Village Manager Bob LaFave (left) and Village President Ronald Ervast (right) listen to the council converse about the Michigan Energy Assistance Program. There are concerns about the program covering natural gas that the village does not provide. (Ben Garbacz/Daily Mining Gazette)

L’ANSE — The Village of L’Anse held its first council meeting of the month on Monday, where the village opted into the Michigan Energy Assistance Program (MEAP).

The council also came to an agreement with its AFSCME Union workers and police union.

The council addressed opting into MEAP, which the village has opted out of since 2013. Changes to MEAP require the village to construct a low-income assistance program, though concerns exist that finances could be spent on natural gas bills that the village does not provide. Opting out however presents a problem.

“If we opted out, we would still have to do a surcharge, but we’d have to find a nonprofit locally to work with, and we have to do tracking, reporting and financing and just from a feasibility standpoint, that doesn’t really work well for us,” Village Manager Bob LaFave explained.

The program keeps heat on for low-income residents who struggle to pay the cost, though smaller communities in the U.P. may have trouble covering the expenses. LaFave pointed out that communities downstate have nonprofits that could address the issue, but such structures do not exist in the same size and capacity in many U.P. communities.

“Looking at the pros and cons, at least until we have something maybe better we can offer our customers, this is what we can do now,” LaFave said.

The council also approved the contracts of the AFSCME and police union workers which will see both receive pay increases. AFSCME workers will be receiving a three percent increase each year over the next three years. The police union received the same increase in pay, and LaFave complimented the work between union negotiators and the village.

“Once again, not everybody got everything they wanted on both sides, but I think it represents a fair deal,” he said.