Keweenaw County Board Chair Don Piche, while stating the need for a dedicated millage for a county administrator, has cautioned against requesting more than the residents will approve. Tuesday morning, the board approved reducing the request 50%. Graham Jaehnig/Daily Mining Gazette

EAGLE RIVER — After the Keweenaw County Board approved requesting a 1-mil dedicated millage to fund a full-time county zoning administrator last week, they decreased the amount from 1 mil to a half mil at a special meeting Tuesday morning. The request amounts to 50 cents per $1,000 of taxable value on all property in the county for four years, 2025 through 2028 inclusive.

By reducing the millage proposal by half, said Board Chairman Don Piche, the board hopes the proposal will have a better chance of passage.

Piche said that if approved, the half mil will generate approximately $93,000 that will permit the hiring of a full-time zoning administrator. Sara Heikkila, the current county zoning administrator, submitted her resignation, effective Friday, Aug. 2, 2024. Heikkila stated in her letter to the board: “However, the workload is more than the time I have to work here each week and be successful.”

Heikkila said she will assist in training her replacement when one is found, and in the meantime, Rebecca Patterson will continue working part-time as the permit clerk.

“We’re already paying over $60,000, half to the current ZA, Sara Heikkila, and half to Rebecca Patterson,” Piche said. “She’s going to stay part-time. So far, she’ll be doing the building codes, working with county clerk on getting county records put online, and also she will work part-time, as needed, with the equalization director.”

Another topic discussed was the need to condense and streamline the county’s zoning ordinance.

“Also, what we decided today is we have to get this 300-page ordinance reduced to something that is palatable for the people of the county,” Piche said. “Again, I don’t know exactly how that’s going to go; that’s something that’s going to have to be sent back to the planning commission, and it’s going to take time.”