L’ANSE – The budget is inching further back into the black, L’Anse Village Manager Bob LaFave reported Monday, just a year after a massive tax payback to the L’Anse-Warden power plant decimated reserves.

LaFave said a recently completed audit showed the village general fund at just more than $250,000, up about $40,000 from this time last year.

“We’re moving the fiscal needle back in the right direction,” he said. “It’s a good positive step.”

L’Anse was forced to refund about $220,000 to the power plant after a Michigan Tax Tribunal settlement that slashed the plant’s taxable value after former L’Anse Township Assessor Matt Arko failed to attend an appeal hearing on its taxable value.

“We’re nowhere near where we were before (the) crisis, but we’re managing our way back,” LaFave said. “It’s not easy, but our job is to try to deliver the services people expect, and maintain that level of service to the best of our ability.”

For now, he said, the village needs to keep a tight reign on the budget and rebuild balances, he said, rather than begin restoring funding to areas that had been cut.

Village trustee Kerri Sikkila said the village has learned some important lessons from the tight budget. The village-owned Meadowbrook Arena can succeed as a mostly self-supporting entity, for example, as it has since the village cut operational funding last year.

Sikkila said the arena has been offering ice-time rental to bring in revenue, and has even invested in growth with items like new laser lights installed in time for a youth celebration scheduled for New Year’s Eve.

“We have to keep it self-supporting,” she said.