By David Fleet
Editor
Atlas Twp.-On Dec. 21, the township board of trustees voted 5-0 to set an election date of May 4 for a police millage renewal of 2.1 mills and a fire millage of 1 mill. The backup election date is the Aug. 3. The language for the ballot will be sent to the Genesee County Clerks office in January.
On May 2, 2017, township voters OK’d similar renewals of 2.1 mills for police protection and 1 mill for the fire department. The five-year millage will generate an estimated $620,000 for the police services and $294,000 for the fire department.
About 7 percent of registered voters turned out in 2017 to approve the renewals with 540 yes votes to 214 no votes.
The millage was then based on a township taxable value of about $305 million and replaces the township police millage which had expired December 2016. The township established a contract with the Genesee County Sheriff’s Department about 20 years ago, funded then by 1 mill from area property owners.

Since 2007 the cost for police protection has risen from about $432,205 per year to the current cost for coverage of $611,085 per year. The previous two-year agreement was for $599,780 which increased by about 2 percent over the 2018 agreement. The new contract was effective Jan. 1, 2021 through Dec. 31, 2022 with the sheriff department and includes four deputies along with funding for a detective-sergeant, split between Fenton and the township.
The Genesee County Sheriff Department budget was cut by $2.8 million this past year by the county commissioners, said Sheriff Chris Swanson