The next meeting of the Isabella County Reapportionment Committee will be Tuesday, May 17, at 5 p.m. in Room 320 of the County Building.

The meeting on May 9th was very interesting. Nine different plans were presented by the Committee members for review, 1 by Mr. Burdick, 1 by Mr. Caldwell, 3 by Mr. Golden, 3 by Mr. Pickens, and 1 by Mrs. Swan. Each member presented a plan based on seven County Commission districts, and the extras were for other numbers of members. After the presentation of the various plans, the Committee agreed that they would continue to work with seven districts. There were many similarities in the various plans, and all fell within the guidelines of very few crossings of existing political boundaries, and with a population deviation of less than 11.90%. (With a county population of 70,311 the ideal population of each of seven districts would be 1,044.) All plans submitted can be found on the Isabella County website. The members were given until Monday to "tweak" their plans and resubmit them.

It is expected that one plan will be accepted at this meeting. I think you will find it interesting. League members are there as observers, but there are times on the agenda when public comments can be made. The Mt. Pleasant League filed a Freedom of Information Act with the county to keep this process as open and transparent as possible, as requested by the Michigan League of Women Voters, and we think we are performing a public service by attending these meetings.

I hope to see several of you there.

Helen Thomas