By John Raffel
Correspondent
ALLEGAN – Allegan County’s five commissioners, the Allegan Action team, announced their joint intention to seek re-election to the governing board of Allegan County, board chairman Jim Storey said.
Commissioners Scott Beltman, Hopkins; Mark DeYoung, Dorr; Gale Dugan, Otsego; Dean Kapenga, Hamilton, and Jim Storey, Holland, will seek voter approval to continue their service on the Board of Commissioners.
“The current board members are united in working to advance Allegan County with improved services for individual residents such as broadband expansion, adding public safety resources, and increasing resident access to services, while keeping an eye on excessive cost,” the five said in a joint statement.
“Advancing Allegan County as a desired place to live, work and play, is our goal as we look to take advantage of current trends that saw the county’s population increase by 8% in recent years,” they added.
“In addition to adding one thousand miles of fiber optic cable, partnering with 123 Net, the county’s fiber installation contractor, and the State of Michigan, the county is enlarging and remodeling its courthouse to add space for a third circuit court judge while moving non-court county services to a more central location at its Dumont Lake Campus in Allegan Township,” Storey said. “ The Commissioners worked with judges and legislators to gain a third circuit court judge position. The circuit court’s crowded dockets saw cases delayed for months, partially as a result of the Covid contagion.
“These major projects required the candid yet respectful discussion and debate among the current board members. We believe that unity of purpose will yield benefits to our residents because this board is dedicated to creating a better future for the county we love,” they added.
While moving forward on a number of service fronts, including improving the operation of the county’s animal shelter, the board has held the line on taxes while adding public safety staffing for the sheriff’s road patrol and corrections operations and the prosecuting attorney’s office.
“As President Reagan was fond of saying, there is no limit to what can be accomplished when we work together and don’t care who gets the credit. We pledge to continue working together in that vein if the voters choose to return us to the Board of Commissioners,” they concluded.
“The current five-member board is the smallest number of commissioners in Allegan County since the county commission system was created in 1966. In the decade between 2011 and 2021 there were seven commissioners,” Storey said. The county’s apportionment commission, a separate body, reduced the number of commissioners following the 2020 census that documented an 8 percent population increase. Each commissioner represents about 22,000 residents.
“The legislature increased the terms of office for commissioners from two to four years effective January 1, 2025. Across all 83 Michigan counties, there are 638 commissioners.”