FLINT TOWNSHIP, Mich. – Kevin Stiff needs everybody to know that although Flint Township, the place he runs his small enterprise, shares a reputation with the town that lately confronted a lead-in-water crisis, they don’t seem to be the identical place.
Stiff, who owns The Dive Store, stated that being confused with the town of Flint over time has price the township enterprise, and a doable title change allowed underneath a brand new state regulation is “that successful lottery quantity.”
The confusion in Michigan isn’t remoted to the Flints. As many as 352 of the state’s 1,240 townships share a reputation with a minimum of one different township. One title, Grant, is shared by 11 townships. That quantity would not embrace locations like Flint Township that share a reputation with cities or counties.
Till lately, townships in Michigan had no authority to vary their names, not like cities and villages. That ended final month when Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed a regulation to permit it.
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Now, if two-thirds of a township’s governance board after which a majority of residents approve a brand new title, the township can rename itself. The brand new title should stay for a minimum of 25 years earlier than the township is allowed to try to rename once more.
Flint Township, which shares a border with the town of Flint, has been contemplating a reputation change for many years because the neighboring metropolis confronted troubles together with excessive crime and poverty. And in 2014, when the Flint water crisis began, Flint Township had folks avoiding the township — although the group of 30,000 had it had its personal water supply.
“I most likely had near eight or 10 those who didn’t wish to take lessons as a result of they had been going to get in our pool that had ‘the town of Flint water,’” stated Stiff, whose enterprise affords scuba diving tools and coaching.
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He stated he needed to get a letter from the well being division and present prospects payments that proved the township is on a distinct water system — and even that did not persuade all of the folks scheduled for lessons to nonetheless come. Township eating places had indicators of their home windows saying the water was not the identical as the town’s.
“Small companies round are closing their doorways, you already know, I imply, left and proper, and I’m simply attempting to outlive,” stated Stiff, who after 36 years in enterprise has no plans to go away.
State Rep. David Martin, whose district neighbors the Flints, sponsored the laws so that every one townships within the state might set themselves aside.
“When you share a identical title, and say you may have a poisonous spill or one thing horrible occurs in your group and also you’re attempting to draw financial growth, that may very well be a deterrent,” the Genesee County Republican stated.
It is greater than financial, township officers say. When the town of Flint held a recall election in 2017 of then-Mayor Karen Weaver, over 100 folks known as the township clerk to complain that there weren’t sufficient polling locations although the vote was just for metropolis residents, stated Jerry Preston, who heads a committee to contemplate a reputation change.
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The Civil Struggle was a driving consider a lot of Michigan’s duplicate township names, stated Catherine Mullhaupt, an legal professional with the Michigan Townships Affiliation.
Of the 11 townships that share a reputation with 5 townships or extra, six of them are believed to be related to folks from the Civil Struggle period. The state has 11 Grant townships, 9 Sherman townships and eight Lincoln townships, based on the affiliation.
When Union Military veterans returned from the battle, many who served underneath Ulysses S. Grant, who led the Union Military to victory, wished to honor him, stated Steven Ramold, an Jap Michigan College professor. The state probably allowed the duplications as a result of it was much less complicated on the time for rural townships with restricted connections to have the identical names.
“Veterans in numerous components of the state, maybe unaware {that a} Grant, Sherman, or different title had already been used, organized their very own township with the title they most well-liked,” Ramold stated. ”When Grant turned president, I think about the will to have one’s locality named for him turned much more fascinating.”
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Flint Township for many years has checked out over 100 names, with Carman Hills, in honor of one of many city’s settling households, being a front-runner.
Stiff stated he hopes that the title will get modified to one thing that distinguishes the group.
“There’s lots of people in outlying areas, Detroit and Brighton and Lansing that go, ‘I don’t wish to go to Flint. And that’s not good,” Stiff stated. “I inform them on a regular basis we’re not Flint.”
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Anna Liz Nichols is a corps member for the Related Press/Report for America Statehouse Information Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit nationwide service program that locations journalists in native newsrooms to report on undercovered points.
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