Wayland City Clerk Michelle Herman and Wayland High School senior Jonathon Seymour will be among those conducting those conducting the 2016 presidential recount Wednesday and Thursday for Allegan County.

The recount has been ordered for Michigan after Green Party candidate Jill Stein raised enough money to file for the action in this state, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

Herman said she and Seymour will begin duties Wednesday morning and the actual will begin at 9 a.m. Seymour is Wayland High School’s student representative at council meetings.

While acknowledging this will be done at taxpayers’ expense, Herman said she is taking a couple of vacation days to perform the tasks.

“This is the first time I’ve been through this,” she told City Council members Monday night at the regular meeting. “The way I look at it is it is what it is.”

She said each ballot will be counted by hand, but she expects the work to be completed by the end of the day Thursday. She added that she expects the presence of attorneys and representatives from the State Elections Bureau and political parties.

“We’ll roll up our sleeves and get it down,” he promised.

In other business at Monday night’s meeting, the council:

• Agreed to postpone any restriping work for between the expressway and United Bank on West Superior Street. A bid for the work has been received already, but City Manager Tim McLean said he believes the city can get a much more favorable cost estimate in the spring, Furthermore, restriping isn’t something that should be done during winter months, council members said.
• Approved payment of just over $19,000 to Smith Instruments to install a new water well control system and pull out the old phone lines that were getting too costly.
• Approved the 2017 schedule for all but one council meeting, Monday, July 3, which poses a problem because it’s the day before the Independence Day holiday. At least three council members said they would not be able to attend that Monday night, so it was moved to Wednesday evening instead.

Council customarily meets on the first and third Mondays of each month.

City Planning Commission meetings will remain at the second Tuesday of each month.

PHOTOS: Jonathan Seymour   Michelle Herman