LAURIUM — The Laurium Village Council held a special meeting Thursday afternoon to discuss funding for a fourth full-time police officer.

The meeting was held via remote meeting platform gotomeeting with a call-in number and link that had been shared in advance via printed communication, in keeping with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s executive orders allowing municipalities to hold meetings remotely without violating the Open Meetings Act. Meeting attendance was comparable to that of a conventionally held Laurium village special meeting.

“The reason we’re having this meeting is to talk about the fourth full-time police officer position. Financially, we want to make sure that we can cover it,” said councilor Steve Lanctot, who is on the village’s Police Committee. “We didn’t used to be vey well-off, but we’re in a better place now.”

Lanctot also specified that the village is replacing an officer that resigned last month, not adding an additional position to the Village’s police force.

“We would rather be proactive in this community than reactive,” said Lanctot. “It’s good to have (police officers) out there being seen.”

The meeting started with Village Administrator Edward Vertin summarizing the village’s current budget. The heavy snowfall resulted in higher equipment rentals than normal, but the village also contracts with other entities including the hospital in order to provide snow removal resulting in more incoming funds.

“I reviewed all of the expenses again and it looks like there’s room in the final adjusted budget,” Vertin summarized. “The way it stands right now, it should come out flat as a pancake.”

Vertin did express concern regarding the village’s ongoing financial situation regarding uncertainty during the coronavirus pandemic and resulting shutdown, saying “You still don’t know what the state of Michigan is going to do. That’s going to be a big hurdle.”

While the council agreed that this uncertainty should be taken under consideration, they decided not to let it stop them from moving forward on the special meeting’s only action item.

“COVID throws a monkey wrench into things, be we can’t work to be afraid,” said Lanctot.

Lanctot made the motion to budget for a fourth full-time officer. The motion was seconded by councilor Christa Carlson, also on the Police Committee, as well as on the Finance Committee.

Councilor Loralee Miller, also on the Finance Committee, was absent from the meeting and Councilor Amy Schneiderman abstained from the vote. The vote was otherwise unanimous and the motion passed.