Owosso elects four to council; parks millage fails by 61 votes

Owosso voters filled four council seats Nov. 3, and the fourth one came down to 31 votes. Unofficial returns from the Shiawassee County Clerk show Curtis L. Dowds with 1,817 votes, Gil Humphreys with 1,811, Sean Harrington with 1,805 and Jane Ferraro with 1,638 in a 12-candidate field. Christopher D. Owens finished fifth with 1,607 — 31 behind Ferraro. Joseph Hammontree got 1,556, Mike Cline 1,522 and Susan Kofta 1,495.

The city's parks and recreation millage failed by 61 votes: 2,900 no to 2,839 yes, out of 5,739 ballots cast on the question. The Current reported in August that council placed the parks millage on the November ballot at its July 20 meeting. Durand's parks and recreation millage also failed, 724 to 620.

None of this is final. The results portal states that all 30 of 30 precincts have reported and that "Results are unofficial until certified by the Board of County Canvassers." In races decided by 31 votes and 61 votes, the canvass is the number that counts. Countywide, 33,345 of 53,520 registered voters cast ballots, a turnout of 62.3%.

The closest question in the county was in Hazelton Township, where a recycling millage lost by three votes — 510 no to 507 yes. The same township's road millage passed comfortably, 628 to 381. Middlebury Township voters reinstated an expired road maintenance millage 366 to 335 and renewed emergency services funding 463 to 244. Owosso Township approved SATA funding 1,603 to 808, and Bennington Township approved it 971 to 733. The county's senior citizen services millage renewal passed 17,036 to 13,375, or 56% to 44%; The Current reported in August that the 0.4942-mill renewal is expected to raise about $1.37 million in its first year.

Two school bond proposals failed. Durand Area Schools' bond lost 2,238 to 1,915, and Perry Public Schools' bond lost 2,264 to 1,923. The Current reported that the Durand board authorized the bond election at its Aug. 3 meeting and heard its annual audit six days before the vote. In Corunna, charter amendment 4.2 passed 563 to 549 and amendment 5.2 passed 596 to 502, but the city's gender neutral ballot language proposal failed, 635 no to 538 yes. Durand's charter amendment 12.1 failed 691 to 548. Shiawassee County voters rejected state Proposal 2026-1 by 75.3% to 24.7% and approved state Proposal 2026-2 by 78.9% to 21.1%.

On school boards, Owosso Public Schools elected Shelly L. Ochodnicky (5,492), Nick Henne (5,279), Rick Mowen (5,240) and Olga Quick (4,730); Joshua Firstbrook finished fifth with 4,251. Corunna Public Schools elected Dennis Braid, Jennifer Strauch, Jason Rivest and Ben Hall. Durand elected Xak Zdunic and Holly Tanner to six-year terms, with Mandy Marsh beating Katie Rice 1,864 to 1,329 for the partial term. New Lothrop Area Schools elected Timothy J. Birchmeier, Jennifer Keeler, Wendy J. Vincke and Ashley Krupp-Leppek. Morrice elected Jerry Dennis Jr., Kelsi Iler and Scot Moncur. Laingsburg elected Cindy Doyle, Christian Ragsdale and Margaret Sayles. Ovid-Elsie elected Doug Meisel and Mary Thompson over Joshua D. Miller. Perry elected Karen Grennell, Nicole Schneider and John R. Behm. Byron elected David Harris and Richard Whaley. Chesaning elected Alvin Shackelford Jr. and Damion Frasier, with Jim Miller Jr. taking the partial term.

In city and village offices, Corunna re-elected Mayor Wayne LeDuc with 855 votes and elected Helen A. Granger in Ward 1 and Jaquelyn Rye in Ward 2; Ward 3 drew write-ins only. Randy Hazel won the Perry mayor's race with 607 votes, and Kamal T. Ghazi was the only named candidate in a three-seat Perry council race. Durand elected Amber Rochefort at large, Candyce Y. Wolsfeld in Precinct 1, Maxwell Ruegsegger in Precinct 2 and John Matejewski to the Precinct 2 partial term. Laingsburg elected Jody Frank, R.J. Miller and Jason Innis to council; its mayoral contest had no candidate on the ballot and drew 76 write-ins. Village presidents: Vicki Stevens in Byron, Barbara BakerOmerod in Lennon and Jonathan M. Saylor in Vernon. Bancroft, Morrice and New Lothrop had no village president on the ballot. New Lothrop elected Karen L. Maksimchuk clerk, Terry Tate treasurer and Zachariah Besaw, Holly L. Ustishen and Keith M. Gauthier to council. Byron elected Darin Murph, Linda Chapman and Stephanie L. Willett; Lennon elected Lori Grumley, Judy Meadows and Byron D. Vowell; Vernon elected Rose Sherman, Carolyn Pfeiffer and Lauren Pletscher, with Russel C. Hilliker taking the partial term. Morrice elected Robert K. Peterson. The clerk's portal does not report who the write-in votes were cast for, so the winners of the write-in-only contests are not yet established.

What happens next

The Board of County Canvassers must certify the results before any of these outcomes are official, including the 31-vote Owosso council margin, the 61-vote parks millage margin and the three-vote Hazelton recycling result. The portal does not say when the board meets. In the partisan races, Republican John James carried Shiawassee County for governor 54.0% to 43.4% over Jocelyn Benson, Mike Rogers took 56.9% for U.S. Senate, Tom Barrett took 58.1% in the 7th Congressional District, Brian BeGole took 59.8% in the 71st state House district, Dave O'Berry won county road commissioner with 61.7%, and Circuit Judge Matthew J. Stewart ran unopposed with 22,976 votes. The figures above are the clerk's election-night report as of 1:11 a.m. Nov. 4.