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Calhoun County approves 6 Mile Road MDOT contract, medical examiner services and finance policy updates
Summary
The board elected Matt Saxton vice chair, approved MDOT contract 22-5560 for improvements to 6 Mile Road (total cost for this segment just under $788,000 with 10% county share), awarded a five-year medical examiner contract to Western Michigan University (WMed) and approved updates to 10 financial policies; all recorded votes reported as 7-0.
At its Jan. 15 organizational session, the Calhoun County Board of Commissioners approved a set of administrative and capital items, elected a vice chair and voted unanimously on three new-business items.
Vice chair election: After nominations opened for a one-year vice chair term under MCL 46.3 and the board’s rules, Commissioner Al Moorhart nominated Commissioner Matt Saxton. With no further nominations, the board closed nominations and elected Commissioner Matt Saxton to serve as vice chair for 2026 by roll call.
6 Mile Road MDOT contract: The board approved MDOT federal-aid contract number 22-5560 for a crush-and-shape project on 6 Mile Road from B Drive South to B Drive North (covering Emmett, Leroy and Newton townships). Assistant County Administrator Megan Banning said the total cost for this piece of 6 Mile Road is just under $788,000 and the county’s responsibility is 10% of that amount. Christine Parsons of the road department described the work as three treatments across sections (3.5-inch crush-and-shape, overlay, and hot-rubber crack sealing): "...we are gonna be doing some preventative maintenance improvements," Parsons said. The federal portion was awarded to Reith Riley; commissioners approved the contract by recorded vote (7-0).
Medical examiner services: The board approved bid award RFP 111-25 to Western Michigan University School of Medicine for medical examiner services. The prior contract expired Dec. 31, 2025; WMed was the only respondent to the RFP. The new contract is for five years with optional extensions and was described in the packet as an approximately 8% increase for 2026 over the 2025 agreement. Commissioners approved the award by recorded vote (7-0).
Financial policy updates: The board approved updates to 10 financial policies intended as annual housekeeping and alignment with current practice, including tightening petty-cash reconciliation, adding revenue projections and a minimum fund balance to the capital-improvement-plan policy, and changing meal reimbursements to follow IRS per diem rates. The motion passed by recorded vote (7-0).
Other fiscal actions: The board approved a consent agenda and subsequently approved claims payable totaling $7,356,189.45 for Dec. 11, 2025 through Jan. 7, 2026, by recorded vote.
All items were approved by the full seven-member board during the organizational session; no recorded dissent was shown in the transcript.
