Goodrich – The ‘Vacate the Village? committee has collected nearly 400 petition signatures, the first in a series of steps required to dissolve Goodrich.
Although the count won’t be verified by the village clerk until Oct. 4, only 163 signatures are required to put the issue on the February 2005 ballot.
Goodrich residents aren’t the only ones to get a vote in the matter.
Since Atlas Township residents would have to absorb any village debt, township voters also decide at the ballot box, says John Potbury, attorney for Vacate the Village.
‘That’s the way I read the law,? Potbury said.
Genesee County Director of Elections Rob Coffman agrees, as does Michigan Township Association spokesperson Catherine Mullhaupt: Consolidation affects both village and township residents.
‘That’s why you have a vote of the people in the township,? said Mullhaupt, in a September interview with The Citizen. ‘Otherwise it’s like the in-laws coming to stay for the rest of your life.?
Whether the township vote would occur at the same time as the village vote or in a subsequent election hasn’t been decided.
When Atlas Township Attorney David Lattie handled a similar matter for the Village of Lennon in 2000, 35th Circuit Judge Gerald Lostracco of Shiawassee County stated the village would vote first; if that vote succeeded, the residents of Clayton and Venice townships would vote.
The only known successful case of municipal dissolution-consolidation occured in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in 2000.
In that instance, residents of the affected cities and village voted in the same election, said John Archocosky, manager for the new City of Iron River.