Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


Green Oak Township is anticipating high turnout for upcoming school-related elections in November.

Clerk Michael Sedlak delivered a report at a recent meeting. He stated they are busy preparing for the upcoming school elections in South Lyon and Whitmore Lake and are already well over 3,000 absentee voter applications – the highest they’ve ever had for school elections.

A $350 (m) million bond proposal for South Lyon Community Schools is on the ballot; as is another for the Washtenaw Intermediate School District to establish an area career and technical education program. More information is available in the provided links.

Sedlak said he anticipates pretty high voter turnout – especially with having early voting for the first time for school elections.

Consolidation efforts are also in the works to save money by cutting costs such including employee and material costs.

Sedlak stated they received preliminary approval from the county of their plan to reduce precincts from 11 to 8 – based on how the early voting went for the last Presidential Election last year. He said now that precinct sizes have been increased to 5,000; they’ll be consolidating and eliminating those 3 precincts – which will also allow them eliminate 2 absentee counting boards.

Sedlak reported it’s all a pre-empt to the state forcing them to buy all new election equipment – which is an unfunded mandate that will cost around $10,000 per precinct so this is a way of saving money.

Sedlak also reported during the meeting that the township applied for an ADA infrastructure grant and was awarded $10,000 for the reconstruction of the ADA doors at the township hall.