SAND LAKE, Mich. — The future of the village of Sand Lake will be decided on Tuesday in a vote on whether the village should be disincorporated with its government dissolved and its land returned to Nelson Township.
For more than a century, residents of the village — who are also considered residents of Nelson Township — have paid their own taxes, elected their own leaders and written their own story.
"It's a small town," said Dan Hula, the village president. "Everybody knows everybody. Everybody knows everybody's business."
"It's a community that has been here for a long time, and I know a lot of people who have been here for a long time," Hula said.
Founded by four Civil War veterans, Sand Lake rose to prominence as a lumber community and was incorporated as a village in 1879.
A year later in 1880, an estimated 700 people were thought to be living in the village, which had five sawmills, a number of shingle mills and a planting mill.
In the early 1900s, agriculture and tourism rose in popularity, with recreational opportunities on the lake and star-spangled celebrations on Indepedence Day attracting out-of-towners in the summertime.
"I'll call it a patriotic community," Hula said. "It's a down-to-earth, flag-waving, love-our-history community."
Now, after a lengthy dispute over the future of fire services in the area, Sand Lake's status as a village will be decided in Tuesday's special election. If a two-thirds majority of voters choose to disincorporate the village, what will become of its history?
"If it's not on people's mouths, if we're not talking about it, it goes away," said Cherrie Camilleri, a resident of Sand Lake who is against disincorporation.
"This is where you live. This is where you pay your taxes. This is where you come home to at night," she said.
While Camilleri says the very identity of the village is tied to its name, others say a name is simply a name.
"The history is still going to be here," said Marty Helton, a village resident who is in favor of disincorporation. "Everybody who put in their time and started this community, it's all in our history and it's never going away."
Kent
Here's what happens if the Village of Sand Lake is disincorporated
A day before the polls open, a drive through downtown Sand Lake reveals signs for and against disincorporation on nearly every street. Other front yard displays show support for the Sand Lake Fire Department, which was purchased by Nelson Township last month. The deal signified the end of the fire services dispute that resulted in the resignations of the majority of the village council — including Camilleri — and the grassroots movement that put the disincorporation question on the ballot.
Those who live in the village say, no matter the outcome of the election, there needs to be a return to civility.
"We need we need to get back to being a community. We need to get back to being neighbors," Hula said.
"If I can have a hand in making it better, that's what I'm going to do."
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