WILLIAMSTOWN TWP., Mich. — Vote ‘yes’ signs are still up, but it’s back to the drawing board for Williamstown Township to come up with another plan to fix their local roads after a failed millage.
The township, which is in Eastern Ingham County, hired a firm to analyze their roads and discovered they had a $7.5 million problem.
"They just keep getting worse. We feel like we're playing wack-a-mole," said Wanda Bloomquist, the Williamstown Township Supervisor.
Without money from Governor Gretchen Whitmer's multi-billion-dollar road bonding plan, the township decided to try and fix their roads without the help of the state. However, with all precincts reporting, Wednesday morning, the millage failed by 8 votes.
“It's just unfortunate that it was so close," said Bloomquist.
She says one of the worst roads is a street in a subdivision called “Charlsfield”. That’s where Patrick Rewaiko lives and he says he’s disappointed the plan failed.
"The County truck shows up once a week, fills it in with a shovel full of I think its called cold patch-doesn't last but a day or two and you can see it's crumbling," said Rewaiko.
The last census counted around 5,000 people in the township. This election, 4,400 registered, but Bloomquist says only 52% voted.
John Slater, who has lived in the area for more than 30 years, says he voted ‘no’ because there are already other millages he has to pay for as a property owner.
"I'm so glad it didn't pass," said Slater. “I'm sure my vote counted."
Bloomquist says they’ll have to come up with another plan and aren’t throwing out the possibility of switching some roads into dirt roads to save money.
"We'll have to see what's next. We were really kind of focusing on being able to move forward on addressing all our roads and the funding is just not there so we'll have to decide,” said Bloomquist.
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