Tuscarora DDA Ignores Prime Directive-Engages Stupid

The Tuscarora Township DDA is proving that stupidity is an infinite resource. The law empowering DDAs states in part that a DDA corrects and prevents deterioration in business districts; encourages historic preservation; and promotes the economic growth of the district. DDAs capture and spend tax dollars that would otherwise go to schools, libraries, and county services. Unlike the Cheboygan DDA, the Tuscarora DDA encompasses a large area; both sides of old M-27 from one end of the township to the other and east on M-68 to the industrial park.  

Tuscarora’s Safe Routes to School, the asphalt sidewalk that parallels Straits Hwy from the schools to Indian River’s downtown is this DDA’s crowning achievement. I agree it is more practical than a pedestrian bridge with elevators although it also has a bridge. Best to ignore the dangerous cross-walk and pedestrian island sandwiched into a small area that has more than six commercial entrances with center turn lanes including Burt Lake State Park. This DDA project took more years than I can remember, 8 or 9, and cost $964,455.00.  No, that decimal is in the right place. A million dollars give or take is still a million dollars spent. Grants or captured taxes, the dollars all came from us. To put that amount in perspective, the repaving of more than two miles of S Straits highway last fall, pavement, shoulders, and some new guardrail cost $592,000.00 and took only a few months. 

Are the well meaning citizens who volunteer in these appointed DDA positions responsible? Or is it Tuscarora Supervisor Ridley; the steady presence and only elected official on the DDA Board who under DDA law is the CEO? Shouldn’t Supervisor Ridley be providing guidance to these lay-people who volunteer their time? Before the million dollar sidewalk was done, Supervisor Ridley and the DDA turned their attention to the Indian River “Streetscape” and another DDA idea; back-in-angle parking.

The whole issue of back-in-angle parking on S Straits Highway in Indian River can be summed up with one single word: stupid. Back in parking has been used successfully for years where there is a proven need to add parking spaces in a limited area.  The best use has been side streets where there is little through traffic, often with dedicated bike lanes, and vehicles typically parked all day or overnight.

It is a worst practice example where the majority of traffic is through traffic and there is a steady turn-over of parking spaces. The back-in parking in front of the Chamber office and new trailhead parking lot resulted in a loss of more than a dozen parking spaces. It also left that block with narrower travel lanes, inadequate ADA access, and a cross-walk that will eliminate more parking spaces in front of the Dairy Mart.  RV’s or vehicles pulling trailers can park somewhere else, maybe the next town down the road. As you read this, the Tuscarora DDA is fast-tracking an application to MDOT hoping to secure a TAP Grant to build out the length of Indian River’s main street with at least three more back-in parking pods. Supervisor Ridley has also apparently been shopping privately for more USDA loans/grants from that Federal body that is now the patron saint of lost municipal causes. 

Last year, as the Indian River Trailhead project was wrapping up with the pavilion and smaller off-street parking lot, the DDA thought it would be a great idea to spend about $90,000 out of your pocket so everyone could see how great back-in angle parking really is and showcase it with the newly completed Trail Head. That rush-rush decision instead became an ongoing embarrassment that delivered numerous faults including a northbound travel lane squeezed to less than 10 feet. Further work on the rest of the Streetscape plan now requires CCRC Board approval again as they are the “owners” of the road and must endorse the final design seeking a MDOT TAP Grant. 

At the February 18, 2016 CCRC Board Meeting, during public comment, I personally asked the CCRC Board not to fall into the trap again of partially funding more design work. As I sat down Tuscarora Supervisor/DDA CEO Mike Ridley, a scheduled speaker at the CCRC meeting stood and started his pitch. He implored the CCRC to donate half the proposed design cost of $141,950; another no bid contract employing the same engineering firm that created the existing mess.  The balance of the project, still in the design stage, currently has an estimated cost as high as $980,000. That does not include the $141,950 design costs. All of these projections may go over budget with Supervisor Ridley’s stated mantra: “plan for the worse and hope for the best”.

We certainly got the worst from the first round of DDA spending. After years of dithering and doing nothing, the Tuscarora DDA now may be getting politically pressured to hurry up and get this Streetscape project off the paper. Did I say off paper? A request to CCRC Manager Brent Shank for the plans, as designed or as built, for the one small section already done was answered promptly and frankly: “Attached is a copy of the plan that was included with the permit application. We have not received a copy of an ‘as built’ plan.  The centerline was moved to be 11 feet from the where the concrete curb meets the asphalt.” 

Although a TAP Grant application without any CCRC endorsement has been submitted to MDOT, there still have not been public hearings by the DDA or any effort to gain uncensored and unbiased input from business owners and those who frequent those businesses. As I wrote in the last installment, the Cheboygan County Road Commission Board is now our last line of defense against additional impractical designs. James Johnson, David Brown, Robert Chadwick, Clarence O’Connor, and Kenneth Paquet all serve as elected officials. The CCRC Board listened to Supervisor Ridley’s new plea for a 50% donation for another round of designing that will cost as much as $141,950. The CCRC Board took the position they’ll not be fooled again and declined the request. The CCRC Board then passed a motion to schedule a Public Hearing at 6:30PM on June 2, 2016 in to allow people to offer comments on the use of and need for back-in angle parking in Indian River. These five people know they answer to the people who elected them. We should all thank them for that. The final outcome may be determined by how many of us come out on June 2, 2016 to voice an opinion.