Vanessa Dietz/Daily Mining Gazette Baraga County Commissioners Bill Rolof, left, and Pat Reilly examine the main steps to the courthouse, preparing to write the specs for bids the county board will seek to repair them.

L’ANSE — The Baraga County Board learned the county tax rolls show little change from last year.

Presenting a comparison between 2016 and 2017 equalized values and taxable values, County Equalization Director Lora Osterman told the board Tuesday the numbers are close.

“As far as the taxable value, it’s holding steady,” Osterman said, noting the total real and personal property taxable values, which were $244,302,456 in 2016 and $242,853,414 in 2017.

“The biggest (change) has to do with the personal property,” she said, in reference to personal property values of $24,443,434 in 2016 falling to 20,748,267 in 2017. “Land values…they dropped a little bit.”

In other news, office hours at the courthouse will change on a trial basis for the next few months, at the request of county Clerk Wendy Goodreau.

Rather than being open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. with staff taking one hour off for lunch, the building will be open from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. through the summer months with staff taking half-hour lunch breaks.

“They work seven-hour days,” Goodreau explained, adding lunch breaks are unpaid.

“They ran a traffic study,” explained board Chairman Mike Koskinen, adding the study indicated very little people visit the courthouse from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m.

In other news, the board discussed repairing the steps approaching the main entrance to the courthouse. The carpet-covered wood steps are spongy and need to replaced.

Since engineering fees to define the scope of the project would likely cost more than the project itself, Commissioners Bill Rolof and Pat Reilly volunteered to write the specifications for the bids to be sought to repair the steps. The men assessed the situation immediately following the meeting.

In other action, the board approved surveying contracts with Hein Surveying, of Calumet, for $20,313.75, and Crampton Surveying, of Hubbell, for $23,022.25.