GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Voters in Spring Lake stopped an effort to disincorporate the village in its tracks in Tuesday’s election.
The Spring Lake village manager told 24 Hour News 8 that 556 voters — 63 percent — said no to the disincorporation measure on the ballot, while 325 said yes.
The proposal would have allowed the village to start collecting signatures to get disincorporation on the November ballot.
“I voted for it. … I’ve lived both in the Township of Spring Lake and I’ve lived in the Village of Spring Lake and it seems like it’s a duplication of effort, so I voted to have the option to disincorporate,” resident Kris Layson explained. “I’m told that some services will go away. I know that at one time we had a village police force — that’s Ottawa County now. So I guess I honestly don’t know what the benefit is.”
“I’ve lived here many, many years and I like all the benefits that we have as a village, like trash pickup and leaf pickup and all the things that they do,” voter Vicki Bailey said, noting that while she may pay lower taxes under disincorporation, she would be billed to get the services she wants.
Village President Joyce Verplank-Hatton, who ran and won last year on a platform of disincorporation, said she would resign Wednesday regardless of the outcome of the vote.
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