Laurium Village Hall may soon become home to the offices of the City of Laurium. The Village Council will soon begin seeking public input. (Photo courtesy of Village of Laurium)

LAURIUM — What was once allegedly the largest incorporated village in the United States might be going through a change, the Laurium Village Council is taking a serious look at becoming a city, and will soon begin seeking input from village residents.

Village Manager Ian Lewis said the council has been considering the possibility of incorporating as a city for a couple of months.

The council consulted with an attorney, who explained the benefits and disadvantages of being a city vs. remaining a village.

The village pays for and maintains its own services, such as sanitation, fire, police protection, Lewis said, and the village governance is geared more toward that of a city than a village.

Lewis said that the attorney told the council that the primary reason most villages do not become cities is because they lack many of those services, so rely on the township to assist in providing those services.

But while offering those services, the village does not conduct property assessing, conduct elections, or collect school taxes. The village also does not maintain its own sewage, but like the other municipalities in Calumet Township, contracts with the North Houghton County Water and Sewer Authority, and contracts with the Upper Michigan Water Company, in Calumet.

The drawbacks for Laurium, said Lewis, as a city it would have to hire a part-time assessor, or place those duties on the current employees. The handling of elections would become the responsibility of the clerk, and the city would have to collect the school taxes.

“In our minds, they’re not drawbacks,” Lewis said, “because those will allow us to have full control over what is going on in Laurium, and for our residents in Laurium.”

A benefit, one that Lewis said is a huge one, is if Laurium becomes a city, the village residents would no longer have to pay any specific taxes to Calumet Township. That would include the township’s operating millage, which around 1.28 mills, and also the Colosseum tax.

The taxes for a home with a taxable value of $50,000,” Lewis said, would see a decrease of about $115 annually.

“In our mind, this would be fantastic,” Lewis said, “because, like I said, we already have the government structure in place to take on the additional roles, and we would be saving the taxpayers of the city of Laurium tax money.”

Lewis cautioned that the village would likely request a future tax millage to support some additional operating for things like Parks and Recreation updates.

The council hasn’t yet gotten to the point of discussing millages, because it is only in a discussion at this point, Lewis said. The next step is to send surveys to the residents.

“We’re at the point where we want the current residents’ input on what’s the right path in moving forward.”