Mounting Mills are ripe in the Land of Mears

Oceana county could have had a fine brick courthouse in Mears and it would not have cost the taxpayers a dollar . At a session of the board of supervisors in December of 1873 Charles Mears and Mr. Odell , the co - founders of the village of Mears , appeared before the board and made a most liberal proposition . Mr. Mears told them that if the county seat were removed to Mears he would erect fine brick county buildings with vaults without one cent of cost to the county . Or if the supervisors went ahead and put up the courthouse in Mears he would give them on completion the sum of $ 10,000 . This was a most gen- erous offer , for that much money would go a long ways in 1873 and put up as fine a courthouse as the county could have asked for . But the board of supervisors turned it down 15 to 1. Then Shelby made an offer . T. A. Reed moved that the courthouse be moved to the plat of Barnett , which is in Shelby village . The motion was amended with condition that Shelby township put up a bond for $ 6,000 to be paid the county when the county built the courthouse there . A vote was taken and it came out eight in favor of moving the location to Shelby and eight against . So the motion was declared lost . And there is little doubt that the readiness of Shelby to build a courthouse there continued long afterward . Although there may have been no further specific offers in the form of motions , nevertheless Hart was aware of that readiness . And so things stood as they were . But now it is a time to get these things out and remember them , for the board of supervisors is putting up a proposition on a ballot at the April election asking the people to vote two extra mills for ten years to be used in constructing a court- house at Hart , Michigan , at such time or times as the board of super- vistors may deem advisable . Every property owner in Oceana county who values the sacred 15 mill limitation should get out and vote NO on that courthouse deal . It is so easy to throw your caps up in the air and say " Hurrah , boys , hurrah ! Let's vote the extra mills . " But for ten years the ox yoke will hang around your neck . And if depression comes you could lose your farm or home . Too many schools have ex- ce ded the 15 mills already and citizens find the taxes already a bur- den . Do you want more and more mills piled on top of those until your sacred tax limitation is buried in the dust ? This is no time for rash

commitments to further accumulative assessments . It is a time for sobriety , serious - minded horse sense . The courthouse we have is ser- viceable and useful . The county has already appropriated $ 2,500 for a new outside vault . With labor and building materials so high this is no time to build a new courthouse . If this ballot passes it would authorize the supervisors to begin building at once , " at such time OF times as they deem advisable . " And the location of that courthouse would be tied down by the terms of the ballot to Hart , Michigan , even if next month Shelby or Pentwater or Mears came forward with an offer to build the courthouse at no expense to the county , or even half the expense . Another thing that should be considered is the unfairness of putting this burden on the real estate tax , while the non - property owners go free . The benefits of the vast accumulations of revenue from the merchandise sales tax have been shifted around , to state funds , to elties , villages , townships and school districts . That is a fair source of revenue because it comes from property owner and non - property owner alike . Now , if the property owners of Michigan would take a united stand and resist any and all attempts to increase their millage that would be a leverage against the legislature so that they would earmark sales tax money for county purposes and the property owner would be relieved . When that is done , let the supervisors save up their sales tax money and build a courthouse out of that . It is time the tax burdened property owners rose up and asserted their rights . It is time they re- sisted this extra millage that the supervisors want to hang around their necks and pile up on top of all the other continuing millages that have been hung on their necks before . Why should people be penalized more and more for their thrift in owning property ? The tax on real estate ought to be getting less and less until there is no property tax at all . That is how it should be . But instead it will be more and morq if you don't rise up and go to the polls next Monday and vote a rous- ing NO on this courthouse proposition . So help me , God ! -Saturday afternoon the Earl Jonassen oil well was down to 1190 feet , with possibility of completion this week . A pumper was being installed on Ann Dykstra No. 1 well . Osborn No. 1 well was acidized with 500 gal- lons . It would flow 40 or 50 barrels in four or five hours and then stop . Saturday afternoon the production was good again . The Leonard Pipe Line Co. has improved the ingress and egress of the trucks from Pent- water bridge pipe line with a lot of gravel . The moo - moo diesel loco- motive hauls out quite a string of oil tank cans from Mears . One day recently there were 17 outgoing tanks on the Chesapeake & Ohio ; an- other day it was eleven . Mr. Stovall turns the valves and lets the liq- uid gold run to the train . Aside from milking cows and growing green pasture crops of rye for the registered Guernseys at Silver Hills . Mike Cous neau's chief recreational interest is bowling . The people of Hart school district are pretty well loaded up with mills right now . And many are the taxpayers there who feel their taxes are plenty high enough already without any courthouse mills to hang heavy on their necks . It is much better to postpone the courthouse deal until it can be done with sales tax revenue . You know , it is never wise to spend the last coin in your pocketbook unless you know where more is com- ing from suddenly . Taxpayers in all parts of the county should re- member that they might now have a few mills left in their financial pocketbook . But if they spend all these , they are mortgaging their future , so if their home district schoolhouse burns down , or som severe local public emergency arises , what are they going to do then ? James L. McPeak tock are at Mears Sunday with Robert Hath-

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Phil Wurthner heals Autos

Wietzke

For Radios , Appliances Furniture

Webb's Grocery 118 Apple St. Open 9 to 9

Orel Burdick Keys , Radios Hart

Kart Petroleum Batteries , Tires

Neil Wheeler

Insurance

Real Estate

Harold Frazee Hart Cleaners and Dyers Op . Courthouse Shaw Insurance Honses , Lots Pentwater

Fresh Meats

Vegetables Nixon Market

Stop ! Shop ! Joe Jetleb , Hart

Roy Geisinger gold watches .

J

away . They are on their way to Mackinaw City . Many new bolts of yard goods have arrived at Carpenter's variety store in Hart . Dimity ,, . organdy , dotted Swiss at 69c a yard ; gingham plaid , 59c ; chambray , seersucker , 49c ; vat dyed washable colors , Voile , 59c ; fruit of the loom , 49c . Also calico , silk crepes , powder puff muslin . Sew yourself something new for Easter . Carpenter in Hart . When the diesel streamlined locomotive goes moo - moo past George Cain's house by the spring Kenneth says it is Elsie , the Borden cow . Some people go up in airplanes to get a new vision of the countryside , but Marjorie Sho- gren flew to Rochester , Minn . , to get new vision . When John Doenges . the nature lover , sleeps afield in the dunes , does he call his sleeping bag a knapsack ? -David Burgess of Clare was looking over the Mears oil derricks this week . He comes from oily corners . The McClannahan oil men who stay at Mrs. Royle's in Hart like corn flakes , bacon and eggs for breakfast , but when they pour out the little Ralston bite - size biscuits they call the stuff Grow - Pup . - Albert McRae got some new eaves pipes Saturday . And when it starts to rain , Judy , the dog , knows where to hold out a tongue and get a drink . Some day Margaret Hanks may stretch a hay rope across the valley and ride over to Mrs. Cain's on it , but for the present she walks around the road . - George Wolf was a veteran of the Spanish - American War and was 81 when he was buried in Hart . He smiled often in the street and people liked to talk with him because he had discerning humor . - Clarence Kelly was once a country school teacher . He was in the Ford car business with Jack Spellman in Shelby a long time . In 1931 he became superin- tendent of the poor and when that board was changed into the board of social welfare he was director of that . He was 70 years old when he was buried in Shelby . - Claud Fuller and Claud Fuller walked down the street together . One came home from the navy to see his father . Neither was fuller , they both were empty , so they went home to get some supper . The Michigan state police rport a new all - time high in motor vehicle mileage in Michigan in 1948 , which was accompanied by a new high in the total number of accidents and persons injured . Well . they ought to get some more of those windshield stickers printed , like they had in gas rationing : " Is this trip really necessary ? " Many trips are needless , just grinding up the gravel . Get ready for Easter . Greet- ing cards and dyes , candy eggs : Easter gift packages of chocolates . 1 to 5 lbs , Artificial chickens , stuffed bunnies from $ 1 up . Bright's Drug Store in Hart has these things . Also a lending library of good fiction . adv - Rudolf Glanz srent the week - end in Saginaw and while there looked up his old friend , Harvey Schneider , whom he had not seen in quite a while . - Missionary from India at Mears church Sunday eve.-

Anderson's Grocery , Mears , sells green cabbage and yellow bananas

BIENNIAL SPRING ELECTION . To the qualified electors : Notice is hereby given , that a Biennial Spring Election will be held in the Town- slip of Golden . State of Michigan , at the township hall , within said township on MONDAY , APRII , 4. 1949 , for the purpose of electing the following officers , viz : State Officers : two Regents of the University of Michigan , Superintendent of Public Instruction , Member of the State Board of Education , tavo members of the State Board of Agriculture State Highway Commissioner . Non - partisan Officers : Two Justices of the Supreme Court . Township Officers : Supervisor . Township Clerk . Township Treasurer , two Justices of the Peace ( full term ) . Ilirway