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Village president challenged

ONTONAGON – “A good leader must be a great servant,” said William Johnson, who is challenging incumbent Village President Ken Waldrop.

“My goal as your village president is to make the village government more user friendly,” Johnson said. “After all the village government belongs to you the people not just a handful of people.”

Johnson is not to be confused with a former village president with the same name.

“I wasn’t born and raised in Ontonagon, but I took a branch from our family tree and replanted it here in this great village,” Johnson said about his last nine years living in Ontonagon.

Johnson and his wife Jill have three grown children and four grandchildren. “Our youngest lives here with our 5-year-old grandson and has another baby on the way.

“So we have planted our family here and it is growing new saplings, that will grow up here,” Johnson said, adding he wants to help others be able to live and work in Ontonagon, too.

“As your village president, bringing jobs to our area is my first priority,” Johnson said, adding he has a four-point plan to bring prosperity back to Ontonagon, by focusing on tourism, infrastructure, industry and health.

“We need to work together to bring tourism here to make Ontonagon a place that everyone wants to visit,” he said. “We have one of the best beaches I have seen on Lake Superior right here in the village, yet most that visit don’t have a clue that it is open to the public or how to get to it.”

Johnson would like to improve infrastructure including buildings, roads and power, to make Ontonagon more attractive to residents and industry.

“We have businesses closing their doors here in Ontonagon. So bringing industry here will take hard work, but I believe it can be done,” Johnson said. “As your village president, Myself and the village manager will make it a priority to bring industry with good paying jobs to Ontonagon.”

If people have jobs, they can take better care of their health and welfare and not get caught up with drugs like so many across the country.

“You may not know that our county on a whole has a drug problem,” Johnson said. “Methamphetamine and heroine have become a very big problem in Ontonagon County. Along with these two drugs come other crimes such as breaking and entering, domestic violence, car theft … and overall violence.”

“Together we can bring back prosperity and make Ontonagon the envy of the U.P. We have the greatest people in the state of Michigan but have been held back by a bad economy. We have had family and friends move away including our kids. It is time to bring the economy and our kids back home. Remember the village government belongs to you and you always have a say in everything that goes on.”

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