News photo by Josh Jambor The Alpena Township office on U.S.-23 North is pictured.

ALPENA – The Alpena Township Board of Trustees found itself evenly divided during a special meeting, resulting in a tie vote on a possible blight enforcement millage. It failed to advance.

Trustee Cash Kroll was not present for the vote.

After discussion, the board was evenly split on how to move forward with placing the millage question on the August ballot. The rejected proposal would have sought a new and additional 0.5 mill levy ($.50 per $1,000 of taxable value) for two years, which was estimated to raise approximately $243,000 in the first year.

Prior to discussion on the blight enforcement millage, Alpena Township Supervisor Abbi Kaszubowski addressed the ongoing situation with funding options for the fire department.

“I talked to the attorney, and we found out we do not have to put a possible fire millage on the August ballot,” Kaszubowski said. “The attorney’s suggestion was that if we want to put the blight millage on the ballot to move forward and not to rush a decision with the fire department.”

“The assessor is also currently working on doing the breakdown of the parcels so we can have a cost analysis of what the districts will be,” Kaszubowski said.

Township Clerk Michele Palevich then explained to the board that they still have time to make an educated decision on the proper course of action regarding the fire department.

“The current fire department millage is going to be collected in 2026 and 2027, so there is still another year, we do not have to hurry and decide today,” Palevich said.

The measure was intended to provide dedicated funding for blight enforcement efforts whether that be an individual assigned to enforce the ordinance or to cover court costs and legal fees associated with blight enforcement. However, the board chose not to advance the voter-approved millage request at this time.

Township Trustee Steve Lappan expressed concern regarding whether or not a blight millage could be passed with uncertainty surrounding the fire department decision.

“My biggest concern about this, even though we certainly have these blight issues, is that we are going to try and pass a millage and we have not made a decision with the fire department … it will not pass,” Lappan said.

No ballot language will be submitted for the Tuesday, Aug. 4 election. Township officials have indicated that alternative approaches to addressing blight concerns may be considered in the future, or the board could decide to readdress the blight enforcement millage after a decision is made regarding the fire department.

Trustee Norm Poli spoke about concerns with the timing of a possible blight enforcement millage with other concerns looming.

“I’m concerned this is not the right time for this, I still think it’s a good thing, but it sounds like there are too many parts moving around,” Poli said. “I do not want this to interfere with anything.”

“Also, we are saying half a mill’ because that’s easy to understand but we could possibly cut it back a little, either way, we are asking for money,” Poli added.

Josh Jambor can be reached at jjambor@thealpenanews.com.