Dawn Klida to Replace District Judge Craig Alston, New Commissioner Sought
Governor Granholm Makes Appointment Today of Prominent Local Lawyer
January 7, 2010
By: Dave Rogers
Dawn A. Klida, Bay County commissioner for Monitor and part of Bangor Township, has been named district judge to replace retiring Craig Alston.
Dawn Klida has heart: and now she is a judge with heart.
Dawn A. Klida, Bay County commissioner for Monitor and part of Bangor Township, has been named district judge to replace retiring Craig Alston.
Gov. Jennifer Granholm announced the appointment today, effective Feb. 8. The term runs until 2011 and Ms. Klida has stated her intention to run for election to the position at that time.
Ms. Klida is a highly regarded attorney in practice with Lambert, Leser, Isackson, Cook and Guinata, P.C., and is a member of the Michigan Bar Association Representative Assembly.
The former Dawn McEvoy, she is the widow of Len Klida, Bangor Township fire chief, who died of a sudden heart attack in 2003 even as he was raising funds to equip all Bangor Township schools with Automated External Defibrilators (AEDs).
She formed the Len F. Klida Jr. Foundation that has since raised more than $63,000 for the purchase of AEDs, a project that has equipped every school in the Bangor and Essexville-Hampton school districts with AEDS.
As a result of her efforts in this project, she was named on the list of 2009 Red Cross heroes by the local chapter of the American Red Cross.
She is vice-chair and former chair of the Bangor Township School Board, is on the board of directors of the Mid-Michigan Dispute Resolution Center and is treasurer of the Bay County Bar Association.
Ms. Klida was graduated from All Saints High School and attended Delta College and Saginaw Valley State University. She earned her law degree from Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Lansing and has been licensed to practice law since 1994.
She has three daughters and is a member of St. Boniface Church, and its administration and finance committees. She is also a member of the John Glenn High School Booster Club.
County officials said they would be seeking nominations to replace Ms. Klida, who resigned today from the county board of commissioners. The board, controlled by eight Democrats of the nine commissioners, has 30 days to make the appointment.
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