Jordan Beck | Daily Press Delta County Administrator Philip Strom is shown at work in his office at the Delta County Courthouse Thursday. Strom has officially marked the completion of his first year in his current position.

ESCANABA — Delta County Administrator Philip Strom officially marked the completion of his first year in his current position Thursday. He took a look back at the county’s accomplishments over the past year and spoke about what he hopes to achieve in the future.

Strom said former county administrator Ryan Bergman had been involved with some things Delta County did over the past year.

“Obviously, there were quite a few things in motion when I came on board as administrator in 2018,” he said.

This included the successful completion of various labor negotiations.

“We were able to cooperatively settle four union contracts in the last 12 months,” Strom said. Among these were contracts with the probate court, corrections department, road patrol and district court unions.

Delta County also added an employee assistance plan to its employee benefit package under Strom’s leadership.

Since Strom started as Delta County’s administrator, the county has increased its pension funding.

“We made a $1 million contribution to our pension system in an effort to improve our funding status,” Strom said.

Over the past year, the county has continued work towards establishing a new Delta County Correctional Facility at the Delta County Service Center.

“We’ve reached a substantial completion mark with the new jail,” Strom said. This indicates that the facility is approaching occupancy and all major construction has been completed.

According to Strom, efforts to prepare for the future of Delta County are taking place.

“We’ve initiated long-term planning, including county master planning and capital asset improvement planning,” Strom said.

Strom also highlighted the hiring of a new manager and assistant manager at the Delta County Airport, as well as the county’s clean audit for the 2017-18 fiscal year.

Along with these achievements, the county has worked with other units of government.

“We’ve been involved with three major partnership projects with the city of Escanaba,” Strom said. These projects are the solar farm at the Delta County Airport, work on the property currently occupied by the Delta County Correctional Facility and the establishment of a dog park at the Delta County Airport.

In addition, Strom spoke about the long-term goals he has for the county. These include the continuation of ongoing efforts related to long-term planning.

“We want to make progress and potentially conclude our master planning and capital improvement planning projects,” Strom said.

Strom said he is looking forward to the opening of the new Delta County Correctional Facility, as well.

“We’d like to have final completion of our new jail and (transfer) the sheriff’s department operations and inmate housing to the new facility,” he said.

Further progress on the county’s pension funding is also expected to be made in the future.

“I’d like to continue to be responsible for funding our pension system,” Strom said.

Other areas Strom said he hopes Delta County will make progress in are economic development and legislative advocacy.