Acme Township Voters Support Incumbents, Back Smart Growth

by: philgoblue

Mon Aug 11, 2008 at 10:05:56 AM EDT

Incumbent Supervisor Wayne Kladder (who was appointed supervisor last year after Bill Kurtz resigned) received 747 voted, easily defeating pro-developer challenger Noelle Knopf (one of the former Board members who were swept out of office in 2004), who finished with 477 votes.

Incumbent Clerk Dorothy Dunville received 787 votes, easily defeating challenger Pam Lewis who received 450 votes.

For Trustee, voters picked four out of a ballot that included six candidates:

* Incumbent Trustee Frank Zarafonitis, owner of the Bay View Inn, was the top vote-getter with 751 votes.
* Incumbent Trustee Paul Scott, a corrections sergeant at the Grand Traverse County Sheriff's Department, received 746 votes.
* Incumbent Trustee Ron Hardin, an engineer, received 743 votes.
* Incumbent Trustee Erick Takayama, owner of Grand Traverse Organic Landscaping, received 691 votes.

Two Trustee candidates who ran as "pro-growth" (re: pro-developer) finished out of the top four and thus were not elected:
* Doug White received 601 votes.
* Tyler Veliquette received 523 votes.

The Treasurer's race was for an open seat, since former Treasurer Bill Boltres stepped down. Candidate Linda Lou Wikle, a township planning commissioner who owns an insurance agency, picked up 640 votes and defeated Nancy Edwardson, who received 501 votes.

Back in July, Kladder had summed up the goals of the current township board for Acme, a township of 4,332 people on the East Arm of the Grand Traverse Bay:

"We can't be all residential and agricultural like Old Mission Peninsula but we can create a village center like Traverse City. If you create a community that people will want to move to the businesses will follow."

Voter Beth Whiting agreed last week:

"I think the current board is working very hard to maintain the style of life my family and I would like to see in Acme."

And The Record-Eagle, in yet another fabulous editorial, also agrees:

Three times now, Acme Township voters have spoken, and there was no mistaking the message: We demand the right to direct development in our community and to decide what the future will look like; we demand a township board that will represent our interests -- no matter what....

They are determined to have the community they want, not the community some big-box retailers want. That's the way it should be, and voters deserve credit for sticking to their principles.