Door County Votes

Polls open from 7am-8pm tomorrow throughout Door County for our spring elections.

Four county board supervisor, eight town supervisor seats, two village trustee seats, and six school board seats are up for grabs. Sturgeon Bay will vote for a new mayor, and Washington Island and Sturgeon Bay residents will vote on referendums that will have long-term ramifications for those school districts.

While local elections, especially spring elections, don’t garner nearly the hype of their fall counterparts, they often hold the key to decisions that will have a much more direct impact on citizens every day lives. Consider this, the budget for the County of Door is $62 million. Tomorrow voters will choose four of the people who get a say in how that money is spent.

Or consider the non-budgetary decisions your town or school board member makes. Local officials institute zoning codes and ordinances that govern land use and signage. School board members determine what extra-curricular classes and activities our students choose from. And your municipal officials vote on big-ticket items like the $6.5 million Egg Harbor Marina, the $5 million Al Johnson’s property purchase, and the $13 million Gills Rock Marina proposal. It’s interesting to note that, although those three issues were among the most controversial of the last year in Door county, none of the races for the board in those communities is contested.

Tomorrow, we get to choose who we trust to make those decisions and many more. It’s worth showing up and marking a few boxes.