We hope your holidays went well. Ours were miserable. Ever sleep on a tiny pirate boat in 20 degree weather?
Antrim Vice
The Board of Commissioners held their first meeting of 2022. At this meeting, they voted on who should serve as Board Chairman and Board Vice Chairman.
Terry Vanalstine was the only commissioner nominated for the position of chairman. A secret ballot was conducted and in a shocking result, Terry Vanalstine won the vote!
The next thing to do was to select a Vice Chairman. There were two nominations: Karen Bargy and Jarris Rubingh. The Board then closed nomin –
WAIT. Jarris Rubingh? You mean, Politician Jarris Rubingh? For Vice Chair? REALLY??? Who would be crazy enough to vote that guy into a leadership position?
People crazy enough to vote Politician Jarris Rubingh into a leadership position:
- Vanalstine
- Watrous
- Lavanway
- Marcus
- Politician Jarris Rubingh voted for himself
Residents of Antrim County, we present to you your new Vice Chairman of the Board of Commissioners:

God help us.
Housing Illegals
In an annual bit of housekeeping, the Board needed to pass a statutorily required resolution to not discriminate if providing housing. All the resolution essentially stated was that the County would resolve not to discriminate based on any protected class.
During discussion on an anti-discrimination resolution, Dawn Lavanway suggested that the County should, well … discriminate.
She asked if language could be inserted that Antrim County would deny fair housing to any non-citizens. She felt that if the county provided housing it should only go to legal citizens.
xen·o·pho·bi·a/ˌzenəˈfōbēə,ˌzēnəˈfōbēə/
noun
dislike of or prejudice against people from other countries.
“the resurgence of racism and xenophobia”
This is stupid on so many levels. First of all, it is unnecessary since there is no great wave of immigrants demanding housing in Antrim County. Second, such discrimination is absolutely illegal. Finally, the County doesn’t do any housing programs currently. They got into a bunch of trouble years ago for not spending grant money, so they essentially eliminated the program.
Housing is a huge issue in Northern Michigan. Yet, the County Board runs away from the issue every time. You can find them hiding from the ghosts of the past.
They’ve only had one meeting, and it is already very dumb.
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