Sewer Rate Chaos…
And now this?
We need your help to stop these changes to the way the Village of Beulah is managed. Chances are you’ve received a postcard asking you, as a registered voter in the Village of Beulah, to view this website, Beulah4u.com.
On May 26th, 2026 our Beulah Village Council adopted Ordinance 2026-004 to reduce the size of the Village Council from seven to five. For the second time in the past year. The first attempt by Council to reduce the number of Council Trustees from six to four was voted down last November, by a vote of 66-48.
Why you might ask? Because Council believes that the ballot language was ambiguous; that our Beulah voters did not understand what the word rescind meant. That Council should try again with a more concerted effort to educate our voters on the ballot language. Note that the Ordinance was adopted in February 2025, but was not voted on until November 2025. Sounds like no one on the Council is in a hurry to do much of anything.
If you’re not sure, and need to decide how to vote this second time around? Vote YES to rescind (repeal) this second attempt to reduce our Council size.
A second petition has now been circulated to overturn this second attempt to reduce our Council size. There are currently 267 voters registered in Beulah. This means that 27 petition signatures, of registered Beulah voters, are needed to allow this ordinance to be voted on AGAIN.
In case you’re wondering, we heard back from voters, time and again, AGAIN? So soon?
48 signatures, of registered Beulah voters, were collected this time around and submitted to our Village Clerk on Tuesday July 7th. All 48 signatures were validated July 8th by our Benzonia Township Clerk and sent to our Benzie County Clerk for ballot language.
Important point here, if we want to our Council size to remain at seven, vote YES to rescind Ordinance 2026-004.
What Happened?
Summarizing, on Tuesday May 26th, the Beulah Village Council adopted an Ordinance 2026-004 to reduce the number of trustees on the Council from six down to four. Petitions were circulated and submitted to our Village Clerk July 7th, 2026. Signatures were approved and petitions forwarded to our County Clerk on July 9th, 2026. Anyone wondering what the rush is this time? Maybe part of “the plan” our Village has (more below)?
And Why?
- Not because of money.
- Why would a Council concerned about being overworked want to reduce its size?
- Beulah Village Council President was heard to remark at the February 2025 Council meeting that reducing the Council size was part of “… the plan.”
- The plan? Details at 11:00 pm… Still waiting to hear what that “Plan” is.
- Surely, not because of difficulties finding long term employees to fill the Village Clerk and Village Treasurer positions, see Ordinance 2022-002.
So why are we REDUCING the Council Size?
More detail here…
And what about those new, HIGHER water bills?
Try to get over to the new Benzonia Township Hall on Wednesday July 22nd, 2026 at 6:00 pm. As announced on the Beulah website, the Sewer Feasibility Study Task Force will present their final report and answer your questions. This study speaks to a Sewer project which includes Benzonia Township, the Village of Benzonia, and the Village of Beulah.
They’ll be talking about who has to pay, and “potential associated costs”. Three different bond issues? And how about the rate structure for these water bills?
Last time around, that would be June 2025 at the Mills Community Hall, attended by over 100 concerned local residents (and the Benzie County Sheriff’s Department). The village’s Rate Consultant told us about the rate structure of the Village’s Water and Sewer ordinances. Except that he clearly had not read our ordinances and the associated rate structure used for billing. He was called out then, where our Village President announced that our Council doesn’t always take their consultants advice.
Attendees were advised that our Rate Consultant would be available to take questions and that the Village would make him available to field these questions. After a 12-14 page rate structure was proposed to this consultant, nothing but silence back to us.
Turns out that the Village was unwilling to pay our Rate Consultant to answer questions about this proposed rate structure (detailed below.
In short, the proposed rate structure would apply multiples of the “ready to serve” fee, also listed as the number of REUs on your water bill, to different classes of water and sewer users, e.g. Residential, Commercial, Government, and Discounted (for lower income residents).
Additionally, a “use more, pay more” tiered usage rate was proposed. So that the folks using the most water, would pay more. Again, silence.
Please, stop by the Benzonia Township Hall on July 22nd, 2026 at 6:00 pm to hear more about why Beulah water and sewer bills will be among the highest in the State of Michigan.
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