The brown and green areas on the map designate the new voting precincts in Fruitland Township. The heavy dark lines show the boundaries between the Whitehall and Reeths-Puffer school districts.

However, township officials will certainly notice the cost savings.

Fruitland Clerk Karolyn Rillema announced in December that in an effort to realize cost savings, the township will be reducing its precinct polling places to two, instead of the previous three.

While eliminating the McMillan Elementary precinct, the township will still use its polling spots at the township hall, 4545 Nestrom Rd., and the township’s community club building at corner of South Shore Drive and Lamos Road.

What precipitated the change, said Rillema, was that the township simply had too many precincts for its population.

“We currently have a little over 4,300 registered voters,” said Rillema. “Each precinct is allowed up to 2,999 (voters). So, we are well below the threshold of 3,000 for three precincts.”

The elimination of one polling place equals a cost savings of $840. That cost comes primarily from staffing.

But that isn’t where the savings end.

Because of the way the new precincts are drawn, in the event that the Reeths-Puffer School District is the lone election in the township, Rillema will only need to open one polling location.

“Where before the boundaries were drawn from east to west,” said Rillema, “we had Reeths-Puffer (voters) in all three districts.” Now, all Reeths-Puffer School District voters are confined to the same precinct.

Because the Whitehall School District is a bit larger, Rillema was unable to confine those district voters into one precinct.

One area where some township residents may be inconvenienced by the change will be that both polling places are now located in the western half of the township. Residents at the south-eastern edge of the township will have to drive, at most, five miles to the township hall to vote.

This wasn’t by design, said Rillema.

In late 2009, the township completed a series of structural updates to the nearly 130-year old White Lake Community Club. One of the stipulations of the Michigan Department of State’s Polling Place Access Improvement Program grant that helped pay for the updates — improving handicap access into the building, including a ramp at the back — was that the locale remain a polling place until 2014.

“It’s probably not the best building (polling location),” said Rillema, “but, right now, we’re limited.”

After 2014, Rillema said changing the polling location will certainly be on the minds of those on the township board, perhaps relocating it to a place that better serves residents on the east side of the township.

“I started (redrawing the districts) on my own, and (the findings) were that thick,” said Rillema, pointing to a three-ring binder about an inch thick. But Rillema was put in touch with Thomas Van Bruggen, a property information analyst from the Muskegon County Department of Mapping and GIS (Geographical Information System). Van Bruggen was able to overlay the latest census data over the prior Fruitland Township precincts.

“It was within a matter of two hours,” said Rillema, that the districts were entered and ready to be modeled. “It was much easier than my approach,” Rillema laughed.

Rillema then asked to apply the GIS program toward drawing precincts according to school districts. Because in Fruitland, Reeths-Puffer School District is smaller — in terms of residents in that district — than Whitehall’s, she used Reeths-Puffer as a kind of base point to redraw the entire polling map. What emerged was a system that would save money in the event Reeths-Puffer was holding a vote when Whitehall wasn’t.

“Is it the perfect scenario?” asked Rillema. “No. But it works for us.”

Rillema has submitted the changes to the State of Michigan, where they were promptly accepted. New polling ID cards are in the process of being issued.

The clerk admits, as news of the changes travels, she has started to field a couple calls of complaint.

“Some people are a little agitated at first,” she said. “But when I explain to them that it’s a cost savings, they seem to be fine about it.”