VA garage in Corunna awaits city approval, county board told

The county's planned VA garage is waiting on the City of Corunna before anyone puts a shovel in the ground. County Administrator Dr. Boggs told commissioners at their Aug. 12 meeting that the garage "is waiting approval from City of Corunna and will plan a groundbreaking event once approved," according to the final minutes the county posted this month.

The minutes do not say what the project costs, where in Corunna it would be built, or what approval the city still has to issue. They also record, in the same report, that a "subdivision build has been given a green light" without naming the subdivision, and that staff were preparing for the 2027 budget season.

One line in the administrator's report bears on a question this desk raised Tuesday. Boggs told the board there would be "a closed session for next month's meeting regarding a workman's comp matter." The agenda for the Sept. 16 meeting listed a closed session with legal counsel on trial and settlement strategy in Henderson v. Shiawassee County, as The Current reported, and disclosed nothing about the underlying claim or the court. The Aug. 12 minutes are the first public description of what next month's closed session was expected to cover; they do not name the case.

What the board decided Aug. 12

The Current reported the night after the meeting that commissioners went 6-0 on every roll call. The final minutes confirm the tallies and name the votes: $6,704,610.15 in bills, payroll and wire transfers (Holzhausen, Johnson, Garber, Howard, Haley and Chairman Gregory Brodeur); a Fidlar Technologies records system not to exceed $113,600; a new vital records clerk at grade 3; a LACASA contract not to exceed $54,040 from the Child Care Fund; and an $8,607.25 bid from Epoxy Guys to resurface the Animal Shelter Building.

The minutes add one item not in our earlier account: the board voted 6-0 to refill the part-time Youth Center position at no more than 20 hours a week, with Howard, Haley, Holzhausen, Johnson, Garber and Brodeur in favor. The minutes do not list the wage or when the job would be posted.

Commissioner Matthew Shepard was excused. Brodeur reported on the Land Bank, said mental health "is doing well" and that recycling efforts were being worked on. Two people addressed the board: Jeri-Lynn Kellogg, the vital records clerk, on the clerk's additional staff, and Cynthia Woolbright of the U.S. Small Business Administration, the federal agency that backs small-business loans, on small business financing.

The meeting opened at 5 p.m. in the Commissioner Chambers at the Surbeck Building in Corunna and adjourned at 5:19 p.m. Clerk Caroline D. Wilson signed the minutes.

What happens next

The board met again at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 16, with the Woodhull Township Rolling Hills rezoning, $64,115 in boilers, a three-year audit contract and the closed session on its agenda; minutes from that meeting will be the record of how each commissioner voted. This desk is still seeking the VA garage plans and the City of Corunna approval it needs, the name of the subdivision cleared to build, and the nature of the workers' compensation matter.