By By JAN GRIFFEY / Niles Daily Star
NILES -- Only a few Howard Township voters made it to the polls on Wednesday in a special election held to fill the township's open supervisor and treasurer positions.
Those township seats were vacated late last year after Supervisor Hal Davis and Treasurer Eileen Glick were narrowly recalled.
Davis lost his seat by 84 votes and Glick by only 29.
Only 13 percent -- or 576 -- of the township's 4,332 voters chose to cast a ballot on Wednesday.
The township voters who did cast ballots split their allegiance between party tickets.
Voters chose Republican Michael Sutherland, who is aligned with a group of Howard Township residents who organized the successful recall last year, was elected supervisor over Democrat Gerald "Butch" Harrison, 302 to 268.
However, voters chose Democrat Amy Archer to fill the treasurer's seat. Archer has been working in the township's business office since October 2003 as an office assistant and as assistant to deputy treasurer Maureen Johnson. Archer was hired by former treasurer Glick.
She topped township resident Shaune Timm, who is the daughter of former township supervisor Fred Leet and former township clerk, Linda Leet, who resigned that seat during the midst of the recall effort.
This morning, Archer said Johnson will remain the township's deputy treasurer, "without a doubt. She's got 12 years experience and her loyalty and experience can't be replaced."
Archer said she hopes the very fractured Howard Township community can come together, but she isn't sure the recall group is willing to allow that to happen.
Sutherland, who manages Sutherland Farms in Niles, did not immediately return a telephone message left for him this morning.
Archer, who was born and raised in Niles, is married to Tim Archer. The couple has four children.