KALAMAZOO (WKZO-AM) — Kalamazoo County Clerk Tim Snow says they’re anticipating fewer voters this Tuesday, compared to figures from March’s primary.
Snow is guessing only about 20 percent to 30 percent will turn out.
Several issues will be on ballots throughout the area.
Voters in Richland may opt to dissolve the village — something that has never be done in Michigan history. Petitioners have forced votes in Richland twice in prior decades, but each vote failed. It takes a two-thirds vote to approve dissolution.
Outside of Kalamazoo County, voters in Albion will be asked to let Marshall Public Schools annex their school district, which has faced financial difficulties for years Albion High School and Albion Middle School students already attend schools in Marshall, and even those cost cutting measures could not prevent the district from going broke.
There are more-conventional funding requests on Kalamazoo and Calhoun County, too.
A county-wide public safety millage in Kalamazoo County would renew the current rate for another six years to provide critical financial support to the courts, the prosecutor’s office, the jail, animal control and the sheriff’s department. Kalamazoo County Sheriff Rick Fuller said the millage has been around for decades and has passed every time.
Galesburg-Augusta and Comstock schools are both asking voters in their districts to extend current bonding requests for no-frills proposals that would maintain buildings, replace failing plumbing, electrical, lighting and heating systems, enhance security at school buildings and upgrade classroom computers.
The Galesburg-Augusta request is for $10.4 million. The request in the larger Comstock Public Schools would be for just over $40 million.
In Kalamazoo County, the Metro Transit Authority says, because of the restructuring of the system under a countywide authority, they will actually be asking voters to pay less than they have been for the same origin-to-destination service provided by Metro Connect.
The Lakeview School District near Battle Creek is asking voters to approve a pair of funding requests. Proposal one is a $30 million bond issue for 30 years for building repairs and upgrades.
The second is a $3.3 million request to install synthetic turf at Spartan Memorial Stadium. Money would also be used to expand and improve the stage area at the Lakeview Middle School auditorium.
If both measures are approved, it would be a total increase of 1.9 mills.
Polls throughout Michigan open at 7 a.m. on Tuesday. They close at 8 p.m.
