Chippewa County finance committee approves routine contracts, training and service agreements

The Chippewa County Board of Commissioners’ Finance, Claims and Accounts Committee approved a series of routine contracts, grants and training requests during its Oct. 14 meeting at the Chippewa Courthouse in Sault Ste. Marie.

Commissioners approved the release of two requests for quotations for Health Department exterior and interior door replacements and office/clinic renovations to be paid from the Public Health Infrastructure Grant. Commissioner Damon Lieurance moved to release the RFQs; Commissioner Jim Traynor seconded the motion, which carried on a voice vote.

The committee also certified the County Child Care Budget Summary (DHS‑2091) for Oct. 1, 2025–Sept. 30, 2026, showing total expenditures of $816,262.83; Commissioner Traynor moved approval and Lieurance seconded.

Information technology items included acceptance of an $80,000 award from the State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program for multifactor authentication (MFA) and authorization of the required grant documents. The committee thanked Anthony Zakic for his work on the grant. The committee approved a DSTECH, Inc. bid to replace the county’s Verge.IO cluster at $46,515 for hardware and virtual-machine migration and accepted IS pricing proposals for First Responder services, noting per-subscriber pricing may change with enrollment.

Public‑safety and emergency-services approvals included reimbursement of $9,322 to Kinross EMS for EMT‑B training for seven residents and sponsorships for a Medical First Responder class (up to $6,770) and an EMT Basic course (up to $10,280), to be paid from County Special Fund 211. The committee also approved purchase of three heavy-duty dispatch chairs from Concept Seating for $4,500; Mackinac County will reimburse the county for that purchase.

The committee approved a planned service agreement with Johnson Controls for jail fire-alarm, sprinkler and backflow system maintenance at an annual cost of $8,882.78 and authorized the Emergency Server Technology Service Agreement together with new County Policies No. 510 (Access/Certificate Policy) and No. 511 (First Responder System Access Policy — NIST compliance).

Administration’s request to combine the county and health department Abilita retainer agreements into one 24‑month contract at $965 per month was approved; the packet notes a $100 monthly savings under the combined agreement.

Multiple snowplowing and removal contracts were approved: Central Dispatch with Frontier Contracting LLC (1‑year, not to exceed $8,000); the County Building eight‑space lot with Best Maintenance and Lawn (3‑year, $3,900/year); the Animal Shelter and Sheriff’s storage with Best Maintenance and Lawn (3‑year, $9,500/year); and the Courthouse parking (32 spaces) with Best Maintenance and Lawn (1‑year, $8,500). Commissioners discussed contractor preferences and the need to pair certain lots at the regular board meeting.

Finally, the committee recommended approval of September claims and payroll: general claims $411,363.97; other fund claims $2,788,651.85; payroll $635,119.70; Health Department claims $138,743.66; Health Department payroll $136,309.48; total claims $4,110,188.66. The motions for the items above carried on voice votes; no recorded roll-call tallies were provided in the minutes.

Chairman Scott Shackleton called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m. and adjourned the meeting following committee comments. Commissioner Justin Knepper raised concerns about one-time projects, fund-balance usage and conditions in the county jail after seeing a social-media post; no formal action was taken on those comments.