Bob Adrian

ALPENA — Voters in District No. 2 in Alpena County will have another candidate to consider for county commissioner on Tuesday.

Former commissioner Bob Adrian has filed to run as a write-in candidate for the Democratic Party with hopes of winning his former seat.

Adrian is the lone Democrat running in the primary election for District No. 2, which Republican Griffin James is running unopposed for the same seat.

James announced two months ago that although his name is on the ballot for county commissioner, a busy family life has forced him from consideration and he will not accept the commissioner seat if he wins in November.

Adrian was narrowly defeated in 2022 by Republican Jesse Osmer, who is now the Alpena County Administrator. Before losing the election by only 12 votes, Adrian was the board chairman and helped make several projects, including the new airport terminal, campground improvements, and the boat launch project, in Alpena County realities.

Adrian was critical in the emergency response during the COVID-19 pandemic, as he worked closely with local leaders, as well as those in Lansing and Washington D.C. to bring needed resources and up-to-date pandemic data to the area.

Adrian said the budget remains the biggest issue facing the county. He said with the county facing a more than $1 million shortfall, having the proposed Headlee rollup property tax pass would help the county continue to provide the service it does now. If the tax proposal fails, however, he said difficult cuts to service and staff will need to be seriously considered.

Adrian said his experience with working with past budgets, including those where the deficit was much smaller, will help the board make the needed adjustments to its finances, no matter how the property tax proposal plays out with voters on Tuesday.

If elected, Adrian knows he will be thrown into a dispute between supporters of the Alpena County Library and the county board, which recently voted to begin the process of replacing the entirety of the library board after failing to address residents’ concerns about relocating books some feel are inappropriate. The books in question are placed in the children’s section and the teen room.

Adrian said he supports that the books in question should be moved to more age-appropriate areas of the library or behind a counter where minors need to have an adult with them to check them out.

He said as far as the commissioners wanting to replace all of the members of the library board, Adrian said the entire mess could have been avoided if the county had just let the library board continue to update its policy on book challenges and let library board members, concerned citizens, and library executives work out a solution.

Adrian will need his supporters to write his name onto the ballot during the primary election. If he advances to the general election in November, his name will be spelled out so people can more easily vote for him.

He said the deadline to file for the August primary slipped past him and that is why he couldn’t have his name on ballots this time around, but he met the other deadline that allows people to run as a write-in.

Adrian said his experience, ability to work with others — no matter the political party — and the relationships he has with other area leaders will help the county and he looks forward to helping the country become more financially stable.

He said he missed being a commissioner and hopes the voters in District No. 2 will support him in his effort to return his experience and level-headedness back to the board.

Steve Schulwitz can be reached at 989-358-5689 or sschulwitz@thealpenanews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ss_alpenanews.com.