Skip Schulz/For the Gazette Ontonagon’s downtown River Street will remain under the ownership of MDOT.

ONTONAGON – It was at Monday night’s Ontonagon Village Council meeting that the village’s audit report was released. While the audit shows that the village went from nearly a 4 Million Dollar surplus to a net deficit of over $100,000, village Manager Joe Erickson stated that there was reason’s the village had no control over.

The audit showed that the government activities of the village went from a net surplus of $3,831,586 in 2014-15 to a net deficit of $107,782. Sanford said that the biggest reason for the deficit is the village’s net pension liability of $4,178,442. $3,881,842 is from the Ontonagon Hospital plan. When the village sold the hospital, the village accepted the pension liability for the employees. “Otherwise there would be no hospital in Ontonagon,” stated Erickson.

It was in the village manager’s report on the recent audit that village resident Sue Lockhart asked Erickson why problems and issues of this year’s audit have recurred from past audits. She said Bessemer had the same concerns when Erickson was Bessemer’s manager.

Erickson and village president Ken Waldrop quickly defended Susan Sanford who did the audit.

“She is very picky in her audit. She does a good job. Many communities go through a lot of auditors, we have had Sanford for a long time,” said Erickson. “When the plan closed, Municipal Employment Retirement System (MERS) accelerated the payments for the unfunded liability.”

According to Erickson the plan was for 15 years. When the village merged the Hospital Plan with the Administration plan, it extended the liability to 25 years. “This stabilized the village’s contributions to the Hospital pension liability to about $250,000 per year. The liability would have been over $350,000 without the merger of the plans,” he said.

Erickson told the council that the amount being paid in this fund will begin to drop in five to seven years, “as attrition occurs and there will be fewer pensioners. MERS calculates the catch up costs for the pension plans and bills the village accordingly. It is very likely that in 20 years or so the village will have a surplus in our pension funds.”

In other business, Erickson reported that he joined with council members John Hamm, Mike Mogen, and Tony Smydra in meeting with Aaron Johnson of the Michigan Department of Transportation. They discussed the possibility of the village taking over River Street from the state. “Based on the small amount of additional revenues the village would receive for maintenance, it is not worth the village at this time,” he said.

MDOT has a project for next year that will provide an eight to 10 year fix on River Street until a more formal reconstruction is needed.

Discussion also took place as to developing a streetscape concept for Rockland Road. This would be from the M-64 Bridge to River Street. Erickson stated that these plans will be coordinated with MDOT