At the public hearing in Kalamazoo, plenty of people spoke in favor of putting Battle Creek and Kalamazoo in the same Senate district. We share a regional airport, have many other economic ties, and this map connects the I-94 corridor in this area. This map also keeps most of Kalamazoo County together. I'm most concerned that Oshtemo and Texas Townships remain in the same district as Kalamazoo and Portage. Those two townships are suburban areas with very strong ties to Kalamazoo and Portage. Texas and Oshtemo Townships are not rural areas. Amongst the many connections these two townships have with Kalamazoo and Portage, Oshtemo kids attend Kalamazoo schools and Texas Township kids attend Portage schools. Please do not separate Oshtemo and Texas Townships from Kalamazoo and Portage.

Thank you for drawing this Lake St. Clair District and for keeping our Lake St. Clair COI intact. The inland industrial communities on the other side of I-94 have different interests and will outvote us every time if our COI is not kept together. One important consideration is the dumping of sewage into our lake. Although federal law requires communities to separate storm and sewer systems, there has been no enforcement. As a result, many communities, particularly the inland communities, have not separated their storm and sewer lines. This means that when there is a rain event, the system's capacity becomes overloaded and sewage is discharged into Lake St. Clair. When that happens, our beaches and lakefront amenities are shut down because their is too much sewage in the water to be safe. Imagine buying a home in a lakefront community in order to take advantage of the swimming, fishing, boating, and other lakefront amenities. Now image that some other community dumped sewage into that lake. That is reality of our area and one of the main reasons (but not the only reason) that the lakefront must be kept together. I thank you for recognizing our concerns and drawing this Lake St. Clair district to give us a voice in Lansing.