Commissioner Glenn Anderson, a Democrat, faces Republican challenger Dan Holcomb, who he narrowly beat in 2020.

District 3 includes Adams Township, Hancock, and for the first time, about 800 voters in west Houghton.

Glenn Anderson

Anderson was the longtime city manager of Hancock before retiring and running for the county board. He is running for his third term.

He said he still enjoys the position, and can still bring value to the county. He pointed to his experience obtaining grants.

“In the state of Michigan, both federally and state grants, we certainly can go after even more than the county has to date,” he said. “Broadband, I think, will be the future in the next two to four years.”

Between the American Rescue Plan Act funds, and federal infrastructure funding, there’s $2 billion in Michigan for broadband, Anderson said. Only $10 million of that has come so far through the federal Rural Digital Opportunity Fund. The county would be partnering with a company in the private sector.

“A priority for the county, if I stay on the county board, would be to go after $20 to $30 million of these federal funds to just expand broadband and internet in Houghton County where it’s under served or not served at all,” he said.

If re-elected, Anderson also plans to revisit Clerk Jennifer Kelly’s request to have a fingerprinting machine put in her office for concealed pistol licenses, funded through license fees. That would create a seamless process where people could finish the process without leaving the courthouse to go to the sheriff’s department, Anderson said.

More than 2,600 residents in the county have CPL licenses to date, Anderson said.

“It was voted down 3 to 2, and I was one of the ones that voted for that,” he said. “My hope is that once we get through the election, we would take another look.”

The new residents of District 3 have the same interests as other parts of the district, Anderson said. Some areas of Houghton are still underserved as far as internet speed and capacity. He also touted the more than $1 million the board had invested in the law enforcement, including seven new vehicles, raises for deputies, 800-megahertz radios for schools and a third prosecutor for the prosecutor’s office.

Using some of the county’s ARPA money on broadband is still an option, he said. It might also be able to provide some of the money being requested for a child care center near Canal View that would give priority to children of Canal View employees.

Anderson also backed the county’s recent purchase of property on Sharon Avenue for a potential county jail. The property would have room to expand as needed, and would also include the sheriff’s department and possibly the district court. Both are required to be within the county seat in Houghton. After new development in the city, the Sharon Avenue site is one of only three potential sites left.

“One is optioned off already by the city of Houghton, so we’re down to this one and one other one, and clearly this one’s the most buildable and has the utilities on it and has the best soil conditions,” Anderson said,

If voters don’t approve a millage, the state will likely step in at some point and require a new jail to be built, given the declining condition, Anderson said. In the short term, the county could still use the property as an administrative annex to free up some space in the crowded courthouse, as counties such as Baraga have done, Anderson said.

“I don’t see the property ever going to not be used by the county, but it’s worth it,” he said. “If it’s never used by the county, and the jail is never built, certainly the taxpayers will get their money back from that property.”

Anderson said he thought a 40- to 45-bed facility would make the most sense to bring to voters, with the possibility that it could be expanded. The county’s 32-bed jail had seen emergency overcrowding levels in 2019, but had dropped after changes instituted at the start of the pandemic.

“As the population grows, and as we come out of COVID, I think most everyone expects that jail capacity to grow in time, so you don’t want to build a new jail that can’t meet at least the next decade in space,” he said.

Anderson didn’t think the county would seek a millage for several years. Even once the county finalizes the purchase, bond interest rates and construction costs are still too high right now, he said.

Anderson also backed the county’s pursuit of a $500,000 feasibility study for a second bridge crossing. It would let people cross if the bridge is down due to mechanical failure or another problem. An extended outage would leave 20,000 people on the other side of the bridge with no immediate alternatives.

“The lift bridge certainly can handle the traffic we have today,” he said. “It probably can not handle the traffic we’ll have in 30 years … the county has to be looking ahead. In a solid fixed bridge, high over the canal so that ships can pass underneath it, there would be no disruption of traffic.”

Anderson said voters should consider him because he’s a good listener and he knows how local government works. The county board itself controls about $20 million and 100 employees. Adding in other agencies under the county umbrella, such as Canal View, that expands to 400 employees and about $55 million.

“The county is a big business,” he said. “I think you have to have some experience in larger operations to govern well, and I think I’m that person.”

Dan Holcomb

Holcomb, a cost estimator for L’Anse Manufacturing, is running for the second time.

After a close loss in 2020, Holcomb took steps to build his name recognition. Since then, he’s become chair of the Copper Country Republican Party, which he said has allowed him to build relationships within the community and with Houghton County’s representatives in the state Legislature.

“It’s a lot different than it was last time around, because I’ve gotten way more support now,” he said.

Holcomb brought up several things he would pursue if elected. First would be moving the location of the monthly board meetings from the fifth-floor meeting room on the courthouse to the circuit courtroom. The board has used the courtroom at some previous meetings with larger attendance.

Holding the meetings in a more welcoming space would increase transparency, Holcomb said.

“I don’t think it’s very helpful to the commission to have everybody closed off in such a small room because it discourages people, especially with COVID,” he said. “I was basically coughed on last meeting. We’re so close together.”

Holcomb agreed a new county jail is necessary, but criticized the board’s recent purchase of the First Apostolic Lutheran Church location on Sharon Avenue. Purchasing the land before the board had a clear idea of what would be built on it was “putting the cart before the horse,” he said.

“I go after defense contracts daily, and if I had that kind of approach, I would have been fired a long time ago,” he said.

Holcomb proposed the county start from scratch and re-evaluate what went right and wrong with the 2018 proposal to build an expansion behind the courthouse. The county formed a jail task force after the close 2018 vote, eventually recommending building on a new site somewhere in Houghton.

The county could have bought the former Camp Kitwen property in Adams Township cheaply before conditions deteriorated, Holcomb said; had that happened, he would have supported a new jail there. By now, he said, the use of teleconferencing for some hearings would have reduced the burdens of transporting inmates to and from the courthouse in Houghton.

He thought the Dodge Street site on county-owned land across from the courthouse would also make a good location. The site had been proposed for a jail in a previous proposal in 2010.

Holcomb suggested looking for grant funding to fund improvements at the courthouse to prolong its useful life. Discussion has included talk of using the historic building as a museum if the county eventually builds a new one.

“As an outsider looking in, I think the courthouse is in pretty good shape,” he said. “We just need to have people here that want to fight for it, because I like preserving our historic monuments here.”

Holcomb supported the idea of a second bridge crossing in Houghton. State Rep. Greg Markkanen had told him funding a feasibility study was a high priority, Holcomb said.

“It’s going to have to be a really, really high bridge, where we don’t really have to worry about a lift,” he said. “…And another benefit to having another piece of infrastructure going across the canal there is that we can make that lift bridge last that much longer. And if there’s anything that needs to be done to the lift bridge, we’re not hosed.”

The second bridge should also be as close as possible to Houghton, so as not to hurt small businesses, he said.

Holcomb was a Republican representative on the reapportionment committee that redrew the county district boundaries, including the redrawn District 3. He said the process was a model for how he hopes to represent the community.

“We all recognized each other as people trying to do the right thing,” he said. “And after the first meeting, the thought of partisan politics never entered my mind. At the local level, that’s the way it should be.”

Holcomb went canvassing in the new area of the district, located behind the former ShopKo. As Michigan Technological University graduate, he was able to bond with many of the professors living there, he said. He picked their brains about the jail and bridge, and also challenged them to run for public office.

Boards should be a “revolving door” of commissioners serving one or two terms before leaving the position to others, Holcomb said.

“That’s the only way places actually grow, is if they have fresh thinking,” he said.

Holcomb said voters should choose him because he comes from a younger generation and the attention to detail he’s honed in his career in advanced manufacturing.

“I love this area so much that I’m willing to take the time out of my life to actually help out and make it better,” he said. “I just want to give back to the community in a big way because they gave me a life.”

Glenn Anderson

Dan Holcomb