My name is Craig Cotterman and I am your new Denton Township Supervisor. My wife Sally and I were married in1973 and built our current residence at 413 Old Trail Drive in 1974, after spending my entire life vacationing here at Houghton Lake. We raised our daughter, Emily, in this northern community and for these past 55 years,  I have had the privilege to partake in all of the recreational and residential opportunities this community has to offer. As a small child, my first recollection of leaving the inner city of Flint was packing our 1956 PINK Buick Station Wagon and heading north to Houghton Lake. Traffic was always bumper to bumper and took “FOREVER” in a child’s eyes. We always pulled an old homemade box trailer that Dad would fill with scrap wood from Buick salvage. He used that scrap wood to build our cottage here on the lake which still stands next door to my own home. My two sisters and I would be filled with excitement and we would start singing our favorite song. These same three words, I spy Houghton Lake, I spy Houghton Lake, over and over again. Sometimes we would start singing this silly song as far south as Standish.  It must have drove Mom and Dad bonkers, however not enough to forgo the weekend and holiday visits to the Lake.  Later through the years, the chanting song may have changed but the excitement never died. It was my Father who would then sing, “Darn kids all headed to the Music Box again.” Sometime during those later days, I realized, this is where I belonged.

It is now 2008 and I find myself in a chair that will allow me to help a community I fell in love with so long ago. Soon I hope to see our boys returning from this Iraq war and growing jobs is of upmost importance. We need not only to build on things that work, like tourism, fishing, and hunting, but to explore innovative programs, such as renewable sustainable energy sources, bio fuels, and recycling.

I pledge to do my very best for you, and am extremely fortunate to have such a skilled and experienced staff in my corner. In these very difficult times, we must keep focused and build this community bridge to our future. In doing so, we will recapture the magic of Houghton Lake, the other Great Lake of the North.