Mount Pleasant Election results: Ronan and Alsager win commission seats; marijuana proposal fails
Mount Pleasant voters rejected a marijuana proposal and elected Central Michigan University Professor George Ronan and Mary Alsager to the city commission.
Polls were open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., Nov. 4 for the 2019 city election. People voted for two new city commissioners, filling vacant seats in the commission left by the departures of commissioners Tony Kulick and Kathleen Ling.
According to electionreporting.com, turnout for the election was 20.3%, with 2,091 votes out of 10,301 registered voters. The commission race results were:
1. Mary L. Alsager - 1218 votes
2. George Ronan - 942
3. Barry DeLau II - 606
4. Kathy Rise - 512
5. Brandon McQueen - 467
Alsager said she is a former public school teacher and a parks and recreation commissioner. She said both she and Ronan campaigned together because they share similar ideologies, like having concerns with Downtown Mount Pleasant. She is ready to learn and work with Ronan to adress these issues.
"We know that there are not easy answers," Alsager said. "We know we're going to have to work together to collaboratively come up with good ideas to help the citizens with what they need."
Ronan is has been a psychology professor at CMU for the past 30 years, he said in an email. At a candidate form, he said one thing that he would like to do as commissioner is to start a collaborative council, brining together representatives from CMU, Mount Pleasant, the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe and Mid-Michigan College to address ideas and concerns from all these entities.
The marijuana ballot initiative failed to pass, so the ordinance passed by the Mount Pleasant City Commission back in September will regulate recreational marijuana businesses. This means future recreational marijuana businesses will be following more restrictive regulations in Mount Pleasant.
The main regulations that recreational marijuana businesses will have to abide by are:
- A limit of three recreational retailers, five class A growers and B & C growers.
- A 1,000 ft. buffer zone between K-12 schools and recreational marijuana businesses.
- Marijuana event licences will be for edibles only.
- No designated smoking areas (smoking lounges).
- Limit of two micro businesses
- Limits all non-retail, recreational marijuana businesses to industrial zones.
Mount Pleasant City Manager Nancy Ridley said the ordinance can be changed by city commission anytime and that the city wanted to take things slow with recreational marijuana because it's a new form of business for Mount Pleasant.
