Amidst a day of low voter turnout across Leelanau County, local residents rejected a bond proposal from Glen Lake Community Schools that would have raised $36 million to fund considerable capital improvements to school facilities, security, and more.

The Glen Lake bond was the only major item on the ballot for most Leelanau County voters this fall, with residents in Centerville, Cleveland, Empire, Glen Lake, Kasson, Solon, and Platte townships all getting a say in whether or not to support the proposal. As of Wednesday morning, unofficial ballot tallies from all those townships showed the proposal falling short, with 963 votes in favor and 1,119 opposed.

Of the individual townships, Glen Lake and Empire were the only ones where “yes” votes outnumbered “no” votes. Glen Lake Township voters supported the proposal 246 votes to 219, while Empire Township voters broke down on a 300-to-238 distribution. Elsewhere, though, the bond proposal lost significant ground; for instance, in Centerville Township, only 50 voters cast “yes” ballots,” versus 131 voting “no.”

The decision comes in a year of low voter turnout for Leelanau County. A total of 5,728 ballots were cast in Leelanau County this November – just 39.05 percent of registered voters across the townships and districts that had local election matters on the ballot. Comparatively, in the November 2020 election, 71.9 percent of all Leelanau County voters cast ballots – the highest turnout of any county in the state. Voter turnout this fall was highest in Glen Arbor Township, with 467 of 933 registered voters casting ballots – or 50.05 percent.

The failure of the Glen Lake Community Schools bond will force the district to go back to the drawing board to decide how to proceed with a slew of proposed campus infrastructure improvements, safety and security upgrades, and student experience enhancements. Specific improvements would have included new boilers and new HVAC equipment, air conditioning in all classrooms, additional “instructional technology assets,” new electrical distribution “to support the increased use of technology” on campus, a revamped “lobby and assembly space for student and community use,” an updated kitchen and cafeteria, a new “single-point secured entry that incorporates new high school offices” (rendering pictured), a redesigned parking lot and parent drop-off for “improved access and flow,” modernized restrooms, and extra “wayfinding measures” throughout campus, such as a new “welcoming canopy” and fresh signage at the entrance to the building.

The only other election matters on the ballot in Leelanau County this November pertained solely to residents of the City of Traverse City. On that front, voters in the part of Traverse City that sits in Leelanau County generally sided with the rest of the city proper, which elected Amy Shamroe as its new mayor, voted Jackie Anderson, Heather Shaw, and Mitch Treadwell into three open city commission seats, and supported a trio of ballot proposals – two involving the expansion of the Brown Bridge Quiet Area and the third creating a fire and emergency services millage that will make the Traverse City Fire Department the sole provider of ambulance services in the city limits.