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Conference teaches about county issues

HARRIS — Members of the Delta County Board of Commissioners learned about pension funding, services for veterans, and other topics during the recent U.P. Association of County Commissioners Spring Conference. This conference was held at the Island Resort and Casino on May 18 and 19.

During the first day of the conference, attendees heard an update on the Municipal Employees’ Retirement System (MERS) of Michigan from MERS Regional Manager Terra Langham and Marquette City Administrator Scott Erbisch. Years ago, communities involved with MERS did not have to fully fund pensions given to employees through the system. However, after the return on investment of money put into MERS was found to be lower than expected, it began requiring larger payments from each community involved with the pension program.

“We’ve been dealing with this for years,” Delta County Board of Commissioners Chair David Rivard said.

According to Rivard, Delta County has been doing a good job of keeping up with these payments so far.

“We’re in very good shape at this point,” he said.

Commissioner Theresa Nelson said this is due in large part to the work done by County Administrator Ryan Bergman.

“He’s very on-track … he looks at projections ahead of time,” she said.

A presentation later that day, given by Director of Targeted Outreach for the Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency (MVAA) Rob Price, focused on services for veterans. This presentation gave attendees information on the structure of the MVAA and the services they provide, which include medical appointments and transportation for veterans.

Nelson noted that Delta County’s medical transportation services for veterans will be expanding in the near future.

“We’re going to have a van in Delta County sometime maybe this summer,” she said.

Other presentations during the first day of the conference touched on subjects such as cybersecurity and trends in energy usage.

On the second day of the conference, Nelson and Rivard attended a Michigan Association of Counties update and legislator forum. Sen. Tom Casperson, Rep. Beau LaFave, and Rep. Scott Dianda were in attendance for the latter event, along with representatives of other legislators.

Among other topics, the “dark store” tax theory was discussed during the legislator forum. This theory allows stores to be valued as if they were out of business for tax purposes.

While new legislation regarding dark stores has been introduced this year, Rivard said there seems to be limited interest in this topic in the House.

“As of this point, we don’t think it’ll get very far,” he said.

Nelson noted that a moment of silence was held in remembrance of Rep. John Kivela, and that his recent death has affected Casperson, LaFave, and Dianda.

“All three … are struggling with this,” she said.

A UPACC business meeting was also held during the second day of the conference. The election of officers for the association took place at this time.

During this meeting, Rivard was elected to be UPACC’s treasurer.

“I appreciate the confidence of the (UPACC) membership,” he said. Rivard’s term will last until UPACC’s spring 2018 conference.

Rivard and Nelson also had a chance to meet with commissioners from other counties in the U.P. during the conference.

“That always proves to be very beneficial,” Rivard said.

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