Alpena Township fire millage voted down
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ALPENA -- Alpena Township voters on Tuesday voted down a tax hike to fund the township fire department.
Voters voted 1,446-1,191 against the firefighting millage.
The tax was a new, 3-mill property tax that would cost the owner of a $100,000 house about $150 a year and raise about $1.1 million a year to fund operations and equipment at the Alpena Township Fire Department. The township would have levied the property tax for six years.
The township has struggled to maintain its fire department -- which has cost hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in subsidies from the township general fund and has been understaffed.
The new tax would have helped the township maintain its own fire department without subsidization from the general fund.
Township property owners already pay 1.5 mills -- about $75 a year for the owner of a $100,000 house -- for firefighting operations and will pay that tax through 2027. Another 0.65-mill tax for firefighting equipment -- costing the owner of a $100,000 house about $32.50 per year -- will be charged for the last time this year.
Alpena Township voters also voted against a new, 2-mill property tax to raise money for work on roads and ditches.
Voters voted 1,572-1,057 against the roads millage.
It would have cost the owner of a $100,000 house about $100 a year and would raise about $756,000 a year for the township.
Also on Tuesday Alpena County voters approved a veterans millage, a senior services millage and a youth and recreation millage.
ALPENA COUNTY VETERANS MILLAGE
Voters voted 4,271-1,734 in favor of the millage.
The veterans millage is a renewal for four years of a 0.21-mill property tax supporting veterans services.
The tax would cost the owner of a $100,000 house about $10.50 a year and would raise about $207,000 a year to fund the Alpena County Department of Veterans Affairs, which provides a variety of services to the county's military veterans.
ALPENA COUNTY YOUTH AND RECREATION MILLAGE
Voters voted 3,442-2,551 in favor of the millage.
The youth and recreation millage is a four-year renewal of a 0.5-mill tax supporting the county's Youth and Recreation Committee.
The property tax would cost the owner of a $100,000 house about $25 a year and would raise about $493,000 a year to support grants administered through the Youth and Rec Committee for a variety of programs and organizations serving young people and the general public.
In its last round of giving, the committee's biggest recipient was the county-owned Plaza Pool, which received $80,000 of about $500,000 in total given by the committee. The committee also supported area campgrounds, 4-H programs, the Boys and Girls Club of Alpena, a planned remodel of the Culligan Plaza in downtown Alpena, and more.
ALPENA COUNTY SENIOR SERVICES TAX
Voters voted 3,999-2,024 in favor of the millage.
The Alpena County senior services tax is a four-year renewal of a 0.55-mill senior services property tax funding the county's Older Persons Committee.
The tax would cost the owner of a $100,000 house about $27.50 a year and would raise about $542,000 for the committee, which provides grants to organizations and programs that help with everything from health to social well-being to transportation of Alpena County residents 60 or older.
The committee has funded everything from Plaza Pool to help make swim time affordable for seniors to the county's Meals on Wheels program.
All results were unofficial at press time.