TRAVERSE CITY -- Sleepy little off-year election? Maybe not in Acme and East Bay townships, where millage proposals for road repairs are fueling heated debates in both communities.
Representatives of both sides report emotions running high as the Nov. 3 election draws near. Both township ballots feature requests for 1 mill for road maintenance over five years.
"It's just crazy," said Renee Kaufman, of East Bay, a leader of the pro-millage committee Fix Our Roads.
Kaufman said someone in a vehicle recently followed and harassed her as she tended to election signs. She said someone in a large black truck followed tight to her bumper through a subdivision, then temporarily blocked her in a driveway.
"I was so scared I didn't know what to do," Kaufman said. "Now I always take someone with me."
Fellow East Bay resident Debbie Luhrs has a story from the opposing side: She asked police to investigate the alleged theft of dozens of her signs with the prominent anti-millage message: "Don't believe the lie."
"I think we are going to have a high voter turnout for what's normally a lame election," said Luhrs, who said she purchased 600 anti-millage signs for $701.
Fix Our Roads raised $1,650 from about 40 people. It purchased 225 signs for $575 and spent another $485 to mail post cards to absentee voters, according to its campaign finance statements.
"Our roads are falling apart and somebody has to do something about them before they're turned back into gravel," Kaufman said.
Luhrs, who lives on a private road, reported spending about $800 overall on her campaign, almost double what the 1 mill increase would cost her in property taxes over its five-year life.
Luhrs works for Generations Management, part of a group of limited liability companies managed by Keith Nielson that own more than $2 million worth of commercial and investment property in the two townships.
Luhrs said her employers support her efforts, but she's not waging a campaign for them.
"I'm doing this because it's wrong; it's a lie," Luhrs said. "This is not going to help everyone as they claim. It's only going to help those people who travel those roads."
Local roads don't qualify for federal stimulus funding and the Grand Traverse County Road Commission can't afford to maintain its primary roads, much less local roads.
Kaufman said a road millage is the only option, and the campaign isn't just about fixing crumbling Holiday Road, as some opponents contend.
"If you raise $4.2 million in millage money, how can it all be about one road," Kaufman said. That amount would be raised if voters in both townships approve millages.
Acme Township officials adopted a priority list of roads so electors know which would be repaired first.
Acme's millage would raise an estimated $317,000 this year, adding $75 to the tax bill of a home with a taxable value of $75,000.
A half-mile stretch of Holiday Road tops the repair list, at an estimated cost of $312,000. The priority list also includes sections of Bunker Hill Road; Brackett Road; Greenwood Drive; Bartlett Road, Lautner Road between Bunker Hill and M-72; Baywood Drive; West Timberwood Drive; Maplewood Lane; Paper Birch Lane; and Deerwood Drive.
Seven of the roads atop of the list are in the Holiday Hills area, including five subdivision roads.
The proposed Acme projects would cost an estimated $1.7 million, of which the county road commission is expected to provide some in-kind services but no funding.
East Bay Township's Board of Trustees rejected a proposed priority list with its section of Holiday Road at the top. It plans to appoint a committee to create a new list if the millage passes, Supervisor Glen Lile said.
Lile, who lives on Holiday Road, pledged that East Bay officials will not spend all $501,000 an approved millage would raise its first year on one road.
"I think we have to fix the worst sections of roads that serve the most people first," Lile said.
Several local collector roads in the township, such as Hobbs Highway and Prouty, Rasho and Holiday roads, have short stretches that need immediate attention, Lile said.
"It's a problem, you have to find a way to fix it, and I would hope we wouldn't get so political about it," Lile said.
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