Tribute to Fred Alkire

We hadn't forgotten about Fred Alkire, who passed away just over two months ago, but we were slow to find the right words.  This tribute by Tim Richard, our guest columnist, captures Alkire better that we could have.  --Eds. 

Alkire at Pleasanton's Memorial Day services, 2011

Fred Alkire’s death Feb. 14 inspired reams of reminiscences of his life’s 80 years – in the military, scouting, his family and civic efforts. One batch of contributions, however, was overlooked – Fred’s devotion to intergovernmental cooperation.

In high school civics, a required course in Michigan, we were taught that government is formed at three levels – federal, state and local. But in today’s world, much governmental work is done by combinations of local units. Several of our governors have encouraged such cooperation.

Alkire, supervisor of Pleasanton Township, for years chaired the Manistee County chapter of the Michigan Townships Association, where township supervisors gathered to learn the latest changes in their working laws and the latest money-saving ideas. For example, Pleasanton and Bear Lake townships formed a joint trash collection program from the 1990s until 2009, where they employed one collection point with one contractor’s trucks to collect two towns’ trash on the same Saturday morning.

When the Bear Lake community received a private grant in 2001 for a new branch library building, Alkire chaired a three-unit panel – the two townships and the Village of Bear Lake – to build the new Keddie-Norconk branch library. The county provided the books, materials and staff, but local units provided the building. All three local units provided members of the library board, which Alkire led, and got its job done, with much volunteer labor, two years earlier than another community with a similar grant.