Leland voters also approve 2 school millage measures

Bonnie Shiner and Denise Sica, both supporters of maintaining a K-12 program at Northport School, won two 4-year seats on the Board of Education in last Tuesday’s election.

They were the top vote-getters among the six candidates vying for the 4-year seats on the Northport School Board. Shiner captured 315 of the 879 votes cast in the election. Sica came in second with 199 supporters.

“A K-12 program is what I support and what we believe in,” Shiner said. “I’m happy for our town. It will help our community have confidence again.”

Board incumbent Patty DeYoung garnered 174 votes; Todd Huck, 112; Brad Trolenberg, 46; and Chris Irvine, 33.

Jeffrey Dyer won the 1-year seat, outpacing appointed board member Robert Zwemer, 257-160.

Leland voters filled two board seats and overwhelming support two millage requests Tuesday.

Alan Hartwick, appointed to fill the remaining time in the unexpired term of Jean Lang, was elected to one of two 4-year seats available on the Leland Board of Education. Hartwick was the top vote-getter in the 3-way race which also included incumbent Maynard (Rink) Wheeler and former teacher Susan Abbott Schmidt.

Hartwick gained the support of 323 voters. Wheeler came in second with 292 voters. Schmidt had 234 votes.

Leland voters also supported a request to renew a 10.9013-mill levy on non-homestead and commercial properties, which generates three-quarters of the district’s budget revenue annually.

The measure was approved 388-110.

More than $3 million of the district’s estimated $4 million budget comes from the annual levy.

The school board’s request for a 3-year, .30-mill request to create a sinking fund for the repair of school buildings and grounds, was also supported, but by a smaller margin, 320-177. Revenue from the millage, estimated at $128,081 this year, will be used to maintain improvements which were part of a $9.7 million bond issue approved by voters in 2001.

“We truly appreciate the support shown by the voters of the Leland School District. Their generosity in allowing us a sinking fund will insure that we spend as much of our operating monies on educating the youth of our community as possible,” Superintendent Michael T. Hartigan said. “

My food service director greeted me this morning by letting me know that a compressor failed in one of the refrigeration units. That expense can be covered by this fund. It will be put to good use. “
Some of the projects on the horizon also include replacement of the district’s 16-year-old phone system, estimated at $15,000, and overdue improvements at Hancock Field.

There were no contested races in the Suttons Bay and Glen Lake school districts, where three current board trustees were elected to 4-year terms. Suttons Bay incumbent Roger Merriman was elected with 981 votes. He will be joined on the board by Thomas Nixon III, who garnered 971 votes. Nixon, a former school administrator, was appointed last year to the one year remaining in the unexpired term of Chris Wittman, who resigned.

Jeff Smith, the lone candidate for a 4-year seat on the Glen Lake school board, won another term with the endorsement of 112 voters.

Historically, county schools have opted to hold school elections in May rather than November, when other issues occupy the ballot. But they may rethink this strategy after Tuesday dismal turnout.

Bingham Township, which decided a supervisor’s race, had the highest turnout in the county at 36 percent. Only 1 percent of voters in Elmwood Township’s Precinct #2 participated in the election.

Fewer than 20 voters cast ballots in both Empire and Kasson townships, where there are more than 1,000 registered voters.