Z EELAND R ECORD THE
Vol. 129-No.51
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Zeeland, Michigan
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Serving Western Michigan for more than 128 Years
• October 5, 2023
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Cost$1.00/copy $30/year
Election Officials Collaborate to Provide Secure, Efficient Early Voting The Ottawa County Board of Commissioners approved a plan presented by Ottawa County Clerk Justin Roebuck in collaboration with 23 City and Township Clerks to provide a uniform and consistent early voting plan for all Ottawa County residents in next year’s election cycle. The approval was made last week Tuesday, Sept. 26 during the County Commission meeting as part of the 2023-2024 budget. Proposal 2022-2, which passed in November of 2022, amended the Michigan Constitution to provide the right to a minimum 9-day period of early voting prior to every state or federal election. The constitutional amendment places the responsibility of funding and operating early voting on city and township clerks across the state but does allow for collaborative agreements between municipal and county clerks as well as municipal to municipal agreements for the conduct of early voting. Ottawa County Clerk Justin Roebuck stressed the importance of three main elements in the early voting plan – security, customer service, and cost effectiveness. “Proposal 22-2 significantly changes the options available to our voters, and our goal is to ensure integrity in the process while we look for the most cost-efficient ways to provide these new services to our customers,” said Roebuck. “Early voting will be a great option for our voters, and we are so excited to work collaboratively with all of our municipal clerks to ensure a smooth and secure process for them.” The Ottawa County Early Voting Plan calls for four vote centers in separate regions of the county, where any voter may participate during the nine days leading up to state or federal elections next year. County and local clerk staff will be working in the weeks ahead to provide full details and communication to ensure that all voters are aware of their options to participate. Several amendments were made during the budget process including requiring security cameras to monitor voting areas and storage during off hours.
“They originally wanted cameras in the room while voting is occurring, but that is prohibited by law. Instead, we will have security cameras to monitor the voting centers and the storage of ballots during off hours,” explained Zeeland City Clerk Pam Holmes. Another feature added will have cameras monitoring the area outside of the polling place during election hours. “This will allow people to check and see how long the lines are before coming to the polls,” said Holmes. A ballot security feature requested by Commissioners was that the ballots were watermarked to avoid fraud. “This is something that is being looked into, but we are not sure if a water-marked ballot can be read by the tabulators,” said Holmes. After discussion on the proposed early voting agreement over the past several months, all 23 local jurisdictions in Ottawa County have voted to approve the plan, making the County Board of Commissioners’ vote the final seal of approval. Allendale Township Clerk Jody Hansen stressed the benefits of the agreement for her residents, and the County as a whole. “Partnering together provides county-wide continuity, enhances voting convenience, reinforces the sanctity that our clerks place on the integrity of elections, and provides incredible financial savings for all Ottawa County voters,” she said. Hudsonville City Clerk Jill Gruppen says that the collaborative plan eliminates pressure on local election officials to staff and manage the process on their own. “By working with the County for early voting, not only will there be a larger pool of election inspectors to choose from, but other local clerk responsibilities will be shared collaboratively during the nine days before the election, giving us more time to serve our voters leading up to Election Day.”
Downtown Zeeland Announces of Music on Main Line Up at Pumpkinfest While Pumpkinfest activities will highlight this weekend’s activities with activities for youth and families, Music on Main will return for its final time this year. The open air, live music event will feature food trucks, yard games, and great music within Zeeland’s Social District. The music starts on Friday night, October 6th with Pretty Rage: A female – fronted Classic Rock band playing a variety of songs everyone knows and loves from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. On Saturday the music begins at noon with Dunegrass taking the stage until 3 p.m. playing a folksy Bluegrass mix of old and new, this four-piece band tributes artists from John Prine to The Lumineers. Following the pumpkinfest parade from 4pm to 6pm Rock Shop- A dance band for all occasions from the 60’s to now will take the stage featuring Classic Rock, reggae, and great classic ballads. The music ends with Bakker Hanegraaff playing from 7p.m. to 10 p.m. with a wide range of musical
expressions, from rock and roll to country and blues. “Main Street, between Elm and Church will be closed to thru traffic during the reoccurring event to accommodate live music, food trucks, picnic tables and interactive yard games. Event attendees are welcome to bring lawn chairs and picnics, or to purchase food on site. Alcoholic beverages must be purchased from a licensed business within Zeeland’s Social District,” said Downtown Events Coordinator Kerri VanDorp. Music on Main is made possible through a grant from the Michigan Arts and Culture Council, Holland Area Arts Council and the following local business: gold sponsors: Van Der Kolk Plumbing, AAC Credit Union, Zeeland BPW, Zeeland Ace Hardware, and Plascore. Silver sponsors are Rachel Karhoff- State Farm, Zeeland Family Dentistry, VanHuis Real Estate.
The Zeeland City Council voted unanimously on Monday evening to return Centennial Street to two-way traffic between Main and Central avenues. The street was changed to a one-way street back in 1979 to accommodate the High School, now Cityside Middle School expansion.
Centennial Returns to Two-way Traffic After a six-month trial and a public hearing, the Zeeland City Council on Monday evening approved making Centennial Street between Main and Central avenues two way. At the public hearing on Sept. 18, the city council did receive one citizen comment that making Centennial two-way would be unsafe given its narrow cross section and on street parking. Nobody attended Monday’s meeting to further comment on returning the roadway to two-way traffic. The city asked their traffic engineer to address the citizen’s concerns. “Five or ten years ago I may have agreed with the citizen, but with the focus now on complete streets, and supportive studies in that regard, low volume street sections like Centennial are often safer having such characteristics. Such cross sections result in lower vehicle speeds, often in a significant manner. Yes, weaving around parked cars
and such may seem unsafe, but it slows traffic down. There are many urban planners that would laud the city’s consideration of converting Centennial back to a two-way operation, in part to result in a consistent operation along its length,” stated Traffic Engineer Pete LaMourie of Progressive AE “Given our traffic engineer’s feedback, the pilot study confirmed that the street can adequately handle the traffic counts, we have not noted excessive speeds on the street, we can maintain parking on the west side of the street, and it helps return some flexibility in our street grid system, staff does support the permanent conversion of this section of Centennial to two-way traffic operation,” said City Manager Tim Klunder. Council members unanimously approved a traffic order returning Centennial to two-way traffic and a second traffic to place a stop sign for south bound traffic on Centennial at the Central Avenue intersection.
ZBPW Prepares for End of Landfill Generation Since 2008 the Zeeland Board of Public works has used landfill gas produced at the Autumn Hills landfill facility in Zeeland Township through an agreement with North American Natural Resource (NANR) to produce electricity that is distributed throughout their system. “At the present time, 4.0 megawatts of generating capacity are installed at the facility, the maximum allowed under our contract, producing between 13,000 and 24,000 megawatt hours of energy over the past four years. For several reasons, generation has declined in recent months producing only 13,100 megawatt hours in 2022, with 2023 projected to be similar,” explained ZBPW Power Supply & Market Operations Manager
Robert Mulder. ZBPW’s current contract for landfill gas will reach its maturity on June 30, 2024. In August 2022, Kinetrex Energy purchased North American Natural Resources and its assets. “Since that time, staff have been actively engaged in discussions regarding their new ventures and discontinued operation of the land fill gas generation facility in its current form when the Power Purchase Agreement reaches term. For several years now, staff have anticipated that the agreement would not be renewed beyond June 30, 2024, and have been working with Michigan Public Power Authority (MPPA) to procure replacement (Continued on page 8)