ONTONAGON — The village of Ontonagon continues to face controversy. With the recent dismissal of its village manager, Joe Erickson, along with appointments of two trustees, the village president appears to be shifting the blame to others.

With three applications for the two vacant trustee positions, the council appointed Mike Rebholz and former Trustee Mike Mogan. Rebholz had been voted down by the council in the past to be a Planning Commissioner when Rebholz stated his support for allowing a retail marijuana business in the village. At The council has since retracted their position, culminating in the appointment of Rebholz to the Planning Commission.

Mogan resigned his position before last November’s election due to health problems.

During Village President Tony Smydra’s President Report, he leveled an attack on the individual who submitted the third application.

At a special meeting on Feb. 25, Erickson was let go as village manager. According to the minutes of that meeting, Erickson failed to complete a DNR Grant to pay for the dredging of the village’s marina. The failure to pay Hilton Dredging led to a lawsuit against the village and his eventual dismissal.

The Village Housing Commission has already had to settle another lawsuit on personal matters which Smydra was a part of. At the end of the meeting, Smydra passed on correspondence from Erickson’s attorney.

The Daily Mining Gazette was never sent any information as to the Feb. 25 meeting. According to the minutes of that meeting, former Village Clerk Kori Weisinger met with Ontonagon Marina Committee Chairman, J.R. Richardson, on Jan. 12. Weisinger was informed that the grant from the DNR for the dredging had expired on Dec. 31, 2020.

The Personnel Committee met with Erickson regarding this matter on Feb. 24. Smydra determined that there was a significant enough of an issue to hold the special meeting on Feb. 25.

The issue regarding the payment for the dredging has been brought up by village taxpayer Sue Lockhart during the summer of 2020. Once the issue went to court, and Lockhart continued to ask why nothing is being done as to the payment for the dredging.

At Monday’s meeting, Lockhart asked why Smydra and the council did not follow up on this issue. She stated that Smydra, “as village president should have been aware of this situation.”

That prompted Smydra to get testy with Lockhart, which was out of character for the council as it has long been the policy of Smydra and the council to not respond or attack a person during Public Comment.

Smydra then went after the DMG reporter who attended the meeting for bringing a question about an issue that dates back to the November election. The issue in question was that Smydra stated that duly elected Trustee Jessica Huntzinger was sworn in. Huntzinger failed to attend a single meeting, due to the fact that she moved out of the area, resigning her position in January.

After looking through all the minutes since the election, the DMG reporter asked when Ms. Huntzinger was sworn in. After months of no trustee stating when this took place, Smydra had Weisinger give a presentation at the end of the meeting.

Her presentation stated that they now have paperwork showing that Huntzinger was sworn in on Dec. 11.

Smydra, nor any village trustee or employee has stated that a Freedom Of Information Act request was needed to get the date of Huntzinger’s swearing in, which has never been asked or a part of the policy in the past.

When this issue was addressed at Monday’s meeting, Smydra interrupted and asked if the comments Smydra asked “are these comments coming from you or the Gazette?”

The sudden outburst led to any further comments from village taxpayers, who appear to fear retribution by Smydra and/or the council, be made anonymously. One such comment stated, “the entire council needs to be replaced.”

Another on social media gave Smydra a new title, “King.”

Rebholz was sworn in earlier in the meeting. Mogan did not participate in the meeting, either on phone or in person.

Editor’s note: The individual who submitted the third application for the Ontonagon Village Council was Skip Schulz.