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Schoolcraft jail focus of meeting

MANISTIQUE — Discussion about the county jail in Schoolcraft County is set to continue early next week.

“(On) Aug. 6, there’s a meeting about that,” Schoolcraft County Sheriff Paul Furman said.

An executive board meeting will be held at 9 a.m. that day in the first-floor conference room at the Schoolcraft County Courthouse. The jail will be one of the topics talked about at the meeting, which will be open to the public.

“At that point, we’ll discuss options and go from there,” Furman said.

The executive board consists of Schoolcraft County Board of Commissioners Chair Craig Reiter and Vice-Chair Daniel Hoholik.

“We’ve got to look at everything — the whole thing,” Reiter said of the meeting.

He added the executive board will discuss its recommendation to the full board regarding the steps it should consider on the jail issue.

In the 2018 general election, voters in Schoolcraft County chose not to support a millage proposal that would have funded the creation of a new county jail. During the election, 1,835 votes — or 48.58 percent — were cast in favor of a 20-year millage request for up to 3 mills, or $3 per $1,000 of taxable value, from 2018 to 2037 on all property in Schoolcraft County to build, operate, furnish and equip a new county jail and to continue the sheriff’s road patrol for the county. However, 1,942 votes — or 51.42 percent — were cast against the request. An estimated $1,078,563 would have been raised in the first calendar year of the millage had it passed.

A recount of the county’s general election vote that took place in December 2018 did not change the outcome of this election. The vote tally changed by one vote in the recount, resulting in a final tally of 1,943 to 1,834.

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