Alan Curtis

ALPENA — William La Haie and Jesse Osmer won seats on the Alpena County Board of Commissioners, while Alan Curtis won the Alpena County probate/district judgeship, according to unofficial results Tuesday.

In the Alpena County Board of Commissioners’ District 1, representing the area between Alpena’s 11th Avenue and State Street, from Chisholm Street to Tuttle Street, Republican La Haie beat Libertarian Scott Parkham by a vote of 1,000 to 429.

La Haie could not be reached for comment after midnight Tuesday.

And in the county’s District 2, covering the area north of Chisholm Street, between its intersection with Johnson Street and the Alpena marina, Republican challenger Osmer had 551 votes to unseat incumbent and current county board Chairman Robert Adrian, a Democrat, who earned 539 votes.

“I’m very grateful for everybody who encouraged me and supported me and volunteered,” Osmer said. “I’m looking forward to rolling up my sleeves and getting to work.”

He added that he hoped his experience working with state budgets while working for federal and state lawmakers would help him get the county back on track financially.

And Curtis, the incumbent county Probate/District Court judge, had 7,339 votes to beat Alpena County Prosecutor Cynthia Muszynski’s 5,105 votes.

Curtis could not be reached for comment in the predawn hours of Wednesday.

Curtis has sat on that bench since October 2021, when Gov. Gretchen Whitmer appointed him to replace retiring judge Thomas LaCross. The winner in that race will fill the second half of LaCross’s term and must run again in 2024 to keep the seat.

Winning seats in Alpena County government were unopposed candidates David Karschnick, who won a seat representing District 3 of the county board, Bill Peterson, who won a seat representing District 4 of the county board, Brenda Fournier, who won a seat representing District 5 of the county board, Burt Francisco, who won a seat representing District 6 of the county board, Travis Konarzewski, who won a seat representing District 7 of the county board, John Kozlowski, who won a seat representing District 8 of the county board, and Keri Bertrand, who was elected Alpena County clerk. All of those electees are Republicans.

Kozlowski pulled out of the race because of a conflict with his job, but still appeared on the ballot on Tuesday.

The District 1 race pitted two business owners against each other.

La Haie said his business experience provided him an understanding of budgets and fiscal management that he said would help the county but said in a pre-election interview with The News it was premature to take any stance on issues related to the county before the election.

Parkham, too, said his business experience would help the county and said in a pre-election interview with The News the county needed to rein in spending and stay within its means.

In the District 2 race, Adrian, the current chairman of the board, said in his pre-election interview with The News that, as costs for providing required services increase, voters will have to choose between fewer services or more millages, and he believed he could help steer the county through such decisions.

Osmer told The News before the election that his experience working with lawmakers at the state and federal level would help him on the county board and he said the current Board of Commissioners had not always followed its own guidelines, exceeding financial caps on expenditures.

In the judicial race, Curtis touted his work building relationships with individuals and organizations throughout the region to help them work better with his court and said he wanted to launch a mental health court that could help divert those with mental illness away from jail and into treatment.

Muszynski, who’s been prosecutor since March 2020 and has worked for the Prosecutor’s Office for 13 years, said that experience gave her the knowledge she needed to sit on the bench and also said she’d like to see a mental health court established.