, and they're like, Well, our prosecutor told us not to worry about it. And and and then I've talked to DHHS officials and those who do the pre screening. And there is a huge lack of consistency across the up and how we handle these things. And you've got some counties that are very flexible, and whatever happens happens, and we hope we don't get in trouble. You got other ones who are very rigidly sticking to the law.
Or if you look at Menominee County, they actually bring their patients in Wisconsin to get them evaluated.
So they only have to drive an hour today but they don't have a hospital in Menominee county to get away with it differently.
If I heard you right, this idea of passes and we have a local panel we can have issues with that local panel needs to go Now
that we all agreed, that's what some of the hope is, and all of this Yes. And like I said, nothing I'm trying to create here would mandate to do any of these things that simply give you a new tool that would hopefully be a starting point.
The other hard thing that has been mentioned already, like like last week, we sent two of our officers to Auburn Hills.
And then by attending make that long of a drive, they're gonna go to back gala, super nice hotel bill. Yeah, it is common sense. But
now it's a cost sinless to guys with the wear and tear the vehicle, if you will, you know, a hotel and gala because you're not gonna drive down and the overtime of the guys here. I don't know what force you I don't know what your force levels are anymore. But I know when I deal with Gladstone, you got four guys. You send two of them on the road. That means the other two guys are working overtime to absolutely yes.
Senator and representative in the interest of time, I can actually move on to the wire trail, recreational trails, quickly, largely through the efforts of myself and Commissioner Anderson. The recreation authority This is exists now. Virtually all the municipalities within the county have joined. It is active. We're fresh out of the blocks, but we're collaborating with the DNR to try to get progress, meaningful progress and getting close trails opened up. They were closed, as Greg knows, from the Father's Day flood. Like how much money was allocated already to the liquid in
the loop? The 8 million there's 3.3 million to get to go. So what's that 4.7 million.
And it was it was on track to hopefully be open by next season, although that's not happening now. Because with when COVID showed up, even monies that were already allocated to it went away. I can only assume that that's gone away and never to be seen again. I don't know what happened with that thing. We can't get a straight answer really from the DNR not trying to gripe overly much about the DNR the look up staff that's been not responsive. And we've had several meetings with them. But that is recreational trails, you would think and most circles would be a lower priority. Not so much up here. Our economy is really tied to it. There has been some progress on on rectifying issues between here and chassell. However, it's a devastating blow to our communities such as Lake Linden, and our recreation industry in general not having that loop from Hancock to Lake Linden open.
The same holds true with the freedom loop that's shut down now. The you know, we have suggested and suggestions coming from both sides to see if we can coordinate some efforts get some involvement from senior design students at Michigan Tech to help of our home county road Commission has been very receptive to help him with some engineering and, and, you know, subcontracting, you know, for the DNR also maybe even engaged in some culvert replacement or trail repairs on the freedom stretch. But this has been on hold for quite a while. Obviously we had to get roads open first. But now I think that this is a paramount importance. So county get those trails repaired and open. There's been a lot of effort put into it, such as preliminary engineering and some mapping between here and Lake limit. But BAFTA will be following up with with your office's we greatly appreciate any support that you can lend as we go forward on that. Glenn. comments on that.
No, just for a little bit frustrated. They don't and the DNR is trying is we know you guys don't want to be in a million dollar locker and a lot of Conservation Fund granting that this winter. They applied for the VA grant last fall that was turned down but they at least are making the efforts.
Did you guys be I think I know the answer to this. But what I'd like to propose doing is to ask my colleague, john bumstead, who chairs the DNR s budget to actually come here. Would you take him out to see the trail and see the problem makers?
I think that would help a lot.
Yeah, I john has been instrumental in acquiring the funds done and go give it that we needed to do the trail connectivity there. Especially after the closing Prison. JOHN really helped me out a lot there. But John's a total outdoorsman. I mean, it was all over the world hunting. He loves hiking.
Love in the movie. Oh, yeah. So I accident
with your department handle that too, with a gentleman that would have been on the trail. Except for the chancel.
Yeah,
that I'm glad you brought that up, because we've gotten phone calls about getting more trail markers out. So you know, DMS can respond more timely with this.
This was a great river River. He was on a bicycle on the road because he could cross the the trestle there, because from the flood there. If you see that a lot, you actually you're putting pedestrians in the, you know?
Do I need to wait until the snows don't ask john to come look at it? Or is it convincing to see even with the snow on it, you could do both anything, we have snow,
whatever. Whatever works best for
12 months out of the year.
I think it would really be the best possible thing is if I could get john to come on, take a look at personally
whatever we can do to coordinate
as bad as that trail is between Hubble and liquid and we're actually dollar being lakelyn and you ain't going to go with a snowmobile because that's why we needed fixed your own air 50 feet and up 50 feet, you can hardly walk it
right, right and right on the highway that takes you from Lakeland into Calumet, I'm 26. Very easy to take us out of snowshoes and walk up there you will see there's a trestle that goes out purely to the north to the south, you would see a 400 foot chasm that is just obviously you cannot drive.
I mean, you guys have convinced I mean, Greg lives here, you've convinced me. I mean, I've been out in the communities, I know the impact that not having this loop available is having. But then I have lived but then I have to continue to communicate that third hand to john. And I think it's probably best if I get him to come and sit here with your trail clubs with you, and then go out and look at it. Anytime he's available is it's taking too long. This is all taking way too long answer
to that. They said we got parallel trails, which are eight miles apart. They're not really they're parallel. I don't mean you can see I 75 is in Washington, you know,
there's quite a bit of progress made on that as far as the pre planning and all that but we need to we need to punch this through.
Well, let me get let me talk to john and see if I can get him to come up here. that would that would probably be the best
number for two. We can also be very glad to take him on a set of snowshoes it's not that far off the highway to go see the numbers to see they did buy the land is bought by the DNR and how do we turn it into a legitimate area which would mean a parking structure or parking area. And certainly,
I'm sure if I can get john to come up here he'd be happy to take a look at but I'll tell you John's one of those guys who's a lot more about the recreation, the machine power and taking a rifle out then he is about looking at
real real quick because this will be coming up. I'm probably crashing through your offices at some point. Douglas falls property. The DNR even recognizes it as this highest waterfall in the state of Michigan. They do and their communications make some reference that hey, we were going to develop this park in collaboration with Sallie Mae township that they change their mind. false false false about Calumet township stands by ready to collaborate on the on the planning for this. They were never under understanding that they would be on the hook financially,
which they don't have. We're talking about a township
budget to develop apart. That's the
whole point of the state purchasing and hence a state already purchased it. Yeah, yes. So did who owned it beforehand? Was it privately? Yes. Private, privately by like a power company.
And the farmer a farmer? Oh,
okay. So far. But at any rate, no. So we're ready
to
join hands and get that open because it needs to be developed because people are always asking to get in there. People sometimes do go in regardless. And but until we get proper trails and safety protocol in place, including fences. It's not a place to to go. Okay. wandering through. Anyway, you'll be hearing about that. appreciate your support. And then well,
I got I read the letter that Stacy Wellington recently sent on it as well. So keep working on it.
If you have a certain priority, what would it be? The trail or the Douglas balls Gotta set a priority.
What's the recycling issue that somebody put on the agenda? What's that
about? That's with the our transfer station or solid waste transfer station, we have a very strong movement that our community wide to increase the amount of materials being recycled as opposed to being hauled to the landfill.
A certain county have a landfill,
no, we contract with waste management in salt to the Greenland facility. Unfortunately, we do not have a landfill, we don't want to wait. But we do want to reduce the amount of material going there. And the there, it's been investigated, at least over the course of a couple more years now, possibly even lease it to a transfer station to a recycling company. Or maybe even so you know, the operation. Get it on the tax rolls. It's it's a, but in the short term, we will be requesting and are issuing an RFP for recycling services at the transfer station. And so we're, we're, again, pretty fresh out of the blocks with this latest format, where the county still retains ownership and operates the facility, but we're going to need to put it out for an RFP for you know, having a recycling center where people can bring in materials, and it will eventually be collected and transported. Probably everything seems to equal waste out in the river, you know, cuz that's a company that manages pays bills based on recycle.
What about the work that Michigan Tech's been doing with Marquette and their recycling facilities? Is that
any that's not out of the question. However, it's the the real rep comes with, you know, we can collect materials here. But how do we get those out of the area in a cost efficient manner? And to date, the Merthyr and all that that they're working on down there? They'll gladly receive materials, they it's volume. They want it all Yeah, but there's no services available at this time that are portable to get our materials from here to mark cap is just as quick a trip to Eagle, Eagle waste and recycling in Eagle River, Wisconsin for us.
No chance of details need to be worked out no chance of using rail or something for that. Not enough volume.
You know, we have the rail rail service here.
I mean, you've got it just south of you a little lace.
Yeah. Well, that's that's that's the whole issue is in the short term. We want to we want recycling drop offs available at our transfer station. And because our county budget, thanks to good fiscal responsibility for working here, we're in the black bear.
So what do you need from us when it comes to this issue? What can we do to help you?
I guess, just, you know, more more support to you know, a state what the state's policy will be for recycling now, in the immediate future. I mean, if we have to invest in more recycling, which has been talked about I'm sure that's probably delayed because I mean, in Michigan, as you know, has a pretty pretty weak history of recycling, even even other other states around us. So you know, I think that's the biggest thing is what we have to know to invest in for recycling. So we know what to what to do in the next couple of years, to try to be smart so that we can know what's going to happen statewide with recycling and what their priorities are. So
the previous director of dq, Dan Wyatt, some of you might remember that name. He was working very diligently on a major overhaul of our state recycling plan. And then the Flint water crisis happened and Dan left and everything kind of ground to a halt and he was they worked on the Flint Water situation. The new directors come in who I like very much director Clark on I've spoken with her a lot about updating our state recycling plan and then COVID it and so once again, just these other things keep cropping up, but I'll tell you from my observation, the the the one item that continues to function as linchpin in the whole discussion on recycling in Michigan is our bottle deposit law. And people love the bottle deposit law. They like how it keeps our highways clean. People understand Hey, I paid the 10 cents, I get my 10 cents back. But it's a really, really badly written law. As much as it seems to function fine. It's a really poorly written law, the legislature back in the 70s, wouldn't pass one. So the people went out and created a petition. And the ideas and the concepts might be sound, but the whole execution of the law is really bad. And so in order to get a serious recycling plan in place, we need to also reform the bottle deposit law and the controversy that erupts over that is enormous. And so you've got, you've got people who want to say, well, let's fix the bottle deposit first. You've got people say, let's fix recycling first. And then you got ones like myself and Greg, and beau, who are like, I don't see how you fix either one of them individually, when it's they're so intertwined together. So it is, if, and I say all this just to lay out to you, I don't think you're going to see a very soon arriving state comprehensive plan on recycling. I don't think it's going to change anytime soon.
I think what, what you might see more more recently from this effort is we're keeping a close watch. For new grant programs, they'll probably come out what next month from the queue, for planning and for developing an infinite level network of getting material shipped out of here. So when that happens, it will follow up with
this give us not only partner withholding county at all in these enterprises.
The quick answer is no. But I would think that there's potential for that. Okay. Yeah. On a community level base, they are conducting some recycling drop off centers, copper Harbor, Eagle Harbor, those are the two more active communities.
I guess I would just weigh in on priorities to me, we still have to respectfully request to finish off the the payment of the state infrastructure by Lowndes County and Barre County. And that's, that's a total of 3.8 million, of which 3 million is still owed and counties. And I know, we're down to me, we appreciate the payments that we've gotten, you know, we know the $4 million dollars from roads was fantastic. We're still paying off the flight as well, yes. And then right behind it, of course, would be the true like one and trail segment, you know, which again, is 3.3 million today. And then I agree, I mean, three, the third priority, but still a priority would be the Douglas Holton just because of the amount of tourist attraction that can really become, but there are Trust Fund monies. I mean, the DNR has used that to get the purchase price, you know, acquisition, they certainly can use it again, once the master land has agreed to. So I think that one, there's at least funding for that that can come out of the DNR process in time, although, again, this priority. I mean, I think Stacy said because of the high water and flooding and middle and stuff, your priorities might not be as high as it was. And I'm
hoping that the constitutional amendment that got passed last fall proposal or or
I think it was,
yeah, but it hopefully that's going to make requesting some of this funding for some of these trails easier than was in the past. Alright,
those are our three priorities. I
mean, Douglas will be a destination point for people from all over the Midwest. We'll get you guys in again if
you haven't seen it.
Because I'm coming up.
So we'll escort so
I mean, I know there's a lot of foreigners, there's quite a few different falls across the Upper Peninsula. This is the biggest point St. Paul is waterfall. Okay. So how tall is it when I'm a geologist, really,
the geologists just, it's really it's it's on their bucket list is to
see if it's a big river that flows in or
mammals prefer that flow of water, but it's just it's a real dynamic. So
they come in me.
That's perfect. Okay,
in this state, don't think it's huge.
So what I see the last thing I see the last thing on the agenda we haven't touched on is and forgive me for trying to keep us going. But I got I've got a meeting like this in delta county later two and a three hour drive. So the update on the county recreational authority, somebody.
Okay, we exist, we're up on our hind legs. Like I said earlier, just about every municipality, village township in Oakland County, a car and our members. We've had a couple of meetings. The work closely aligned with the warfighter and kita and the Chamber of Commerce on this, and we collaborate closely with the DNR already. So we're this this is a community driven group. And the DNR was thrilled that we had this organization put together a lot act that it's one
makes it a lot easier for them is
Greg, our county engineer, and it's just make one comment to you.
Yeah, that's fine. We still got a few minutes yet. I just want to keep us rolling. Hey,
this is Kevin, how
are you? Okay. You know, Kevin? Hi. Hi, Kevin.
I just start off by, I guess, reiterating what everyone else say. And thanks for including, including us in the budget for this year to help us recover from the Father's Day flood. And I guess I look forward to working with you in the future, because there still is a need, as Commissioner Anderson mentioned. And I hope hope we can address that maybe through the possibly the COVID transportation bill, or through the supplemental bill would be great. I'd also like to thank you for increasing the amount of time that Royal Commission can extend their financing from 15 to 30 years that'll really help some of the Royal royal commissions finance facilities. But there still is a big, a big need for the flood repairs, and there's a lot to go, there's going to be over 75 million roughly repairs in home county, over 40 million just on a royal commission system. So there still is a need. I did talk to Greg this morning, representing working and pull them up and get him some numbers. I'll work with the cities and villages see what that exact number is. And hopefully we can, you know, spearhead like, you know, we've worked with you in the past to get that added to one of these bills. So we can make this area whole because it's been complicated with COVID. So it's been hard for everybody. And I know it's real tough for you guys to because there's a lot of money being spent on COVID. But we still have a need. And we hear the rumblings that Midland, you know, and we feel sorry for their flood event also, but our flood was prior to theirs. And we're still on hold. So we would like to really work on that this year, if possible. Thank you.
Thank you. Thanks, Kevin. Yeah, the the Midland situation. And I just shared with you I mean, it's been I was on a committee that did some investigation on that. And the our state's policies surrounding dams, and dam safety is just really appalling, because we put fish way before we put human safety, and it's awful. But I can't tell you that the chairman of Senate Appropriations is from Midland. So they're probably going to get that to the table a little faster than we are. Yeah. And but the chairman is also a big part of why we got the money we did get for up here because Jim's Thomas met with juliann. He met with Kevin, and others. And Jim's Thomas got us the money we got. So I mean, he's been a good partner. But I also know he's going to look out for Midland very closely to share if you had something you wanted out
real quick. So I don't know. But it's perplexing policy, the DNR and fish are coming out with the white fish.
It was a major news story and better effects. A
lot of
a lot of the community. Yes. What's going on there? What what's the sudden change?
And again,
as we talked about these philosophies of government entities, making rules that aren't passed through the legislature that really hits shone on that, and of course, the DNR gets beat up a lot.
Yeah. Well, you know, what's going on there? I do. And Greg does, too. But I've been the chairman on natural resources now in the Senate. And we've been deep dive, I spent three months doing a workgroup on the commercial fishing issue, issued a massive report came up with significant reforms to the law, and the DNR said no to every one of them. So it's been very frustrating. I'll give you the real quick summary. Because you're exactly the legislature's of the past, not just in Michigan, but all over have just deferred so much of their power and decision making authority to the executive. It's been that way, you know, really for about 70 or 80 years, and there's no term limits. Right. So I mean, I can give you all sorts of interesting papers on the rise of the bureaucratic state, right, but so anyway, setting so we passed the commercial fishing law in 1929. We passed another one in the 50s. The fish fishery collapsed in the 60s very badly across all the Great Lakes. And we had over 2000 commercial fishermen in Michigan alone at that time. So 1969, they passed our current commercial fishing law. We have not revised it since 1969. And there's a section in that law that literally says, notwithstanding anything else written in this entire bill, the DNR has the full authority to abrogate suspend, amend, alter those policies and implement whatever they need to do to protect the fishery.
So, since that time, then the DNR has done just that, which is part of why the law never gets updated, right? Because the legislature is like, Yeah, whatever. And so we've shrunk our commercial fishing industry down to 13 people in the meantime, and we've grown the fishery up and managed it for recreational fishing. And to the credit of our recreational fishermen. They invested a huge amount of money in helping to restore the fishery, especially when it comes to walleye, bass and some of those species of fish trout. Interestingly enough, though, was not paid for through those dollars, but paid for with just federal general funds to the tune of about 3 million fish planted a year in Michigan and Huron, Lake Superior trout fishery didn't collapse came close, but didn't collapse and has grown up back on its own. So all that being said, the DNR has managed this now since 1969, through orders under that provision. Now the DNR has decided that was that law is not stable. And so they've retracted all the orders that they've issued, and put the fishery now under statute and old rules. And those old rules, one of them, and statutes say you can't fish in deeper than 80 feet of water. Well, that's really difficult now for our commercial fishermen that remain to survive and fishing and only less than 80 feet of water. And so on top of that, the DNR said that wasn't going to issue the permits, the annual renewal that was supposed to come out didn't happen. So now there's a lawsuit between the commercial fishermen and the department. The department is also up to its neck in the renegotiation with the tribes on the tribal fishing rights, called the consent decree that comes up every 20 years. There was a lot of talk from the recreational and the department in the last several years that they needed to basically punish our own commercial fishing industry, so that we could go to the judge and say, see, we're doing it to our guys, therefore, it be fair to do to the tribes as well. I think that was very poor strategy. And because the judge, why would the tribes agree to that, and basically, they have treaty rights, so they get whatever they want, within some minor limits. So strategically, I don't think it was a wise move. But you do have a very, very powerful and significant lobby that wants to end all commercial fishing in Michigan waters. And their influence is very high in this debate. And so they proposed a law change. Last year that came through my committee that would basically have destroyed commercial fishing. Like I said, I did the workgroup, I proposed amendments, 134 of them. The DNR said no. And that's brings us pretty much up to date, where we're at right now, I believe, strongly. And I know Greg does, too. All the up team does, that there's enough fish and enough space to share the lakes between the recreational and the 13 commercial fishermen that remain in this state. But others disagree very strongly have even threatened me for suggesting such a thing. So it's a really, it's a really tough situation right now. And and you guys are recognizing I'm sure that the white fish industry alone is so culturally significant to our communities up here for me Friday night, fish fries are a staple of up culture and around the state. white fish is the only fish right now the commercial fishermen are allowed to really access and sell. I'm suggesting they be allowed a tiny percentage of the trout that they're already catching but die in their nets that they could keep them sell those,
but throw it back.
So anyway,
so it's it. Anyway,
there's many, many more details I could go into. That's just a quick summary. I know wasn't too short. You can tell me how you can tell that I'm very invested in trying to find a solution. Any other questions are either online or in person? No, I
just want to comment on number seven. And you guys I know you gotta go. Um, I have a 13 year old daughter at Johns Are you? Um, I'm seeing with depression and kids, even my own daughter.
Yeah. And this is hidden, because I have to deal with her.
But we've got
we seriously
on a state level and this the depression for not just for kids, I mean for our communities at large is, I'm afraid, guys, I'm very afraid that when we come out of our cave, or COVID caves and come back out into the light and the communities are open back up, that we are not prepared for the devastation that we're going to find to to our communities, the restaurants and places they want to put it in number one. So we're very sensitive. Not it's not just the winter sports, but that's a huge part. I'm glad in a way, in general, right.
That's our that's our outlet up here.
That's the only thing. That's the
only thing I wanted to say on that. It's just our kids everyday and the sports and we are used to depression coming out.
Are you seeing more trouble as far as behavioral issues?
Everybody's gone to the computer? Coach, it's just, it's not it's not healthy? I mean, you know, you know, the seniors that lost their home, I mean, you know, season's worth of stuff. And I don't think everybody you know, some people that their high school sports careers, I mean, that's, you know, the real Mondays, right? They talk about it for the rest of their lives. Yeah, you know, but it gets played down. It's even, you know, kids work their whole lives,
you've got kids at the universities, I've been told they have attempted suicide, you know, for some of them, this is their career path. This is what they're there for. And
it's the, you know, I mean, still the leading cause of death is heart disease, you know, we're, and we're playing into, and look, I
mean, I know this is huge. In so many dynamics, we could talk about all the things are missing out on, we know it. And what hasn't made sense to me. And what I've proposed very early on, is that, look, these high school kids, if you don't let them play basketball together, that's not stopping them from hanging out in each other's basis. You're not keeping them safe. Right? You know, what would have made sense was to take the kids in this area that associate together anyway and say, let them play? Yes. Now, don't drive them to Detroit. Don't drive them to Chicago to play games. I mean, even maybe Iron Mountain, you know, okay, because Holton kids and Iron Mountain kids aren't hanging out on the weekends. But they're but Holton and Hancock kids are. So I mean, Iron Mountain, we could have, we could have kept sports running in, in isolation, you know, and played that way. And that would have been much more productive for everybody. And that that idea was rejected.
So we're at where we're at.
You guys get representation you hear from mhsaa? What do you hear about so Roy and I both referee but a different thing? I'm glad you're bringing that into play or not? Yeah.
Well, I'm glad you bring up the mhsaa. I asked yesterday for a legal opinion, on what penalty, the mhsaa is risking, by not following the orders by initiating the season. So I'm waiting to hear back what it is because at least you know, your barn restaurant, right? If they open up illegally, boom, you lose your license to go to court. I mean, we've seen all that playing out. What happens if mhsaa just thumbs his nose at the governor and says, You know what, we're going to start the season up. I don't have the answer to that yet. I'm trying to get that answer.
But I can speak for the local kids and the hockey, basketball, my daughter plays basketball. So put yourself in 100% of the parents that we deal with our kids claim that's coming straight from Oklahoma County,
one of your superintendents up here called me months ago. I mean, it must have been September to say, you know, it's like we are the kids at my school are living in fear over a disease that's less likely to impact them in their families than a car accident is right. And and yet we're teaching them to be afraid. And that's not healthy for my kids. And I just worried about
our kids now. I know
your daughter's lucky
when we go to Wisconsin.
Any other questions or anything else online? Anybody I'm
going to be doing coffee hours on the 12th. They haven't picked a location yet. But if I know there was some members of the public that wanted to come in and I tried to kind of make it clear that they are not going to be
out but in this meeting is really for your local community leadership.
But if you hear somebody who's looking for time, I'm planning to do coffee hours on the train. Well, as soon as everybody's open, I can pick a place and
