Gavel going down on pair's county board careers as they decide not to run again

Gavel going down on pair's county board careers as they decide not to run again

By CHONG W. PYEN
NEWS STAFF REPORTER

Two leading Washtenaw County commissioners — Meri Lou Murray and Grace Shackman, both Ann Arbor Democrats — have chosen not to seek re-election this year.

Murray, a commissioner since 1973, serving as board chair five times, said she has put in a quarter of a century on the county board and would like to spend more time with her husband, Thomas James Murray, who is retiring from Eastern Michigan University as a professor in the Department of Communication and Theatre Arts, and their grandchildren.

The veteran commissioner, who now chairs the board’s Ways and Means Committee, which handles all fiscal matters, said she wanted to retire in 1994 but was persuaded to serve two more years.

Shackman, chair of the board of commissioners for 1995 and 1996, said it’s her eighth year on the board and she wants to devote more time to private life and writing.

A writer on local history, she is a regular contributor to the Ann Arbor Observer.

So far, no other commissioners on the 15-member body have announced plans to step down.

Filing deadline for the Aug. 6 primary is 4 p.m. May 14.

Shackman said the county weathered rough times in the past eight years, with shrinking revenue sources and rising costs of providing services.

She noted that as chair she was pleased to see better relations with other municipalities and non-profit human service agencies in recent years.

“I’ve enjoyed all those years, but it’s time to move on to other things, writing and more private life,” she said.

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MURRAY

SHACKMAN