MARQUETTE — The Marquette County Board of Commissioners held their biweekly meeting on Tuesday evening, starting with the acknowledgement of Lt. Errol Lukkarinen’s retirement from the Marquette County Sheriff’s Office after 29 years of service.

Following honors and well-wishes for Lukkarinen,, the board took action on a list of items, including accepting an informational item from Republic Township, an application for Solar Energy Facility Exemption Certification behalf of the Upper Peninsula Power Company, UPPCO is working on a 62.5 megawatt solar project in Republic Township and the notice was provided in compliance with PA 108 of 2023.

The board also confirmed two resignations from the Airport Advisory Committee and will put out a call for applicants to fill those positions. They also voted to hold a closed session to discuss the applications for the county administrator position and how to approach the interview process, but will schedule a public forum for community members in the future to learn about the applicants.

During the last public comment section of the meeting, gratitude was expressed for the work that has gone into collecting the missing autopsy reports from the county’s former Medical Examiner Dr. David Stockman and the Michigan Institute of Forensic Science and Medicine. Vice-Chair Bill Nordeen took time during the commissioner’s comments section to not only thank those who have been working on the issue, but also apologize to the families affected and the county.

“I do have something because, this whole thing with our autopsies debacle, I feel bad about it. It’s easy for us to point fingers, to say, ‘You know what? It’s our contractor down in Saginaw’ but the poor families that are not getting their autopsies and it’s holding up their lives, look at us as Marquette County. That’s Marquette County’s responsibility, so I’m glad that we’re resolving it,” said Nordeen. “I give the chair a lot of credit and the undersheriff for getting in the car and driving down there. Although I (have) to tell you, they’re not the two that are doing the bulk of the work. The person doing the bulk of the work is Linda Talsma. She’s been on this for months and months and months, and she’s finally getting (it) resolved, and I think you have the last autopsy coming now. Right? We’re working on it? So it’s going to get resolved. I apologize to the citizens of this county. We chose a bad contractor, but it is our contractor and thank God we have people like Linda Talsma and the chair and the undersheriff figuring this out.”

Talsma confirmed that she is currently working on receiving the last autopsy from Stockman and the MIFSM.

County Commissioner Dana LaLonde also took time during commissioner’s comments to note that she had met with U.S.Rep. Jack Bergman, R-Watersmeet, this week to ask questions about proposed Medicaid cuts at the federal level.

“This week, I had an appointment, a meeting with our Congressman Bergman with Delta County Commissioner Kelli VanGinhoven. We had a half hour with him on Zoom and it took about a month to get the appointment because he’s a very busy man. Part of the purpose of meeting with him was because we have had constituents coming here asking questions that we can’t answer,” said LaLonde. “So, I asked the questions about our Medicaid cuts that can affect our hospitals and our senior living and he said ‘You know, we (have to) wait and see because it’s not done’ and he said when we (the board of commissioners) have people coming here that we should refer him to his office.”

The next board of commissioners meeting will take place at 6 p.m. July 1 in room 231 of the Henry A. Skewis Courthouse Annex, located at 234 W. Baraga Ave.

For a Zoom link to the meetings, as well as archives of previous meetings and informational packets, please visit the Marquette County website at co.marquette.mi.us/county_government/board_of_commissioners/.

Abby LaForest can be reached at 906-228-2500. Ext. 548. Her email address is alaforest@miningjournal.net.