Houghton County Board Meets For First Time In 2019

The new-look Houghton County Board of Commissioners will continue to be chaired by Commissioner Al Koskela, with Commissioner Tom Tikkanen now serving as vice chair.

Tuesday was the first board meeting for new commissioners Roy Britz and Glenn Anderson and was the first for Commissioner Gretchen Janssen following her election after she was appointed to fill a vacancy on the board last June.

Janssen went right to work with one of her campaign promises to bring more transparency to the board by requesting meeting information to be posted online by the Friday before the monthly meeting.

Her request was included in a package of updates to the rules of order that was passed by the board.

A public hearing was held by the Houghton County Board of Commissioners Tuesday to hear comments about the proposed 5-year recreation plan that was put together by the Planning Commission.

There were no public comments and the board was expected to approve the plan during their regular meeting so it could be sent to the Department of Natural Resources by its February 1st deadline.

Commissioner Tom Tikkanen said he had not seen the plan and did not feel comfortable voting on it.

County Administrator Eric Forsberg said he also had not been provided a copy and therefore hadn’t been able to provide the commissioners with a copy.

Planning Commission member Evan MacDonald explained that the plan has been available for 30 days on the Western Upper Peninsula Planning and Development Region website and that the public comment period has been advertised.

A special meeting was scheduled for noon on January 30th to give time for the board to review the plan before voting on it.