A Montcalm County Emergency Medical Services millage will be up for renewal in the Aug. 7 primary election. Voters will be asked whether to approve renewing 0.75 mills over three years to provide funds for maintenance and operations of ambulance and medical first response services from 2013 to 2016.

Behind the rhetoric, finances and experience are the top two hot topics being addressed by Sandy Raines and Dennis Lance, the two Republican candidates for Montcalm County drain commissioner. The two will face off in the Aug. 7 primary election. The winner will face off against Shane Jacobs, a Democrat from Howard City, in the Nov. 6 general election.

The longtime Montcalm County prosecutor is being challenged by an attorney. Andrea Krause and Ronald Finegood, both Republicans, are facing off in the Aug. 7 primary election.

Eight Republican candidates are running for four contested positions on the Montcalm County Board of Commissioners.

The Daily News provided questionnaires to candidates in Montcalm County and surrounding area for contested races only.

The election filing deadline has passed and the candidates are finalized for Ionia and Montcalm counties. The filing deadline was May 15 via the county clerk’s office.

Anyone wishing to file for August and November elections in Montcalm County has about two weeks left to do so. All Montcalm County offices will be up for election, as well as city and township offices.

Montcalm County sheriff’s officials were in a somber mood Tuesday night as a law enforcement millage was narrowly shot down by voters. A 1 mill property tax increase request lost 4,205 to 4,085 – a difference of only 120 votes. The millage passed in Belvidere, Cato, Eureka, Home and Sidney townships, the city of Carson City, the city of Stanton and three of four precincts in the city of Greenville. The millage failed in Bloomer, Bushnell, Crystal, Douglass, Fairplains, Ferris, Maple Valley, Montcalm, Pierson, Pine, Reynolds, Richland and Winfield townships. The millage passed in one Evergreen Township precinct and failed in another. It tied in Day Township.

Montcalm County Brownfield Authority members are preparing to meet and review engineering firm documents one week from today after several members failed to properly do so last month. Montcalm County was awarded a $400,000 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Cooperative Assistance Agreement grant last year to assess local Brownfield sites for hazardous substances and petroleum. Six statements of qualification to administer the assessment were submitted to the county.

The Montcalm County Transportation Authority is more than $11,000 in debt and local officials are worried the needed funds don’t exist. A proposed countywide public transportation system millage vote failed Nov. 8. Three months later, the Transportation Authority still hasn’t paid for election costs.