Small millages can make it easier for communities to afford important services and maintain critical infrastructure. Across the western Upper Peninsula, voters approved renewals that will keep classrooms running, public works crews on the road and parks.
In Hancock, voters renewed the city’s recreation millage, which keeps local parks clean and welcoming for residents.
In Ontonagon County, residents of OAS Schools approved renewing the district’s five-year bus maintenance millage. The funds will support replacing three of the district’s four buses.
OAS Superintendent Lisa Johnson thanked the community.
“Thank you to our community for approving the renewal of our bus bond millage to purchase new school buses! We are grateful for our community’s continued support of the school and investment in safe, reliable transportation for our students,” Johnson said.
Across Baraga, Houghton and Keweenaw counties, voters renewed the Copper Country ISD’s special education millage. The services funded by the millage include individualized education plans, speech pathology, paraprofessional assistance and more. The CCISD has supported more than 1,000 students.
CCISD Superintendent James Rautiola said the renewal supports students across the county’s 14 local districts.
“We are deeply grateful to the voters across Baraga, Houghton, and Keweenaw counties for approving the Special Education Replacement Millage. This support ensures that more than 1,000 students from birth through age 26 across our 14 local districts will continue receiving essential individualized instruction, specialized therapies, and adaptive resources. We do not take this responsibility lightly and sincerely thank our community for investing in local students, families, and schools,” Rautiola said.
In Laurium, a fire destroyed the village’s Department of Public Works garage in February 2025. Since then, the village has built a new barn to house the Department of Public Works and the Recreation Department. For many years, the village supported the DPW with a maintenance millage. With voter approval, the new replacement millage will collect at a lower rate while still meeting the department’s needs.
Village Manager Ian Lewis said the results will help the village serve residents better.
“The Village is excited with the results of the election, and we are happy that our voters overwhelmingly supported the replacement equipment millage for the public works department. By supporting this millage, the Village of Laurium will be able to do more with the funds, while also reducing the tax burden for our residents. This replacement millage will allow the Village to improve its public works equipment purchasing and maintenance systems and help us better serve our community moving forward. Thank you to everyone that participated and made their voices heard during this election and thank you to our Laurium community,” Lewis said.
Find more details for the November 3rd election, unofficial result reports have been posted below.
See Houghton County’s unofficial election totals here.
See Keweenaw County’s unofficial election totals here.
See Baraga County’s unofficial election totals here.
See Ontonagon County’s unofficial election totals here.
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