1970-12-16; Clare Sentinel

              CITY LIBRARY
4TH & MCI.WA«
Clare
FIFTEEN CENTS
2 SECTIONS
WEDNESDAY,  DECEMBER 16, 19*0
OUR 93rd NEW YEAR SERIES
VOL. 79 NO. 15
Bond RejectionEffects
Studied by Board
By Phil Schneider
Managing Editor
Clare School District voters
strongly voiced their opposition to
a $2.2 million proposed bond issue
and overwhelmingly defeated by a-
bout a two one margin the bond
proposal in a special election Wednesday.
Of nearly 2,900 voters in the
school district, only 1,296 votes
were cast. Of that total, 836
voters cast no ballots and only
459 voted yes on the bonding proposal. The total voter turnout
was slightly less than 50 per cent
Christmas Lights
Contest Deadline
This
Friday
Only three days remain for entries to be received in a Christmas
home lighting contest sponsored
by The Clare Sentinel which will
pick the top three home lighting
designes in Clare.
Cash prizes will, be awarded by
Citizen's Bank and Trust Company
and Consumers Power Company
while the grand prize winner's
family will be treated to a full-
course meal as a holiday bonus
by the Doherty Motor Hotel. The
cash prizes will be awarded for
the religious theme and the best
creative lighting display.
To enter the contest, simply
write your name, address and category in which you wish to be judged and mail it to the Clare Sentinel, 112 West Fourth Street,
Clare.
All entries must be received
by 5 p.m. December 18 and judging will be conducted the following evening. The top three winners and honorable mention winners wll be announced in the December 23 issue of The Sentinel.
of   the  registered  voters  in  tne
school district.
Had voters approved the special
bonding request, property taxes for
property owners in the school district would have increased $6.50
for every $1,000 of state equalized
valued property,
Wednesday's bond proposal
rejection was the second time this
year voters rejected a request
from Clare school officials and
the board of education for funds
to finance the construction of a
new elementary school building
and remodeling of the current
elementary school building into a
junior ; high or intermediate
school facility.
Board of education members
met Monday evening to discuss
the bond rejection and possible
reasons for its failure during
their regualr monthly meeting at
Clare High School.
Some school officials'felt voters
were opposed to additional taxes
of any kind and felt there was
general oppositio n to the property tax in general. Officials also
indicated  a property tax assess
ment increase in Isabella County
part of which is in the Clare
School District, had a negative effect on the election outcome.
Other reasons discussed for
the possible cause of failure of
the bond request were the general high unemployment level in
the county and the state of the
economy, the amount of money
involved in the bonding issue and
the possible fact that many
voters did not understand the
need for new school facilities to
reduce the current overcrowded
conditions in  the school system.
Another reason expressed by
some school officials was concerned with what some'persons
termed a feeling among some citizens that two or more school
districts in the county should combine resources and construct a
single,   consolidate   high  school.
The idea of a county-wide high
school has been discussed by the
Clare School Board on past occasions and it is a standing policy
of the board that it is willing to
enter into discussions to explore
the possbility,
Ho,
Ho,
Ho!
"Just wait untill I tell all the kids I was with Santa Claus" may be*
the thoughts on the minds of the children who met and talked with
Santa Claus on the street and ih stores Saturday in Clare. Santa will
make another visit to Clare this Saturday when he stops over at noon
at the Ideal Theater for a special children's showing of a Christmas
film, "Ring of Bright Waters." (Sentinel Photo)
Counties Seek Home Rule Status
Clare County Commissioner
John Brubaker was a membe r of
the resolution committee which
drafted a proposed bill at the recent annual convention of the
state's counties that would seek
"home rule authority'* for Michigan's 83 counties.
Delegates to the 72nd Annual
Meeting of the Michigan Association of Counties have adopted a
resolution to endorse legislation
to provide an effective and efficient
new Charter County Statute granting to the people the powers to
structure local government to best
suit local needs while preserving
the identity of other units of government in the county.
The resolution was adopted after the more than 300 delegates,
representing almost 60 counties,
heard a discussion on the needs
for stronger county government
and were presented an analysis of
a bill that the Association has
been working on for six-months.
MAC Executive Director A.
Barry McGuire said, "the suggested Charter County Bill will give
counties the opportunity to structure themselves in a manner which
will allow them to meet the complexities of modern society while
providing flexibility to allow the
people to choose what form they
.teel is best for them.
"In reality what we are asking
is\ to be given those powrs that
cities and charter townships now
have in order that counties may
solve their problems as the people
see fit," Brubaker said.
"The present Charter County
Statute does not provide these features, and it is understandable
why no Michigan county has considered it," Brubaker said.
The legislation is expected to
become controversial in its plans
for "flexibility,"
Under the act, a county could
adopt a charter with an appointed
manager  system  of government,
or opt for an elected county mayor system, partisan or non-partisan as desired.
The proposed "model" charter
would also grant counties much
stronger powers of ordinance-enacting and taxing.
In effect, the plan would offer
counties the same powers as home
rule cities.
Assessment Report Questioned
Rejection by the Clare County
Board of Commissioners of a property assessment report by Clare
County Equalization Director Cla-
Local Phone Rates May Jump
Hold on to your hats... letter
writing may be revived if enough
people feel a requested increase
in telephone rates is too expensive.
Once again, Michigan Bell Telephone Company, which serves the
greater Clare area, has requested
an increase in rates from the
State's Public Service Commission. The rate increase was requested     because  "rising costs,
falling earnings and a recent inadequate revenue order had left
it no other alternative," company
officials said.
In its application to the state
Public Service Commission the
company outlined its worsening financial condition and asked for a
rate of return in the range of
9.5 percent on its intrastate investment. The company did not
request a  specific amount in its
filing, but said tha t it would ao
so at a later date.
Locally Clare Bell Telephone
manager M. D. Thompson said the
increase was "inadequate at the
time it was granted" and has become "more inadequate with each
passing day."
"Our record of holding down
prices is hard to match in American industry," Thompson stated.
He said that between I960 and the
recent increase, Michigan Bell had
made six intrastate rate reductions
which, based on today's calling
volumes, amount to some $30million annually in customer savings,
Thompson pointed out that Michigan Bell plans to spend a record
$285 million next year to maintain
the quality of its basic services
and to meet the continuing demand
of growth brought about by new
customers and increasing calling
volumes.
rence Gum has brought a flood
of questions about the report, Gum
told The Sentinel.
Since the report appeared last
week, Gum said he has had many
calls on the meaning of the report
and its rejection.
"I would like to explain this
report and the reason for it. Before December 31 each year, each
county equalization department,
shall submit an assessment sales
ratio report for the period of January 1 through June 30 for the
current year and the final assessment-sales ratio study for
the entire previous year to the
State Tax Commission and each
assessing unit," Gum said,
"An assessor who changes assessments of only the property
that has been sold will have a
very un-uniform assessment roll,
he shall keep all assessments current and uniform," Gum explained.
If sales of similar properties
indicate values have increased the
assessor should uniformly increase or decrease assessments
so that equal properties have equal
assessments regardless of
whether they have or have not
been   sold   recently,   Gum   said.
"If assessments do not keep
pace with increasing values, the
County Equalization Department
must recognize the increased value and add it to the entire as--
sessment roll of that taxing unit.
If the County Equalizaton Department does not keep pace with
the increasing values then the
State Equalization will recognize it and add the combined total
of equalized value of all units
to the County," Gum said.
The study in which this department has just completed used
only one classification in each
taxing unit. The reason for this
was that there were not enough
sales in the other classes of property and it is necessary to use
as many good samples of sales
as possible from the class of
property used.
After all the samples have
been selected, the assessed value of each parcel 4s then used
in the report.
These two values will then give
the ratio in which the assessed
value is to the sale value. This
ratio is then applied to the total
assessed value of this classification, to give the true cash value
o f all property in this classification.
"The state law says we are
to assess at 50% of true cash
value. Fifty percent of the true
cash value arrived at in the study
would then be the new equalized
value in that class of property,
also the new starting value for
the 1971 assessment roll," Clarence Gum said.
Kiwanis Paper
Sale This Week
SNOW REMOVAL-- Work crews from the City street department
were busy Saturday removing snow from the middle of the streets
that was piled ther e when streets were plowed Friday. The season's first big storm dumped more than 10 inches on Clare area
streets and roa<js, while elsewhere in the state roads were completely
closed to traffic, as were many schools. (Sentinel Photo)
Clare Kiwanis Club members
will launch their annual sale of
newspapers Thursday and continue
through Saturday to raise funds that
will help finance the club's projects.
Billed as the annual "Goodfellow
Newspaper Sale", members of the
club will conduct both a pre-sale
and a street sales campaign. The
pre-sale will be conducted Thursday afternoon and Friday morning
with the street sales scheduled to
begin Friday afternoon and continue all day Saturday.
Approximately 1,200 copies of
the Kiwanis Newspaper will be a-
vailable for sale during the three
day campaign. There is no Specific price for the paper which can
be bought by a donation*
Last year the local Kiwanis Club
spent $3,141 on community projects and civic activities, according to Kiwanis Club president
Paul Schroeder.
Money raised by the paper sale
will help to finance the club's
sponsorship of Wolverine Boys and
Girls State, a Christmas needy
children clothing program, Clare
Schools athletic program, Little
League and summer recreation
programs, eyeglasses for needy
children, contributions to Eagles
Boys Village and local Boy Scout
and 4-H organizations.
Chairmen of this year's paper
sale for the Kiwanis Club are Chris
G.   Demo   and   Jerry   Forsberg.
-j
IT'S BEGINNING TO LOOK a lot l.ke Christmas In Clare County.
Individual homeowners have designed home lighting displays, while
the Cities of Clare and Harrison and the Village of Farwell have com»-
' pleted the placing of street decorations. In the picture above, mem*-
bers of a Harrison street crew place final lighted Christmas tree decorations on city streets there. (Sentinel Photo)