1651 Frankfort Hwy
PO Box 2129 Frankfort MI 49635 (231) 352-9791 |
OPEN 9-Noon
Mon - Tues - Wed Click here for individual hours & emails CLOSED Thurs-Fri Click here for holiday closures IF THE SCHOOLS ARE CLOSED FOR WEATHER-RELATED REASONS, THE TOWNSHIP IS CLOSED, AS WELL.
This website information updated as of 11 a.m. Monday, December 8, 2025 
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PLEASE HOLD OFF ON PAYING YOUR TAXES until you receive a REVISED tax bill in the mail.
Benzie County and Crystal Lake Township are in the process of correcting the 2025 Winter Property Tax Bills. A clerical error set the Benzie Transit millage at a higher rate than levied. Benzie County is remailing adjusted tax bills this week. Crystal Lake Township tax database is updated with the correct rates. Please make sure the tax bill you are paying has a .4625 Public Transportation and NOT 1.4455. IF you have already mailed your 2025 Winter property tax payment, it will be posted and a refund issued. It is very important that you cash the small check you receive so that our treasurer does not pull out what is left of her hair. All help paying the correct amount is appreciated. Read the full County 12.5.25 press release.
Benzie County and Crystal Lake Township are in the process of correcting the 2025 Winter Property Tax Bills. A clerical error set the Benzie Transit millage at a higher rate than levied. Benzie County is remailing adjusted tax bills this week. Crystal Lake Township tax database is updated with the correct rates. Please make sure the tax bill you are paying has a .4625 Public Transportation and NOT 1.4455. IF you have already mailed your 2025 Winter property tax payment, it will be posted and a refund issued. It is very important that you cash the small check you receive so that our treasurer does not pull out what is left of her hair. All help paying the correct amount is appreciated. Read the full County 12.5.25 press release.
- ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE MTG: 5 p.m. on Wednesday, December 10th at the township hall. The public is welcome to attend.
- ELECTION RESULTS: We had a single issue on the CLT ballot this last election, regarding the financing of a new Road Commission facility. Use this link to connect to Benzie County election results from November 4, 2025.
- ELECTION KUDOS: YAHOO! We received a letter from the Michigan Fair Elections Institute which stated we were among a select group of clerks' offices to receive their Sunlight Award as a Vigilant Steward. Our township was recently recognized as one among 197 jurisdictions to show no duplicate voter registrations. This goes to show how hardworking, integral and efficient our clerk, Judy VanMeter and her deputy, Sondra Halliday, are in keeping records straight and up-to-date. Your election officials are exemplary.
- TREES COMING DOWN: We have had a multitude of queries and complaints about the trees currently being bulldozed on properties in close proximity to the township hall. All tree removal is being done under the direction of either the Frankfort City/County Airport Authority, or the Frankfort Pines (assisted living facility.) All inquiries and comments should be directed to them.
- SHORT TERM RENTALS PACKETS: Crystal Lake Township's Short Term Rental policy is now in full effect. As of September 15, 2025 at 9:30 a.m. applications for a permit, and updated as of 9.23.25, are downloadable if you click here. For a copied of the Short Term Rental Ordinance [as amended on 9.17.25] click here. To take you to the Short Term Rentals webpage, click here.
ATTENTION CRYSTAL LAKE TOWNSHIP VOTERS: Please check with our clerk or deputy clerk to verify your mailing address. This is especially important if you are on our permanent absentee ballot mailing list. This will help with any confusion with those who have multiple addresses (i.e. alternate winter addresses.) We would also like to update your email and phone numbers, as many are missing from our files. Contact information is [email protected] or [email protected].
- ROAD IMPROVEMENTS: This early fall we finished up capping/sealing all our township roads. These are your road millage dollars at work. Here's some background: In November of 2024, the majority of our constituents voted to renew the Crystal Lake Township 5-year (up until 2029) road millage of up to 1.0 millage to maintain/improve the asphalt roads within our boundaries. [Note that this is a different millage from the county-wide road millage.] With the accumulated monies in our dedicated CLT Road Fund, the Benzie County Road Commission applied "chip-n-seal" to the following: Adams, Airport, Bacon, Bellows, Bridge, Carlson, Casey, Cox, Didrickson, Elm, Figg, Forrester, Glory, Graves, Marquette, Martin, Michigan, Mollineaux, Nelson, Nugent, Palcich, Pautz, Robinson, Runway, Shorewood, Sunset, and Thomas. The exact cost billed to us was $772,891.41 and was 99% paid for with taxes already collected. After all the work was completed, the Road Fund was depleted. In order to build it back up for the next round of maintenance --hopefully not scheduled until many years down the road, no pun intended --the CLT Board has decided to continue for 2026 to collect the 1 mill or .9831, with the Headlee Rollback factor applied. Special thanks to our dedicated Road Committee members: Bruce Walton, Al Popp and Judy VanMeter for offering their advice and monitoring the roads, and for the good people at our county road commission for executing the labor.
- EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES: Click here to take you to our Employment page as we are looking for a few good people: 1) a Deputy Supervisor to learn all duties assigned by law and many more tasks that are "assumed" 😮. It's a golden opportunity to get earn a little salary, be active and get involved on a quarter-time basis with your local government; 2) an Assistant CLT Zoning Administrator, to shadow our current ZA and learn this all-important township job. This is possibly a commitment that could lead to the applicant being hired full time when our ZA retires. We hope for an applicant who already has experience as a ZA. But if not, we appreciate that an applicant will need time to learn the job, thus be provided time and salary as an "apprentice"; 3) several Election workers who are interested in getting trained and taking a shift or two in any future elections. It is serious commitment AND fun! The Township is a congenial, people-and-task based place. Want to know more? We're here to answers questions. And ask anyone who works there about the rewarding experiences of serving our beautiful community.
- TRANSPARENCY IS OUR MIDDLE NAME: No secrets. Your local government reps at CLT want you to know what we know, what we do, what we are planning. If an issue takes you by surprise, maybe that's because it has taken us by surprise but it is not because we are trying to keep secrets. Democracy needs not only our board and staff members but also our constituents to be interested, involved and informed. It is true, but ironic, that in this day and age of so many different types of non-stop-in-your-face media we are still having trouble communicating with one another. We are on the record as very much wanting to communicate with our residents. How do we currently do that? We send out newsletters twice a year. We update this website several times a week. Draft and, later, approved minutes are always on our website to read or download. If you stop by, we're ready to answer your questions in person. We also video record view CLT Board meetings which you can then view via our YouTube channel. Every once in a while we screw up the mechanisms of videoing, but we only do that rarely and as a result, you have access for your viewing pleasure to official board business as it was being decided. If you have any other suggestions on how to share township information with you, we are all ears.
- THOUGHTS ABOUT YOUR TOWNSHIP BOARD: Political geography in America today is largely defined by a variegated patchwork of rural red and urban blue localities. Given this, one might expect most local governments to be dominated by one political ideology or the other. And yet, a recent survey --taken by Civic Pulse and supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York (CCNY)-- of elected officials from counties, municipalities, townships, and school boards reveals this is far from the case. They found the majority (58%) have some degree of ideological pluralism represented on their board. Crystal Lake Township is reflective of that majority. Not only do we have a mix of party affiliations, we have a mix of world views, outlooks and opinions within those party labels. The important thing is whether we are representing the township constituency and doing our work to serve you in a respectful, legal and ethical way.
