The village hall in Three Oaks was filled to capacity Wednesday night as residents gathered to find out exactly what's going on with local finances. This week, word came out that checks written by the village were bouncing, and municipal employees couldn't be paid. Then, local leaders announced that they'd be creating an emergency finance committee to resolve the crisis. Former council member David Grosse, who is one of that committee's four members, went over how the village came to be so broke at Wednesday's meeting, saying that it essentially came down to bad budgeting:

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Grosse said that it all started when the village didn't properly budget for a 260-thousand dollar street project in 2005. When M-DOT billed the village for the work, and didn't get paid, the state started holding back gas tax revenue, making the problem worse. The village will have to approve a plan to eliminate its debt within five years, or face losing even more state funding.

   

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