Straight talk from April, Shannon, and Amber on roads, water, taxes, the Mill Pond dam, and what it means to call Holly home.
Let's Talk About Money
Amber Kier
As a finance director I look at charts, graphs and spreadsheets every day. I thought it might be useful for citizens to see where their money goes and also what the trends are showing.
The first chart is where the Village of Holly's general fund revenue comes from. This is where the majority of your services pull their revenue from, whether its public safety, infrastructure, parks or DPW.
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The second picture is where your taxes go as a village taxpayer. Note: This is assuming your home is a primary residence. This money accounts for about 40% of the village's revenue.
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The third picture is a graph showing revenues and expenditures as well as any surpluses (or savings) for the last 10 years. Note: 2017 & 2018 I'm still fleshing out but it doesn't change much.
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The last picture is a graph showing our state shared revenue trends over the last 25 years, which accounts for about 20% of the village's revenue.
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Why is this important?
In a recent presentation, an outside analytics firm studied our spending trends and found we are working on a tight budget with little wiggle room. There are no more cuts to be made without sacrificing services. Contrary to some narratives floating around, our issues stem from revenue problems and not an expenditure problem. The numbers don't lie.
Our state shared revenue is only now reaching the same levels we had in the early aughts. In simpler terms, with inflation we are looking at a half million dollar loss in revenue. That's a huge piece of the pie when you consider this makes up a fifth of what this village uses to operate.
Property tax, which accounts for 40% of our revenue stream, has also taken a hit. Mandated Headlee Amendment rollbacks have taken the operating millage from 20 mils in the 1980s down to half that. Before the special assessment in 2025, which saved our police and fire, we paid almost the same amount of taxes to operate our village as we do our local school system. Even now, our village is operating at 75% of what our charter states it needs to operate.
The issues we're facing are not specific to Holly. We've watched our neighboring communities grapple with the same problems. You, as a taxpayer probably see the same issues in your household budget. Gas, groceries and insurance have all risen, but your pay has not. People are stretched to their limit and their anger is righteous. You deserve to know where every hard earned dollar goes, and you deserve people at the table who understand finances.
According to the data presented by the outside firm, we have about a decade before our path becomes unsustainable. These next few years are crucial to our success. We need leaders who follow the data and who are committed to finding solutions. Cityhood increases our state shared revenue and gives us more leverage in grants. Shared services can also bring in revenue. I'm in favor of both. There is no magic answer, no oversimplification of these complex issues. The numbers tell the story, and we need leaders capable of reading them.
The Dam at Stiff’s Mill Pond: Where Things Stand Today
April Brandon, Village President
Photo credit: Ragina Kakos, Mill Pond resident
About a year ago, Stiff’s Mill Pond was being drawn down approximately four vertical feet under EGLE’s dam-safety requirements, and no one knew exactly what would happen next. The Village challenged the drawdown in court, but emergency relief was denied. It became clear that the existing situation could not continue indefinitely and that a long-term solution was needed.
Since then, a tremendous amount of work has taken place. Property owners organized, and more than two-thirds of affected stakeholders signed a petition supporting the establishment of a legal lake level under Part 307 of Michigan law. The Oakland County Board approved moving that process forward in April, and the Village approved approximately $36,000 for the necessary lake-level study. That $36,000 came from the Mill Pond Fund, which may only be used for Mill Pond expenses. The money was already encumbered for this purpose.
The Oakland County Water Resources Commissioner’s Office and Spicer Group have now completed extensive technical work, including detailed LiDAR mapping. The engineering plans are also being revised to meet updated state dam-safety requirements. During that work, an additional earthen dam or dike was discovered in a wooded area away from the main spillway. It has since been inspected and is now being incorporated into the overall project. While finding another structure requiring attention was not welcome news, finding it before construction and financing were finalized was extremely important.
The current overall project estimate is approximately $2.5 million, but that is not a final assessment. The proposed district includes 77 parcels, including three Village-owned properties, one of which is Waterworks Park. The total cannot simply be divided equally among those parcels because final benefit factors and individual assessments have not yet been determined.
Oakland County is developing possible 10-, 20-, 30- and 40-year financing scenarios. Fundraising will also be a major part of the plan. The committee intends to pursue community events, donations, sponsorships, grants and larger governmental funding opportunities to reduce the burden on both private property owners and taxpayers. Donations are not being accepted yet because the dedicated account through the Water Resources Commissioner’s Office has not been established.
Right now, we are waiting for Ryan Woloszyk of the Oakland County Water Resources Commissioner’s Office to finalize the study, financial information and recommended next steps. That may include another stakeholder meeting or moving toward the Oakland County Circuit Court process to formally establish the legal lake level. There is not yet a confirmed court date.
Once the legal lake level and the appropriate county mechanisms are established, the project can move into financing, fundraising and the eventual reconstruction of the spillway into a newer, wider and safer structure that meets current requirements.
This is still a major undertaking, and there are still unknowns. But we are no longer where we were a year ago. EGLE, Oakland County, Spicer Group, the municipalities and stakeholders are now moving in the same general direction toward a sustainable solution. The goal is to repair, monitor and maintain this infrastructure through the county lake-level process rather than leaving the Village to carry the entire responsibility, risk and financial burden.
There is one woman I would like to personally thank for keeping all of this information in one place… Ragina Kakos, the Stiff’s Mill Pond Dam Committee’s public-information liaison, has provided consistent and detailed updates throughout this process.
For the complete history and future updates, please visit the public Stiff’s Mill Pond and Dam Discussion Group:
I grew up in a union-strong family. Teamsters, UAW, IBEW, the MEA. My dad served as a local chairman, and from him I learned early that being union wasn’t just about your own paycheck, it was about standing beside the person working next to you and making sure everyone had a fair shot. My father in law spent years on negotiating teams to benefit autoworkers.
I carried that with me as a member of the MEA, until a recent position change moved me outside of the bargaining unit. Today, my husband and our boys are proud members of UAW Local 412. I love that something that meant so much in the family I grew up in is now part of the family we raised.
Here in Holly, that history hits close to home. We grow up learning about the Flint Sit-Down Strike and the ordinary people who took an extraordinary stand together. Today, we watch nurses at Genesys Hospital continue to stand together for their patients, their profession and one another.
Labor Day isn’t just a long weekend. It’s a reminder of what generations of working people accomplished by refusing to believe they had to do it alone. Safe working conditions. Weekends. Overtime pay. Fair wages. A voice at work.
Those things came because people stood together.
That idea extends beyond the workplace, too. It’s one of the things I love about a small town like ours. We may not always agree, but we’re neighbors, and our community is strongest when we look out for one another.
Solidarity is really just another way of saying: we’re in this together.
To the union members in Holly and throughout our community and to the generations who came before us, thank you for standing up for American workers and their families.
What Happened After Local Public Safety Millages Failed?
April Brandon, Village President
A few weeks ago, when I wrote about why I support protecting Holly Police and Fire, I pointed to something happening across Oakland County.
I have answers. You might not like them, but I have them. Some candidates are saying that Holly needs to get on the right track. A track is supposed to lead somewhere. If every question is met with “That’s a good question; I’ll get back to you,” but the answers never arrive, that isn’t a track. It’s a hamster wheel.
On August 4, voters in five Oakland County townships rejected one or more police or fire millages: Orion, Waterford, Independence, Brandon and Highland.
At the time, I said something that generated quite a bit of discussion: voting down public safety funding does not make the need for public safety disappear. So, now that a few weeks have passed, I thought it would be interesting to see what those communities are actually doing.
Turns out, they still need police and fire. Let's start with Orion Township.
Orion voters rejected both police and fire funding on August 4. The police proposal failed 6,949 to 4,914, while the fire proposal failed 6,045 to 5,824.
Three days later, on August 7, the Orion Township Board held a special meeting and unanimously approved new ballot language to put public safety funding before voters again in November. Orion's own website confirms that voters will be asked again on November 3 to fund these services.
Why? Because voting down the millage did not make the fire department unnecessary. It didn't make police unnecessary either.
Here's an especially important detail for everyone who has suggested that Holly could simply eliminate our Police Department and contract with the Oakland County Sheriff's Office instead:
Orion already contracts with the Oakland County Sheriff's Office. They still need a police millage to pay for it. Orion's own financial information says its Police Fund pays for the Oakland County Sheriff's Office to provide police protection and staffing. Contracting police services does not make police free.
Waterford voters rejected a police millage proposal and one of its fire millage proposals on August 4. What did their elected officials do?
Three days later, on August 7, the Waterford Township Board unanimously approved putting both failed funding proposals back before voters on November 3, this time as renewals without the proposed Headlee restorations/increases.
They didn't abolish their Police Department or their Fire Department. They adjusted the proposals and continued working on how to fund the services. That should sound familiar.
Independence Township voters also rejected police funding, including its 3.2-mill police-protection proposal and a separate 0.32-mill School Resource Officer proposal.
On August 10, the Township Board held a special meeting and approved placing the 3.2-mill police proposal back before voters on November 3. The separate School Resource Officer proposal was not returned to the ballot.
Brandon Township voters rejected a 4.25-mill police-services renewal. Six days later, on August 10, the Township Board voted to place the police millage back before voters on November 3. Brandon already contracts with the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office, yet its general operating fund cannot absorb the cost of that contract. Once again, contracted policing is not free.
Highland Township voters rejected its Fire and EMS proposal. On August 10, Highland’s Board approved revised, simplified language placing the funding back on the November ballot. The new proposal renews the existing 1.85-mill operating levy and adds 0.47 mills, for a total of 2.32 mills. Highland says the additional funding is primarily needed to retain its firefighters, EMTs and paramedics and maintain current service levels.
So all five communities discussed here... Orion, Waterford, Independence, Brandon and Highland.... responded to the failed proposals by putting public-safety funding back before voters in November. The voters rejected the August proposals. Their communities still needed police, fire and emergency medical services the following morning.
When residents vote against a particular public-safety millage, their local government does not suddenly get relieved of the underlying problem.
Someone still has to answer the 911 call, respond to a domestic-violence call or search for a missing child. Someone still has to show up when a house is burning. Someone still has to respond to the crash, overdose, robbery, mental-health crisis or business alarm. Somebody still has to pay for all of it. That's exactly the point I have been making in Holly.
When Holly's police millage failed a couple of years ago, the millage failed. Council did not somehow pretend that voters had approved it. Our obligation to provide police protection did not fail with it.
We still had a Village Charter that dictates we must supply public safety to village residents. We still had residents calling 911, businesses depending on rapid response and a Police Department to fund, and we still had to balance the budget.
Council had to govern. We chose the First Responder Special Assessment. That decision was criticized. Some people argued that because voters rejected the millage, Council should simply have accepted that result and reduced or eliminated local police services.
Now look around Oakland County. Other elected boards are discovering exactly the same thing: rejecting one funding mechanism does not eliminate the service, the bill, or any existing obligations to provide services.
Waterford's elected officials went back to work and unanimously put revised police and fire funding before voters.
Orion's elected officials went back to work and unanimously put public-safety funding before voters again. Orion is particularly instructive because it already uses the alternative that has repeatedly been proposed for Holly: Oakland County Sheriff's Office contracted policing. They still have to pay for it.
Independence and Brandon also contract with the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office. They rejected police millages in August, and both Township Boards put police funding back before voters in November. They still have to pay for it too.
There is another piece of this that matters. Oakland County and the Michigan State Police do not have unlimited officers waiting for municipalities to eliminate their local departments. Sheriff Michael Bouchard has publicly warned about the County's ability to fill gaps in communities that do not contract for Sheriff's services when MSP is unavailable.
That is why I have never been comfortable gambling Holly's public safety on the assumption that somebody else will simply show up. None of this means Holly should refuse to examine alternatives. Quite the opposite.
If another provider can demonstrate that it can give Holly better 24/7 coverage, comparable response times, the same community-specific service and substantially lower costs, put the numbers on the table. I will look at them and go through them with Council again. We did ask the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office for a proposal. It declined to provide one because it did not believe Holly was seriously considering replacing its Police Department. We cannot keep spending time and money searching for a different version of an answer we have already received. So far, no provider has been willing or able to offer that, and we cannot keep spending time and money searching for a different version of the same answer.
Our Chief is also interested in exploring the opposite possibility: whether Holly Police could expand contracted services into directly connected municipalities. With communities around us struggling to fund police coverage, this may be an opportunity to determine whether an asset Holly already owns can generate additional revenue rather than eliminating it.
Municipal Analytics has now independently reviewed Holly's finances as well. They did not uncover some giant pool of waste sitting inside our Police Department or elsewhere in the budget. Their analysis found a municipality that is already understaffed and does not have wasteful spending to simply cut away.
That's important because there is a difference between saying “Police costs a lot of money” and demonstrating “There is a less expensive way to provide the same or better police service.”
The first statement is obvious. The second requires evidence. I have been a vocal supporter of Holly Police and Fire, and I will continue to be. I don't apologize for that position.
Responsible leadership isn't always finding the answer people want to hear. Sometimes it means recognizing a problem before it becomes a crisis and making the difficult decision while you still have choices.
A few weeks ago, I said communities cannot simply vote away the cost of public safety. Now we're watching communities across Oakland County work through exactly that reality.
The ballot can reject a funding proposal. It cannot extinguish a fire, answer a 911 call, or put an officer on the road. Eventually, every community still has to decide how it's going to pay for those things.
That's the conversation Holly had earlier. Now we're watching our neighbors suffer through the repercussions of voting down public safety while still requiring public safety.
Slogans do not provide services, and oversimplifying complex processes is nothing more than snake oil disguised as a solution. There is no Kobayashi Maru here. We don’t get to declare public safety a no-win scenario and walk away. Our job is to find a responsible way through it. I won’t settle for anything less, and neither will Shannon Cole or Amber Kier. That’s why I’m voting for us.
— with Amber Kier-Ogg and Shannon Cole For Council.
Let's Talk About Roads
April Brandon, Village President
One of the most common questions I hear is: "Why don't you just fix the roads?"
I wish it were that simple.
Holly maintains more than 20 miles of local roads. Reconstructing just one mile of road can cost well over $1 million. That means completely rebuilding Holly's local road system would cost tens of millions of dollars.
Historically, the Village budget has included funding for routine road maintenance and minor repairs, such as patching and hot-tar repairs, but it has not included a dedicated funding source for major road reconstruction. I can’t speak to why previous budgets were structured that way, but it is one of the financial challenges we inherited and have been working to address. The problem isn’t that we don’t spend money maintaining our roads; it’s that routine maintenance funding is nowhere near enough to pay for major reconstruction projects that can cost more than $1 million per mile.
Our third-party municipal analysis found that the Village is operating without wasteful spending and is already understaffed. In other words, there isn’t a pool of unnecessary spending elsewhere in the budget that can simply be redirected to roads. Long-term road funding requires a sustainable, dedicated solution rather than shifting money away from already underfunded essential services.
It's also important to understand that not all Village money is interchangeable. Some road funding is restricted by law to particular purposes, including funding designated for major and local streets. Municipal budgeting isn't as simple as moving money from one line item to another.
The Village continues routine maintenance and minor repairs within the funding available. Those repairs are important because they can extend the useful life of a road, but hot tar, patching, and similar maintenance cannot rebuild a road that has reached the point of major deterioration.
Eventually, some roads require substantial reconstruction, and that is where the significant funding gap exists. Addressing roads before they reach that point whenever possible can save taxpayers money in the long run.
Here is what we are doing. We’ve hired experienced professionals who know how to compete for state and federal grants, so we’re not relying solely on local taxpayers. However, we cannot count on grants alone. Funding opportunities are limited, highly competitive, and not always available for the projects we need. Our staff actively pursues and applies for every relevant grant opportunity.
Staff has also initiated traffic studies to better understand our infrastructure needs, guide future capital improvements, and strengthen grant applications with supporting data. Objective data helps us demonstrate need when competing for outside funding and make better decisions about where limited road dollars should go.
The Village has also completed a road study and has a prioritized list identifying which roads should be addressed first. That gives us a plan rather than simply choosing projects based on which road generates the most complaints. However, that list isn't carved in stone. Infrastructure conditions can change. Sinkholes can emerge (like the one pictured that we had in front of Johnny’s Autobody Shop shortly after the floods washed it out from this past April) underground infrastructure can fail, and other unexpected problems can require a road to move up the priority list. We have to be able to respond to those situations while still working from a long-term plan.
Road projects are prioritized using factors such as pavement condition, traffic and use, safety, underground infrastructure needs, available funding, and opportunities to coordinate projects efficiently.
We're also coordinating road projects with water and sewer work whenever possible. If underground water or sewer infrastructure needs to be replaced, we want to do that before paving a road so taxpayers aren't paying to tear up the same road twice.
We’re evaluating whether a dedicated road millage is the right long-term solution. No road millage has been decided on. If Council ultimately decides to place one on the ballot, the final decision will belong to the taxpayers.
These aren't quick fixes. They're long-term solutions. Just like police and fire, roads are a challenge facing communities across Michigan, not just Holly.
There isn't one easy answer. There are responsible decisions, careful planning, prioritization, and continuing to look for every funding opportunity available. That's exactly what this Council is doing.
I can see from the response to these ask-me-anything-type posts I have written over the last month that many of you have appreciated the opportunity to ask questions and get direct answers. Please remember, though, that you never have to wait for one of these posts to ask me something. You can reach out to me or staff anytime.
Transparency works best when information is made available and residents engage with it... by attending or watching meetings, reviewing the materials provided, and asking questions when something is unclear.
The truth hurts, but we cannot hide from it anymore. I do not believe in kicking the can down the road... especially not down our roads. The truth is a jagged little pill. The facts are complicated, sometimes the answer costs more than we want it to, and sometime the evidence simply doesn't support what we would prefer to believe. Rejecting an uncomfortable truth in favor of an easier story doesn't change reality.
Misinformation is not harmless. It is already costing Holly. It corrodes trust in the very people and institutions we need to function, drives knowledgeable people away from public service, and makes good people think twice about volunteering their time and expertise to this community. When that happens, we don't punish some imaginary enemy at Village Hall. We hurt ourselves.
There will always be someone willing to sell an easy answer such as: there's plenty of money, somebody is hiding it, somebody is lying to you, somebody has a secret agenda, and if you just believe them, every complicated problem suddenly has a simple explanation. Snake oil has always been easier to sell than hard truths.
But we have budgets. We have audits. We have meeting videos, minutes, reports, studies, and professional analyses from unbiased third-parties. We have staff who will answer questions. At some point, when the evidence is available, each of us has a responsibility to decide whether we are actually looking for the truth or simply looking for someone who will tell us what we already want to believe.
Holly cannot afford to keep chewing off its own foot just to run away from an uncomfortable truth.
If you believe as strongly as I do in building a better future for Holly, vote for me for President again. Vote for Shannon Cole For Council and Amber Kier for Holly Village Council… These are the candidates who refuse to take the easy way out, even when doing the right thing costs us personally.
Let's Talk About Water, Taxes, and Holly's Future
April Brandon, Village President
Municipal Analytics presented its independent analysis of Holly’s water and sewer rates, taxes, infrastructure needs, and what Holly’s financial future could look like if it remains a village or becomes a city at our August Council Meeting.
This presentation wasn’t the beginning of that work. The Village administration and Council have been doing this research and financial work throughout the year, examining Holly’s revenues, expenses, infrastructure needs, water and sewer systems, and long-term options. The Village hired Municipal Analytics to bring independent expertise and analysis to that work because decisions this important should be based on unbiased math and facts.
One of the biggest issues is water and sewer. Holly has aging infrastructure, and maintaining and replacing it is expensive. Municipal Analytics made an important point: this is not unique to Holly. Municipalities everywhere are facing the same problem as infrastructure built decades ago reaches the end of its useful life.
Water and sewer systems have to generate enough revenue to operate, maintain the system, and prepare for future repairs and replacement. Putting those costs off doesn’t make them disappear. It makes the eventual problem more expensive.
Water and sewer are only part of Holly’s larger financial challenge. The cost of providing services and maintaining infrastructure continues to rise, while the revenue available to local governments has not kept pace.
Municipal Analytics was also clear about something residents deserve to know: there is no waste to cut from the Village budget. In fact, he found the Village is understaffed. Holly’s financial challenges aren’t the result of overspending or an oversized government. We have a revenue and infrastructure problem, and simply cutting our way out of it isn’t an option.
That is why Municipal Analytics also examined cityhood. Over the past several weeks, you’ve heard a lot of opinions about cityhood. Now we have actual financial projections to discuss.
The most important takeaway is this: Cityhood does not change who we are. Holly doesn’t suddenly become a large city, lose our historic downtown, or give up our small-town character. We don’t stop being Holly.
What changes is our form of government and how the State of Michigan treats Holly for purposes including revenue sharing. Municipal Analytics’ projections showed that cityhood could bring additional revenue into Holly and potentially create a path toward eliminating the First Responder Special Assessment while maintaining the police and fire protection our community deserves.
The reality is that the Village already operates much like a city. Holly already provides the services residents expect from a city, including police, fire, water, sewer and solid-waste services. What we don’t have is the tax structure or level of state revenue sharing that comes with being a city to help support those responsibilities. We are providing a city level of services while trying to fund them within a village revenue structure. That mismatch is a major part of the financial problem Municipal Analytics was brought in to examine.
The Village is forming a Cityhood Action Committee to continue studying what cityhood could mean for Holly and to involve residents in that process. If the process moves forward far enough to actually pursue cityhood, that decision will ultimately belong to the voters. Residents will have the final say on whether Holly becomes a city.
There is another option that has been discussed: Holly Township becoming a charter township. That is an option for the Township to investigate, in my opinion, not the Village. We do not currently know whether the Township is interested in pursuing charter status or assuming additional services. Under MCL 42.34, a charter township seeking protection from annexation must meet specific requirements, including providing fire protection, solid-waste disposal, water or sewer service, and police protection beyond normal sheriff patrol, either directly or through contracts or intergovernmental agreements. Those services have costs. If charter township status is going to be considered as an alternative to cityhood, it deserves its own serious financial analysis.
Regardless of Holly’s future form of government, Municipal Analytics also laid out other options for addressing the financial and infrastructure challenges ahead, including reviewing how water and sewer costs are allocated, building adequate reserves for future capital needs, continuing to pursue grants and outside funding, and coordinating infrastructure projects so roads, water and sewer work are planned together whenever possible. The challenge moving forward is finding the fairest combination of revenues, rates, outside funding and long-term planning that keeps our systems financially sustainable while alleviating some of the tax burden if possible.
Municipal Analytics’ analysis showed that Holly needs approximately 20 mills to operate efficiently. Today, the Village is at roughly 11 mills, plus the 4.6-mill First Responder Special Assessment. He also recommended asking voters to consider a 5–6 mill road millage. Those numbers illustrate the problem better than any political argument can: Holly’s current revenue structure simply does not match the cost of the services and infrastructure the community expects.
The Village has some very difficult decisions coming up. No matter what the Village Council decides, a lot of people are going to be upset. It’s been recommended that they either raise water rates 6.5% a year, and/or raise the rates of people outside the Village to 150% of what Village residents pay to offset their risk and liability.
After digging into all these issues, one thing is clear: doing nothing is not a financial strategy. I do not support kicking the can down the road. We need leaders with a backbone.
That’s why I am running for President again, and I support Shannon Cole and Amber Kier-Ogg for Council. They have been here doing the work every step of the way and never shied away from a tough or unpopular decision.
Let's Talk About Our Police Department
April Brandon, Village President
I want to talk about the value of having our own police department. On Tuesday, August 4th, voters in several surrounding communities rejected millages that fund police services. Police proposals failed in Brandon Township, Independence Township, and Orion Township. This is relevant to the conversation we are having right now about Holly's future.
Some people have suggested that instead of considering cityhood, the Village could dissolve and the area could ultimately become part of a charter township. There is an important piece of that conversation that deserves more attention: police protection.
Michigan law establishes additional requirements for a charter township to qualify for statutory protection from annexation under MCL 42.34. One of those requirements involves providing police protection beyond normal sheriff patrol, whether through a sheriff contract, an intergovernmental agreement, or its own police department. None of the options are free. Enhanced police protection costs money. We're watching neighboring charter townships grapple with that reality right now.
If becoming a charter township is something people seriously want considered as an alternative to cityhood, perhaps Holly Township should be asked to participate in that analysis. What level of police protection would be provided? How would it be provided? What would it cost? How would it be funded? And would the Township even be interested in pursuing charter-township status and the additional services necessary to obtain the protections people may assume come with it? I don't know the Township's answer to those questions, and I won't speak for them. But they are questions worth asking before presenting charter-township government as a viable alternative. It is also worth noting that five of the seven members of the Holly Township Board live within the Village. They are Village residents just like the rest of us, and they receive the same Village services we do, including our police and fire services. That could create the appearance that, while they serve as leaders of the Township, they themselves prefer to live within the Village limits and benefit from the services the Village provides.
Today, I also got a reminder of what "police services" actually means in Holly. Earlier, in my capacity as Village President, I spent some time at the Holly Police Department speaking with Officer Bob and Chief Narsh about ongoing communications involving a couple of local residents who regularly contact both me in my official capacity and the Police Department. We wanted to make sure these residents with disabilities and other support needs are receiving the resources and support they need to live happy, healthy, and safe lives. I am intentionally keeping the details vague to protect their privacy.
I was pleasantly surprised to learn just how involved our Police Department already is with this community. Our officers, especially Officer Bob, stay connected with individuals and, when appropriate, their caregivers. They do it in a way that respects each person's autonomy and dignity while also maintaining the relationships necessary to help protect their safety. They know these residents, understand their circumstances, and know who to contact when additional support may be needed.
That kind of community policing doesn't always show up on a spreadsheet. We cannot assume that kind of policing will be possible with county or state police. When we talk about what police services cost, we also need to talk about what we're receiving for that money. We have officers who know our community, our businesses, our families, and some of our most vulnerable residents. They aren't simply responding when something goes wrong. They are building relationships intended to keep people safe before a situation becomes an emergency.
Police services are expensive. The votes in surrounding communities this week demonstrate just how difficult funding those services can be. As we evaluate Holly's future, every option deserves an honest analysis that includes both the services residents expect and what those services actually cost. Changing the structure of our government doesn't make those costs or responsibilities disappear.
And that is an important part of the bigger picture: Holly already provides police, fire, water, sewer, planning, zoning, public works, and the other core municipal services typically associated with a city. In many practical ways, we already operate like a city. The difference is that we do it under a village structure without access to some of the additional statutory and financial advantages Michigan provides to cities.
It Takes a Village, and That Includes Taking Care of the Place We Call Home
Amber Kier
One of the things I love about Holly is that we understand the value of our natural spaces. Our community isn’t just a place to live, it’s a place worth protecting.
In honor of Earth Day this spring, our Village took an important step by embracing the Monarch Butterfly Pledge, recognizing the importance of protecting monarchs and the pollinators that play such an important role in our ecosystem.
But our commitment to the environment doesn’t stop there.
We’ve established a conservation easement, helping protect important natural areas for generations to come.
We’re supporting pollinator habitat and native plants, creating spaces where bees, butterflies and other pollinators can thrive.
We’ve handed out tree saplings during a community park cleanup day, giving residents the opportunity to take a little piece of that effort home and help grow Holly’s future.
We’re also in the midst of removing invasive species at Ganshaw Park, helping restore and protect the natural habitat within one of our community’s beautiful outdoor spaces.
And we’ve embraced the Monarch Butterfly Pledge, recognizing the important role monarchs and other pollinators play in a healthy ecosystem.
These aren't just environmental ideas on paper. They’re tangible steps that our community is taking to protect our land, restore our natural spaces and leave something better for the next generation.
There’s always more work to do. But I’m proud that Holly is leaning into conservation and looking for ways to be good stewards of the community we’ve been entrusted with.
Protecting our parks.
Protecting our natural areas.
Protecting our pollinators.
Planting trees.
Restoring habitat.
Planning for the future.
That’s the kind of progress worth growing.
Because when it comes to protecting Holly…
It takes a Village.
Amber Kier, Shannon Cole & April Brandon
Holly Is Community
Shannon Cole
One of the things I love most about Holly is the sense of community. It’s that “townie” lifestyle that can be hard to explain unless you’ve experienced it.
It’s walking your kids to school or riding bikes there together. It’s drinking coffee on the front porch with your neighbors. It’s swapping dahlia tubers for iris bulbs. It’s walking downtown to the farmers market, spending an afternoon at one of our parks, and running into people you know along the way.
And it’s knowing the people who serve and protect our community.
It’s having a local police officer in our schools, working with our kids and staff, watching traffic and helping with threat assessments. It’s gathering on September 11th with our firefighters on the front lawn of the fire station to remember those lives lost.
Those things matter to me.
Years ago, Holly had its own local dispatch. If you ever had to call 911 during that time, you may remember what it was like to have someone answer who knew exactly where you were and sometimes already understood the history behind the call.
We lost that service because technology and dispatching became increasingly complicated and expensive. Oakland County does a wonderful job, and I have tremendous respect for the men and women there who dedicate their lives to public safety. But losing our local dispatch taught us something important… once a local service is gone, getting it back can be nearly impossible.
That is one of the reasons I feel so strongly about protecting the local Police and Fire services we still have.
Right now, our Police and Fire departments are being supported through a special assessment. When Holly was facing a financial crisis, we needed a way to keep those services operating. We looked at how other communities, including Holly Township, fund public safety.
The Township relies on Michigan State Police for certain police services and uses a 4.2-mill special assessment to fund Fire and EMS through NOCFA. That model works for their community. But the Village has different needs. We have schools, downtown traffic, businesses, truck traffic, code enforcement and other services that require a different level of local police presence.
There is another part of local policing that matters to me too, which is local accountability.
Oakland County Commissioners increased the rates communities pay for contracted sheriff patrol and school resource officer services. Those decisions about costs are ultimately made at the county level and out of our hands. The County has also embraced technologies such as Flock Safety's automated license plate reader camera system.
Whether you support that technology or have concerns about privacy and surveillance, I believe Holly residents deserve a meaningful voice in decisions about how we are policed and what policing technology is used in our community.
With our own police department, those conversations happen here. Residents can come to a Village Council meeting. They can talk to the police chief. They can question their elected officials. And ultimately, the people making those decisions live in and answer to this community.
That local accountability has value.
The special assessment wasn't intended to be the end of the conversation. It was how we kept our Police and Fire while we work on Holly’s bigger financial picture.
I know not everyone agrees with it. I respect that. I've also had residents stop me at the store, at events and around town simply to say, “Thank you for voting to keep our Police and Fire.” Those conversations matter to me too.
Holly isn't alone in struggling with this. Communities around us are trying to figure out how to pay for public safety. Some have had public-safety millages fail and are returning to voters hoping that more information and conversation will lead to a different outcome.
We need those conversations here, too. For me, this isn't about resisting change just because “this is how we've always done it.” It's about recognizing what makes Holly special and being very careful about what we give up.
We already learned that lesson with dispatch.
I want us to find a sustainable way to keep our Police and Fire local not just for today, but for the Holly our kids and grandkids will call home.
Because at the end of the day, it really does take a village.
Shannon Cole, Amber Kier and April Brandon value local control of Police and Fire Services.
