MONTAGUE — White River Township is one of many townships in Muskegon County that have partnered up to make early voting for the 2024 presidential primary available at the Muskegon County Administration Complex (formerly Baker College), located at 1903 Marquette Avenue in Muskegon.
The early voting will begin Saturday, Feb. 17 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and continue daily through Sunday, Feb. 25 prior to the scheduled primary Feb. 27. Both Saturdays in that span will feature 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. voting and both Sundays will have 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. voting. The weekdays will have voting available from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with the exception of Thursday, Feb. 22, when it will be 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
The new early voting days are a result of the approval of Proposition 2 by Michigan voters in November 2022, which provided for nine days of early voting prior to any statewide election. For smaller townships like White River, partnering up with others made sense, as it would have brought a hefty cost - in finances and in time - to go it alone. Clerk Patti Sargent said it would have cost White River Township $60,000 to provide early voting itself, to say nothing of the mental strain of township employees putting in all those hours prior to a 16-hour election day.
Sargent will join township supervisor Ron Bailey and treasurer Deb Harris for the Feb. 22 public testing of the election equipment.
Beyond election matters, the board also welcomed back trustee George Dufresne, who missed the past few months due to illness. Dufresne said he was pleased to be back.
The board unanimously appointed resident Stephen Niezgoda to the planning commission. Niezgoda previously wrote to the township expressing interest in filling a vacancy on the commission, and Sargent said she supported his candidacy.
The board also discussed roads in need of repair in the township. Due to the cost - it’s estimated that it would cost $331,000 to the township for all four roads to be repaired - there are no imminent plans to do so. Bailey said it would likely require the township to save money for multiple years in order to tackle any of the projects. In some cases nearby bodies, such as the city of Montague, would also have to support repair projects due to the roads crossing the township border. The four roads discussed were Hancock Road, Lau Road, Indian Bay Road and Lamos Road, with Sargent saying she would rank the roads in that order by how often she hears about them from residents.
