MARQUETTE — The Marquette County Planning Commission has ranked projects to improve and update county-owned buildings and equipment for 2025 with its finished capital improvements program.

Listed are 23 projects ranging from propositions by the sheriff’s department, prosecutor’s office, district court and many others.

Projects include switching from gas maintenance equipment to electric, replacing office furniture, redesigning public areas and replacing buildings.

The highest ranked project on the list — and the most expensive — is from the sheriff’s department to “replace our outdated antiquated (jail) facility with a modern more efficient design.”

This project has been estimated to cost $20 million to $30 million and was on the 2023 CIP, said Marquette County Planning Commission staff member Emily Leach.

Ranked second on the projects list is the Bay Harbor Septic Replacement project.

Proposed by the Resource Management and Development/Planning Department, it would cost an estimated $281,000.

“Due to the aging existing on-site sewage disposal system, a new system should be constructed to serve the existing marina as well as new improvements,” the RMD-Planning Department proposal said.

The third listed project is from the sheriff’s department and Rescue 131 for a special operations pickup truck.

The project is “to replace a 2015 Chevrolet Silverado three-quarter-ton diesel special operations pickup with a new 2025, one-ton gasoline truck,” according to the sheriff’s department, which noted that the current special operations truck has proven ineffective for towing and has been unreliable in rescue operations. This project is estimated to cost $92,200.

These projects are not set in stone, said Leach.

“We submit this to the county administrator in the finance department and then they go through and meet with the department heads and they make the final decision to then submit to the county board (of commissioners) for them to decide.”

The full 2024 CIP can be found at www.co.marquette.mi.us.

Antonio Anderson can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 550. His email address is aanderson@miningjournal.net.