The Dexter Leader
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Voters speak out
Scio primary winners have plenty of work to do
By Sean Dalton, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: August 7, 2008
Spaulding Clark was pleased with his landslide victory for the Scio Township supervisor's seat, he said Tuesday evening.
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Clark won with 1,288 votes, according to unofficial tallies reported to the county.
Township Supervisor Charlie Nielsen had 690 votes and Doug Fuller had 616.
Clark was careful how he worded his reaction to the election results, which favored only one of his fellow candidates - Dick Delong - on the Leadership for Scio group of candidates.
DeLong received 945 votes, making him the trustee candidate with the fourth largest number of ballots cast in his favor.
"What I think has to happen or will happen (is that) three months before any of us take office, it would be well worth it to sit down and talk to each other and get acquainted and see where we're going," he said. "We'll have to see what are their issues and what are my issues and how we want to deal collectively with all of those issues."
Clark said that the only individual who came out on top of the Tuesday election that he hadn't had some experience with in the past is Christine Green.
Jack Knowles, an independent candidate, was the biggest winner in the pool of 12 trustee candidates with 1,057 votes.
Team for Scio candidate group members Christine Green and Thomas Hanson were in the middle with 953 and 950 votes respectively.
Donna Palmer is the only incumbent who kept her spot on the Township Board of Trustees.
Palmer, also a Team for Scio member, beat Gordon Darr 1,601 to 843 votes.
Nancy Hedberg, of Team for Scio, won with 1,424 over Mary Shindell's 914 votes.
Incumbent Trustees Jean King, Chuck Ream and Jim Dries pulled in 846, 814 and 810 votes respectively, but it just wasn't enough to hold on.
Sitting Township Clerk Kathy Knol and Trustee David Nacht did not seek reelection this year.
"That's unpleasant, but I really have a whole lot of things to do in my life," Ream said Tuesday night. "So I'll just have to accept it and move forward."
Ream said it's too early to specify his volunteerism to the township, but said he would like to be on the parks board that the current board will be setting up before their current terms in office expire in November.
He also called into question how some of his opponents ran their campaigns.
"I'm just kind of aghast at this kind of manipulation of public safety issues (and how) it can swing an election," Ream said. "(Spaulding) wins, but he wins dripping with slime. I don't think the police and fire are something to play politics with."
Ream said he hoped that the new board wouldn't oppose the public safety millage of .9 mills that will be on the ballot in November.
"I want to really emphasize that in that small milage we are in part using the reserve funds, because the .9 millage will not give us the full $1.2 million that we need. We will still be taking a million (dollars) out of the reserve, even if we get the millage passed."
Clark says he is confidant that the elected group will be able to tackle the tough issues facing Scio.
"In a sense what I was running on was experience to help the board get through the tough issues," he said. "That is the ability that I have and it was recognized that all of these people bring something to the table in dealing with township issues.
"I think it's a good mix despite the fact that we weren't all on the same team. I think everyone wants to see everything run smoothly."†
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