Crystal Bay Township Elections

Crystal Bay elections take place entirely by mail in ballot. Voters have already received their ballots and in fact some ballots have already been mailed back to the clerk. My apologies for not get­ting this article to the North Shore Journal before voters started casting their ballots.

Election day, No­vember 5, is approach­ing quickly. Crystal Bay township votes entirely by mail in bal­lot. Crystal Bay Town­ship usually has a very high voter turnout. In the 2020 general elec­tion, 83.5% of eligible Lake county voters voted by mail in ballot or on election day. Be­sides the national and state races, Crystal Bay township voters have more than the usual number of positions to fill due to a number of resignations over the past year or so.

Stacy Breden is run­ning unopposed for a 4 year term as clerk. A position she was appointed to in May, 2023. Lise Abasz is running unopposed for a 2 year term as treasur­er. A position she was appointed to in June, 2024. Roger Peterson is running unopposed for a 4 year term as supervisor. Roger was appointed as a supervi­sor in April 2024. The sole contested race is for a 2 year term as su­pervisor. Mike (Finn) Nikula has served as an appointed super­visor in this position since May, 2023. He is being challenged by Charles (Chuck) Cook.

Crystal Bay town­ship is facing some challenges ahead. An impending cash flow crisis in the first half of 2025, negotiating a new contract with the Friends of Finland Community non-profit that manages the Claire Nelson Community Center, as well as man­aging the rebuilding of part of the septic sys­tem for the communi­ty center are all issues the board will have to work through in the coming months.

To help Crystal Bay voters make their de­cision on the contest­ed supervisor race, the candidates have agreed to submit answers to questions posed to them. The writer has made a few small edits to the candidates’ re­sponses for brevity and clarity.

Can you give a little background about yourself and why you are running for super­visor.

Nikula: My name is Michael Nikula, aka Finn. I am 67 years old and have lived in Finland my whole life. I’m currently on the town board and would like to continue as I care about our commu­nity and I think I’m a good fit in the position I’m in. I’m glad Chuck is running as well be­cause it’s the voters who choose who sits on the board.

Cook: I have lived here since 1974 with my wife Jamie and raised my three sons here. I worked at Erie Mining, Reserve Min­ing, Cyprus Mining, and then North Shore Mining until retiring. I was on the Finland Fire and Rescue until retiring from that vol­unteer work. I have helped local organiza­tions with their proj­ects-all volunteered to help out. This is a lit­tle to show that I care about our township and have supported it in many ways. I’m concerned about our taxes and budget.

The town treasurer has projected a cash flow crunch for the township in the com­ing year. What steps do you think the town needs to make imme­diately to follow the treasurer’s recom­mendations?

Nikula: We have had a tough couple of years. What we need to do is focus on where we can make spending cuts while still taking care of our community. I’m sure we can do this if we work together and communicate with each other.

Cook: One thing I see is what we are spend­ing our money on. We have a lot of older people here and a lot without jobs and fixed incomes. We need to look at everything, not just shake our heads yes, all the time and raise taxes. To try cov­ering cost we need to look at why. I know cost of everything is up, but we need to make sure we have a handle on things here.

Are there longer term changes you think the board could imple­ment to improve the financial outlook for the town?

Nikula: I think I an­swered that on the last question.

Cook: I think there is waste in areas that need to be looked at that could help. There might be help from state or county and more help from locales that could be looked into. It all could make a difference in our fu­ture of use moving forward and growing as a township.

The Crystal Bay town board seems to be considering taking a more active role in the management and maintenance of the Claire Nelson cen­ter and having the Friends of Finland organization only oversee program­ming. Does this seem like a good plan?

Nikula: It’s a very good plan, We should have been more in­volved all along. By taking a more ac­tive role with all the great stuff the FOF has accomplished, we should be able to keep moving forward.

Cook: I think the board does need to take an active role in helping with management and maintenance of the Clair Nelson center. We need to work with them and everyone else in this commu­nity. The Friends of Finland has done good work for the commu­nity, and I hope we can work together to keep it going. If it (FoF) is just overseeing pro­grams, I have no prob­lem with that.

As the population of Lake county contin­ues to age, we will need more young peo­ple staying and mov­ing into our commu­nity to provide care for seniors and gener­al services as well as keeping the commu­nity vibrant. Do you have ideas on how the town board can facili­tate this?

Nikula: That’s a tough one. With the lack of infrastructure in Fin­land and house prices so high it’s hard for young folks starting out to buy a house. But we can keep work­ing with Lake county HRA and other county leaders. One thing is for sure, we can’t af­ford to give up!

Cook: We need to look into a develop­ment plan to see if we can market our area to bring in new business to keep our younger people here. We are having a hard time now keeping our volunteer services go­ing. The older people that are leaving need to be replaced with new younger people to keep services go­ing in our area and that means jobs to keep them in the area to help take care of not just seniors but all of us. We have log­ging-can we help ex­pand that so more can work. Can we help our mining industry to make more job oppor­tunities there or create more support jobs to make employment in the areas of housing construction and infra­structure work to bring in new families.