Tuesday, Nov. 5, is Election Day for school district, City of Belleville

The polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 5, in the tri-community for a special election in which voters will decide on a $35,490,000 bond issue for the Van Buren Public Schools.
The proposal is to borrow the money and issue general obligation unlimited tax bonds to pay off the loan. The project will erect, furnish and equip a new early childhood center on the property recently purchased from St. Anthony Catholic Church, just east of the high school.
The funds also will remodel, furnish and re-furnish and equip and re-equip existing school buildings; acquire and install instruction technology in school buildings; and prepare, develop, improve, and equip playgrounds, athletic fields, and sites.
School Supt. Pete Kudlak said the bonds, if approved, will cause a zero rise in taxes because the bonds for the high school construction were refinanced and the taxes were due to go down by .78 mill, anyway. If this proposal passes, the tax will not go down and taxpayers will continue to pay what they have been paying before the refinancing.
This proposal will be on the ballots in the City of Belleville, Van Buren Township, Sumpter Township, and certain precincts in Ypsilanti Township and Canton Township. That will be the only item on the ballot for Van Buren, Sumpter, Ypsilanti, and Canton townships.
Voters in the City of Belleville, however, will also elect two city council members and the mayor, for four-year terms, as well vote on a public safety proposal that would levy 2 mills for a period of ten consecutive years.
The public safety proposal is an advisory vote and the city council is expected to make a final decision on the assessment at its Nov. 18 meeting after viewing the results of the election.
For more information on the election, call the clerk’s office in each municipality: Belleville Clerk Sherri Scharf, (734) 697-9323; Van Buren Township Clerk Leon Wright, (734) 699-8909; Sumpter Township Clerk Esther Hurst, (734) 461-6201; Canton Township Clerk Michael Siegrist, (734) 394-5120; or Ypsilanti Township Clerk Karen Lovejoy Roe, (734) 484-4700.