Mackinac County puts 2027 budget talks on its Oct. 8 agenda as a donor offers to fund a new animal shelter

ST. IGNACE, Mich. — Mackinac County commissioners were set to begin discussing next year’s budget Thursday, Oct. 8, two weeks after learning that a donor wants to pay for a new county animal shelter.

The 2027 budget was the only item of new business on the agenda for the board’s Committee of the Whole, which was scheduled for 4:30 p.m. in the Annex Boardroom, 100 S. Marley St. Commissioners were also to hear an update on a Brownfield Authority project and a recap of a meeting with the Michigan Department of Transportation, and receive the September animal shelter report. Public comment was allowed at the start and end of the meeting, two minutes per speaker.

At the board’s Sept. 24 meeting, Diane Keighley of the county’s Animal Advisory Committee told commissioners that a donor wants to fund construction of a new shelter building, according to draft minutes. County-owned land near the airport could possibly be used, and $50,000 has been donated so far to start surveying the property and testing infrastructure, the minutes say.

Commissioner John Kling said the county still needs to fix the immediate problems at the current shelter in the meantime. The board voted 4-0 to spend up to $16,000 to repair the front kennels, taking the lowest bid, from Tim LaForest. Commissioner Judy St. Louis-Scott was absent.

Commissioners also discussed an engineering report on the heating system. The boilers need to be replaced and are “very much overdue,” according to the minutes, which say the county set up its capital improvement fund to cover such expenses. Kling said he would take the matter to the Planning Commission.

In other reports that day, Sheriff Ed Wilk said his office received a $10,000 state secondary road patrol grant. Register of Deeds Mary Jo Savard reported that sales are up $44,000 for the year, and that the U.S. Department of Agriculture had asked her office to report any land sold to noncitizens.

The board also voted to reject office furniture bids for the veterans building as too high, after Commissioner Austin Kimberling said other suppliers were more affordable. The clerk will seek new bids.

Updated Oct. 13, 2026: The Oct. 8 Committee of the Whole meeting has passed, and this story’s headline and meeting language have been changed to the past tense. As of Tuesday, Oct. 13, the county’s meeting page listed only the Oct. 8 agenda, with no minutes, and no news report of the budget discussion had appeared.

Updated Oct. 13, 2026: The St. Ignace News’ account of the Sept. 24 meeting adds that the county-owned site under consideration is about 1.75 undeveloped acres across from the Mackinac County Airport. The board took no formal vote on it, the paper said, but commissioners promised to hold the land for the shelter committee and allow a survey to check whether a wetland on the property would be a problem. The $50,000 donation is held by the Les Cheneaux Community Foundation. The paper’s figures differ from the county’s draft minutes in two places: it put the kennel bid at about $15,000 (the minutes authorize up to $16,000), and it reported $26,307.92 in state secondary road patrol money plus a $10,000 snowmobile grant reimbursement, where the draft minutes list a $10,000 secondary road patrol grant. This story follows the minutes. As of Tuesday afternoon, the county still had not posted minutes for Oct. 8.

Updated Oct. 14, 2026: As of Wednesday midday, Oct. 14, Mackinac County still had not posted minutes for the Oct. 8 Committee of the Whole, and no news report of that budget discussion had appeared.

Sources:
The St. Ignace News (Kaleb Boyer), “Mackinac County Board Approves Repairs for Animal Shelter, Begins First Steps of Building A New Shelter,” Oct. 5, 2026, https://www.stignacenews.com/articles/mackinac-county-board-approves-repairs-for-animal-shelter-begins-first-steps-of-building-a-new-shelter/
Mackinac County Clerk, agenda, Committee of the Whole, Oct. 8, 2026 (PDF), https://www.mackinaccounty.net/wp-content/media/Ocotber-8-2026-Agenda-Committee-of-the-Whole.pdf
Mackinac County Board of Commissioners, draft minutes, Sept. 24, 2026 (PDF), https://www.mackinaccounty.net/wp-content/media/September-24-2026-Draft-Minutes.pdf
Mackinac County, Board of Commissioners meeting agendas and minutes, https://www.mackinaccounty.net/departments/commissioners/meeting-agendas/
Photo: TheCatalyst31, “Mackinac County Courthouse,” June 20, 2022, Wikimedia Commons, CC0 1.0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/), cropped and color-corrected, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mackinac_County_Courthouse.jpg

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