HOUGHTON – County voters turned out Tuesday to decide three millage proposals and one millage renewal. Two of the referendums passed while two failed. Among them, the Houghton County Jail and County Building Improvement Bond Proposal met with failure – but, not by much. The proposal was defeated by 972 votes, with 3,629 voting to 4,601, losing by just over 30%. The proposal sought 1.6 mills to allow the county borrow up to $32 million for jail and county building improvements.

Houghton County Board of Commissioners Chairman Tom Tikkanen said going into the election, he was not sure of the outcome. “You never really know how things are going to go,” he said, “especially with jail millages. Those are always unpopular. That’s not exclusive to Houghton County.”

Tikkanen said that while the p

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