Before Sen. Carl Levin leaves the United States Senate in his final term after more than 30 years of service as the longest-serving senator in Michigan’s history, he’ll be making at least one final local appearance. The Montcalm County Democrats will welcome Levin to the 8th annual Eleanor Roosevelt Dinner on Saturday, along with State House Rep. Brandon Dillon, D-Grand Rapids, to be a featured guest speaker at the fundraising event.

State Rep. Rick Outman, R-Six Lakes, took the ceremonial oath of office Wednesday as a state representative in the Michigan House. Lt. Gov. Brian Calley administered the ceremonial oath in the Capitol in Lansing. Outman is serving his second term and represents the 70th House District, which includes all of Montcalm County and part of Gratiot County.

Read the Dec. 10 meeting minutes from the Maple Valley Township Board.

Read the meeting minutes from Nov. 8 and Dec. 4 for the Pierson Township Board.

New faces were in new chairs at Wednesday’s Montcalm County Board of Commissioners annual organizational meeting. Ron Blanding of Greenville, Ron Braman of Vestaburg and Steve DeWitt of Coral are the newest faces on the board, having been elected last year. Patrick Q. Carr of Lakeview was re-appointed by his colleagues as longtime chairman of the board, with Ron Retzloff of Crystal appointed vice chairman.

The long-troubled village of Pierson has a new leader – and he has plans for positive change in this tiny town. Marshall Dillon, who previously served on the council, ousted Karl Van Haren as president in the Nov. 6 election. Dillon received 21 votes as a write-in candidate compared to Van Haren’s 19 votes. Van Haren did not request a recount.

More than 60 percent of registered voters in Ionia and Montcalm counties exercised their right to vote Tuesday. Ionia County had 62 percent voter turnout, while Montcalm County had more than 61 percent voter turnout (down just a few percentage points from the 2008 presidential election).

Karl Van Haren survived a recall, but a write-in candidate proved to be too much. The president of the Pierson Village Council was ousted from office Tuesday. Van Haren received 19 votes compared to write-in challenger Marshall Dillon, who received 21 votes, according to unofficial results.

After a long night of waiting for election results to trickle in throughout Ionia County, a close race for two spots on the Belding Area Schools Board of Education came to an end in favor of two incumbents.

Despite continued crime throughout Montcalm County, voters decided to turn down a proposal in support of local law enforcement millage. A 0.6 millage proposal to generate $971,830 per year for two years for the Montcalm County Sheriff’s Office was shot down Tuesday by 11,647 “yes” votes (48 percent) compared to 12,735 “no” votes (52 percent).