Tuscarora Township DDA-Dumb, Dumber, and .....

I have questioned some failures of our local governments and their boards, committees, and appointees here in Cheboygan that are part of our local culture. Culture is a confusing word and a New Yorker op-ed piece a few years ago delved into Merriam-Webster’s 2014 Word of the Year “Culture”. As with many words, culture, cult, and cultivated all have their roots, appropriately, in Latin. Raymond Williams was quoted, “Each time we use the word “culture,” we incline toward one or another of its aspects: toward the “culture” that’s imbibed through osmosis or the “culture” that’s learned at museums, toward the “culture” that makes you a better a person or the “culture” that just inducts you into a group.”

What is the culture that causes a group of individuals to exercise the same behavior repeatedly?  Is it behavior absorbed by osmosis, learned, or a part of induction into the group? I ask this rhetorical question of the Tuscarora Downtown Development Authority. This DDA Board, with members chosen by Tuscarora Supervisor Mike Ridley, consists of eight appointees and himself.

If Mike Ridley, the ball player, were choosing a basketball team, some like-minded 6’5” players might serve him well.  Supervisor Mike Ridley should theoretically recommend as DDA appointees a diverse group of individuals representing differing viewpoints and opinions. Instead, the majority of his appointed DDA members mirror the mindset of their master. That is the worst-case definition of political appointees. Mindless zombies that march relentlessly forward while making faces and snarling at members of the public brave or foolish enough to attend a DDA meeting. Most of us would be less critical if that mindless march moved Indian River closer to a measureable goal. Can a group that after several years of discussion failed to find and set a decorative “rock” to display a DNR plaque be able to prioritize the spending of hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars?

 At a Special Meeting on May 29, 2014 with the “official” minutes only identifying a “quorum stands for DDA”, an apparent joint session of like-minded people, the DDA and the Marina Park Committee worked in cooperation to build the infamous back-in parking at the same time the Trailhead parking lot was completed. With nine-member board, a quorum would require at least five attendees. The DDA Board members identified as attendees by name, Cindy Poquette, Dan Nivelt, and Diana Mallory were part of the alleged “quorum” that approved spending $87,750 without the accountability of a roll call vote. Ignoring common knowledge that money spent cannot be used as a match prior a grant application approval; these three identified people foolishly wasted your tax dollars. We still drive by that failure every day.

TDA's Dumb, Dumber, and ... Failed Back-In Parking

On August 21, this past Monday, I asked the current DDA Chair Dawn Bodnar who had actually attended the May 29^th Special Meeting and voted “all in favor” to spend $87,750. Ms Bodnar and Diana Mallory made faces and Ms Bodnar said, “this is public comment; we do not answer questions”.  

Did the present DDA Board learn from that $87,750 mistake? Would the DDA throw out years of Streetscape design work with tens of thousands of dollars spent and start over from scratch? Supervisor Mike Ridley made his decision and the DDA Board followed. The DDA drafted an RFP, a request for bids that asked for “preliminary plans and drawings that will serve as a RFP for complete engineering and design plans”. “Price should include any revisions the DDA deems necessary in order to meet their approval”. 

This vague, open-ended request “any revisions the DDA deems necessary” wording resulted in inquiries from interested firms seeking clarification or declining to bid. Only one firm that employs Mike Ridley’s son responded with a very limited proposal; a conceptual design, public meeting, and schematic drawings at cost of $37,000 to $41,000. It was not what the RFP sought. With Mike Ridley offering only the one bid, he then recused himself and his DDA zombies attempted to approve that single bid on July 24^th without even reading the proposal.

Mike Ridley had kept some of the DDA members ignorant for more than a year of an offer addressed personally to him in June 2016 by the original design firm to revise the engineering plans already completed, eliminate the back-in parking, and meet the standards the Road Commission needs. That proposal to correct the completed design was only $11,650. The Road Commission Board publicly concurred it would be much smarter to tweak the existing design rather than to throw it all out.  

With this information now public, there is the appearance of deliberate acts by Mike Ridley to ignore his fiduciary responsibility and narrow the bidders to one firm that coincidentally employs his son.

S Straits After 18 Years of DDA Improvements

The DDA board, short a few heads, just approved that sole bid by a 4 to 1 vote. Can we allow Mr Ridley to start a complete re-do of the DDA Streetscape design process to employ a firm that he has already declared as a personal conflict of interest? 

S Straits After 18 Years of DDA Improvements

\

Cheboygan County-A Culture of Government Failures

More than 30 years ago, President Reagan said he felt the nine most terrifying words in the English language were, “I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help”. Our Inverness Township/City of Cheboygan/Meijer water line issue has become a story worthy of Greek mythology.  The residents of Cheboygan County are now aware that our cults and rituals; multi-generational township boards, nepotism, cronyism, and inaction rooted in apathy; cannot serve the best interest of all.

None of us sitting on the public side of the Inverness Board table really knows the reason why that Board, and their legal counsel who seems to rule the roost, said no to every option on the table or demanded more money for doing nothing.

Many seem oblivious to the fact that special interest groups have created delays. Two is company, but three is a crowd. The Inverness DDA, a third party comprised of Inverness Board appointed volunteers, attempted to redraft agreements and influence negotiations. Many existing Inverness business owners spent thousands of dollars running ads trying to steer the rudderless Inverness Township Board to choose a 425 Agreement over a Utility Service Agreement. I understand their position and none of us want to see existing businesses, all enjoying the lower than City of Cheboygan township tax millages, impacted by the possibility of their taxes increased to subsidize utility services for Meijer. One of those lobbying businesses has enjoyed a 5-year property tax abatement, lowered property taxes agreed to by Inverness Township, when they rebuilt and enlarged their auto sales and service facility.

I am not aware that Meijer has sought any tax breaks. Inverness did not openly embrace, accommodate, or offer any tax breaks to a new Meijer store with a far larger investment and 250 jobs. Meijer were in fact more than willing to be a part of a 425 Agreement, paying taxes at the much higher city millage rate, while giving Inverness a share of property taxes for providing absolutely no services. The big box stores, Walmart in an existing 425 Agreement paying city tax rates, and Meijers willingness to do the same shows the sites were chosen for exposure, not merely for some lower property tax advantage.

Special interest groups, not the people and not the majority, rule government at all levels. If you organize your neighbors as an “association”, you have just leveraged your influence with local lawmakers. Special interest groups’ needs always run contrary to the best interest of the majority of the people.  If the majority shared their interests, there would be no need for a special interest group to exist. Special interest lobbying efforts often succeed because they convince the lawmakers they have more knowledge or represent the best position on a particular issue. Environmental groups, Chambers of Commerce, Lakeshore Owners Associations and other smaller groups of organized individuals disproportionately influence county, city, and township elected officials and policies because their adversaries; we, the majority; and the very officials they lobby are ignorant or uneducated on the facts, apathetic, stupid, or all of the above. Those special interest groups serve their own best interest because they work harder or are smarter than our local lawmakers are.

Another Reagan quote, “When you can't make them see the light, make them feel the heat” is an effective tool. The appointed volunteers of the Tuscarora DDA spent $90,000 to install the back-in parking pod in Indian River to show us how smart they were. The people protested the unsafe design. We gathered petitions, wrote letters, and the elected board members of the Cheboygan County Road Commission felt the heat. The CCRC with jurisdiction over the road scheduled a well-attended Public Hearing. 

The majority spoke; more than a hundred opposed to the back-in parking versus a handful of smart DDA supporters. That resulted in the Tuscarora DDA finally paying for an independent safety study. The study, costing only $4,900 dollars, identified multiple safety issues in the flawed design. The DDA had refused to do a safety study in the design stage. 

That foolish behavior seems to be a product of the culture, or should I say cult, that exists here in Cheboygan County. Local governments and their politically appointed DDA’s, boards, committees, and commissions often exist to serve a sometimes secretive, sometimes apparent, cult of cronyism, anti-growth, no-outsiders agenda, or the belief they are smarter than the outside world. The status quo often serves their masters well.   

Fireworks Container Sign is OK and Meijer Sign is Illegal

In March 2017, Cheboygan County’s Community Development Department Director Steve Schnell issued a press release. No, he was not working toward the creation of new businesses, homes, jobs, or any type of economic growth. He was attempting to limit your rights to free speech on your own property. 

This Sign is OK in Indian River
One Part-Time Out of Town Employee

This Sign is Illegal in Cheboygan
250 Full and Part-Time Local Employees

He stated ”The recent Supreme Court case of Reed v Town of Gilbert clarified the extent to which signs must be content neutral. A content neutral sign regulation is one that does not regulate the content of a sign to determine compliance with the ordinance. In other words, a sign can say basically (sic) anything that the owner would like to express on that sign without any local laws regulating whether it is or is not legal. A regulation can only determine where that sign can be placed, how big the sign is, how many signs can be on each property, and similar non-content regulations.”

Mr Schnell’s treatise seemed ignorant of the fact the 2015 Supreme Court case Reed v Town of Gilbert was a court decision based on the content, or message conveyed, on signs placed on public property. Clyde Reed was the pastor of Good News Community Church; described as a small, cash-strapped entity that held services in elementary schools and other buildings in Gilbert, Arizona. Pastor Clyde’s church would place 15 to 20 temporary signs on street corners on a Saturday advertising the location of the Sunday worship services and remove them on Sunday. The Town of Gilbert, an Arizona boomtown that grew by more than 200,000 people from 1980 to 2010, was legitimately attempting to limit the clutter created by hundreds of temporary signs placed on the streets. The Town of Gilbert discriminated against the Good News Community Church by regulating event-based signs differently than commercial businesses.

Unlike Cheboygan County’s Community Development Department, Gilbert had zoning jurisdiction over their public streets and roads. MDOT and the Cheboygan County Road Commission control our public road right of ways outside of incorporated Villages and the City of Cheboygan. The Supreme Court decision clarified Cheboygan County could not discriminate against signs based on the content or the message printed on the sign.

A prior Supreme Court sign decision, City of Ladue et al v Gilleo, back in 1994 when Mr Schnell was studying for his 2-year Masters degree in community planning, had defended the free speech rights of Margaret Gilleo.  Ms Gilleo had placed on her front lawn a 24- by 36 inch sign printed with the words, "Say No to War in the Persian Gulf, Call Congress Now." This case defended the right to express free speech with a written message on your own property. The City of Ladue, Missouri, like Mr Schnell, wanted to regulate the “clutter” of temporary signs on private property.

Mr Schnell like some HOA zealot wants to regulate your protected free speech on private property. In 2016, he spent your tax dollars to randomly survey properties for the number and size of campaign signs along M-33, M-27, M-68, and Riggsville Rd. He claims the zoning enforcement officer took no note if you were a Trump or Hillary supporter. Over 90% of parcels with political signs had up to five signs. From this unscientific survey, his department proposed allowing up to 32 sq/ft of signage per parcel. One hundred twenty feet or 200 acres, he would allow you 32 sq/ft of free speech. His first proposal allowed you to post a “Vote for Bob” sign for 30 days and he eventually acquiesced to allow a General Election cycle of 60 days if you remove the offensive sign from your front lawn 2 days after the polls close. His proposed “content neutral” sign ordinance ignored the 1984 Attorney General’s Opinion #6258 that stated “Political campaign signs are a form of speech protected by US Const, Am I and Const 1963, Article 1, Sec. 5. The posting of political campaign signs on private property may not be limited by a municipality to a specified number of days preceding an election.”

Mr Schnell had promised, “The County Planning Commission is reviewing the sign regulations and removing content-based regulations to provide signage that promotes everyone’s freedom of speech.” After more than a year of work, the County Planning Commission had a public tasting and found this an unpalatable sign ordinance amendment. Our thanks to them; they have temporarily halted Mr Schnell’s attempt to limit your First Amendment right to free speech. 

County Taxpayers Fund Tear Down of City of Cheboygan

It seems a person only needs to say the word “government” nowadays to incite outrage among many. I wonder why. With the ongoing fight between Inverness Township and the City of Cheboygan thwarting a needed water service to the proposed Meijer site, we should all have proof that our local townships, 19 in number with 95 elected officials, serve their own interests. Do not interpret that as serving their township ratepayers. Interpret it as what it is. Ninety-five elected officials preserving part-time jobs that often pay as much as average full-time Cheboygan jobs. There is often little or no measurable benefit to anyone beyond his or her own board table. As Inverness Supervisor Mike Neuman publicly stated to frustrated residents waiting for Meijer, “we are just part-time elected officials”. Our 19 townships are stuck back in an 1846 Twilight Zone of horse and buggies. Will the State of Michigan eventually grow a pair and stand up to the powerful lobbying group, the Michigan Townships Association, and say we do not need hundreds of these small ineffective government units wasting Michigan tax dollars while providing little or no services.  

County government, just as old, has undergone some change from those earlier days. Cheboygan has at least reduced the number on the board from nineteen supervisors to seven district Commissioners. Cheboygan County has a well-documented failed Development Department and anti-growth Planning Ordinance, but still exists in most part to extend the outreach of state government and serve state interests. Counties are partners with the state in public health, mental health, courts, vital records, land and property records, disaster preparedness, solid waste management, highway and road administration and maintenance (the Road Commission in Cheboygan), property tax administration, law enforcement, elections administration, and incarceration of convicts.

If Inverness Township is a worst-case example of a township unable or unwilling to facilitate or accommodate business growth, Cheboygan County and its administrative staff is working hard to chase new enterprises down the road. The subsidized Cheboygan County Marina competes with private enterprise. That Marina, our only county owned recreational parkland, serves a handful of county residents who own a yacht. It has operated for years on a break-even basis by repeatedly ignoring capital infusion needed for maintenance and repair. 

The County Commissioners, and they admit the yacht harbor business in the Straits area is already over served, now choose to throw more money into this watery grave. They are fast approaching the point of no return by committing to spend over $800,000 in tax dollars on replacing fuel tanks and a new fuel dock. Did they say replace? The proposed replacement fuel tanks are more than 60% larger than the existing tanks. Government never thinks smaller when our tax dollars are a never-ending source of easy money.

With several more longtime City of Cheboygan main street businesses closing, a committed group of “Bring It Cheboygan” volunteers is employing desperate measures including decorating more than 20 empty storefronts attempting to slow the slide. In this do or die scenario, the County plans to spend more tax dollars tearing down the historic Gold Front building.  

The Gold Front Ballroom has a storied past. It was not hard to find a picture of the celebration at the Gold Front in 1944 when the US Coast Guard first stationed the USS Mackinaw at Cheboygan.  The building fell on hard times and went to a County tax sale. Cheboygan County sold it years ago in an ill-conceived land-contract sale. That sale failed this year and with more years of neglect, the County is hurriedly seeking the easy way out. They are seeking a $200,000 grant with a $42,000 match of local tax-dollars to demolish the Gold Front. 

There was apparently no investigation of possible grants to preserve this historical building. Bring It Cheboygan and those involved volunteers are trying to slow the downhill slide of Main Street while Cheboygan County is using our taxes to push the sled down the hill faster. 

Tom O'Hare Wants Us All To Collaborate and Get Along

Many have expressed frustrations with the inability of our local governments to identify, prioritize, and implement the real infrastructure needed to accommodate a Meijer store. The needed infrastructure is municipal water and sewer that larger developments demand. Infrastructure is not streetscapes and definitely not pedestrian bridges. More than twenty years after Walmart and the leaders of Inverness Township still do not understand the needs of big box stores; acres of cheap land in the right location with public utilities.

This frustration has brought well-intentioned people to the op-ed page voicing opinions for or against Inverness, the City, 425 agreements, and Utility Service Agreements. Special interest groups have spent thousands on full-page ads pushing one option over another. One of the most confused op-ed pieces written by Tom O'Hare and published in the June 23, 2017 Cheboygan Tribune was the same tired rhetoric that has created the Cheboygan we have today. This pundit stated collaboration of government and quasi-government entities, mixed in with a Port of Cheboygan will drive economic development. He seems ignorant of the style of collaboration practiced by Inverness and the City of Cheboygan. The Urban Dictionary best defines it as, “An unnatural act practiced by non-consenting adults”. A 20-year 425 Agreement between the City and Inverness Township serving Walmart and the Huron Estates mobile home park expired in 2012.  Twenty years looking at an approaching 425 expiration date and the two parties required another almost ‘yearlong extension to reach a compromised agreement.

I do not recall Tom O'Hare ever attending a Cheboygan County meeting. He referred to our Board of Commissioners as a County Commission and the Cheboygan County Economic Development Corporation (EDC), a twice-failed body of appointees, as another “Commission”.  This expert encourages the County’s EDC to engage the Northern Lakes Economic Alliance (NLEA) to assess what has occurred in this County the past several decades, in contrast to other counties throughout Northern Michigan. He says, “recent developments with the Port Project provide a great opportunity for this County. The EDC should engage the Brownfield Authority of the County, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation and the Northeast Michigan Council of Governments to implement an aggressive outreach program to get companies to establish businesses in the County, knowing they can ship their product from the County’s new Port almost anywhere in the world.” Where was this pundit back in 2007?

From the Cheboygan City Review, Fall of 2007, here is the plan....”The issue of marketing and economic development has been addressed by activities of the City Manager and the Mayor participating on the Board of Directors of the Economic Development Corporation of the County of Cheboygan. “The EDC reviewed methods of economic development and ultimately recommended that Cheboygan County join the Northern Lakes Economic Alliance (NLEA) which formerly was a professional economic development group that acted on behalf of Emmet, Charlevoix and Antrim Counties. As stated, the Cheboygan County Board of Commissioners has approved membership in the NLEA by an annual appropriation and the City and the County will be the beneficiary of this professional economic development organization. The City of Cheboygan also provides funding toward the NLEA.” 

Almost 10 years ago, the City’s Strategic Plan was amended and goals were prioritized as follows: 1- the Redevelopment of Downtown Cheboygan (Redevelopment of Former F.W. Woolworth Building & Site); 2-Continue and Refine the Capital Improvement Planning Process and the Implementation of a Walkable Community and Sidewalk Repair/Replacement Plan; 3- Establish a Centralized Cultural Arts and Education Center; 4-Improve the Quality of Water Delivered to City Water Customers; 5-Create a City Park & Recreation System that Meets the Needs of the Community; 6-Remove Conditions of Junk and Blight from the City; 7-Develop Effective Marketing Plan to Promote the City of Cheboygan as Place to visit, as a Place to Raise a Family and as a Place to do Business; 8-Continue and Enhance Intergovernmental Communication; and 9-Refine Land Use Plan; and 10–Develop & Implement a Staffing Plan, which will Effectively Accomplish the Mission of the City of Cheboygan.

The 10 listed priorities in that decade old Strategic Plan consisted of feel good buzzwords. Tom O'Hare with a resume of 28 years in the corporate business arena advocates doing it all over again, collaboration with all these same entities. He wants to do the same thing done 10 years ago and expects a different result. That is Einstein’s theory of insanity.  

Steve Schnell-A Community Development Oxymoron

We all click through an endless stream of “end user agreements” or licensing agreements to download or use a favorite app or access some needed software or website. Some we must agree to whether we agree fully or not. An unstated and randomly enforced one victimizes us in Cheboygan County.

You agree that by residing in, building, or owning property in Cheboygan County you are agreeing to a legally binding contract with the Cheboygan County Community Development Department that we may amend by changing Ordinance #200 as often as several times a month.  If you do not agree to this “User Agreement”, do not move to, invest in Cheboygan County, or otherwise use any of our services. By residing in, building, or owning property in Cheboygan County you, identified as the end user or a taxpaying idiot, may be subject to faulty or incorrect interpretations by staff of a poorly written Planning and Zoning Ordinance amended 139 times to date. You also agree that your property may be rezoned, redefined, restricted, devalued, made obsolete, or otherwise changed regardless of the promised protections or uses allowed at the time of purchase or construction.  

The full Board of Cheboygan County Commissioners passed Amendments #138 and #139 this week. Amendment #138 redefined “dwelling” and “family”.  Dwelling moved farther from a literal definition and family became “A group of individuals, whether related or unrelated, who are occupying a dwelling.” It would seem that might also define a squatters’ house, a drug house or a whorehouse. We may have some new uses for dwellings now allowed by law in Cheboygan County. Cheboygan County has more than 25% of dwellings occupied by singles, often seniors.  The new definition of dwelling ignores that fact saying “a group of individuals, related or not”, to make it a home.

All of this nonsense further muddles the failed planning Ordinance #200 with ambiguities and contradictions drafted by our non-resident Community Development Director Steve Schnell. Mr Schnell has spent more than half his career in community planning, more than 10 years, commuting from Charlevoix County where there is no Community Development Department. That is ten years constantly changing the playing field here in Cheboygan while he refers investors and business entrepreneurs to seek information from the Northern Lakes Economic Alliance in Boyne City.

Mr Schnell failed in his attempt to outlaw short-term or vacation rentals. He ignored the needs of Cheboygan County. Some might see it as a practice that allows some to pay their taxes on lakeshore properties. Mr Schnell saw it as opportunists making “large sums” of money. His first clandestine attempts to stop the practice used a variety of differently worded enforcement letters sent to owners identified from websites like VRBO.com.

On October 5, 2016, Mr Schnell emailed Cheboygan County Legal Counsel. “Peter, We have recently begun to receive more and more complaints about neighbors renting their homes thru vrbo.com on a very transient basis. This is going to be a big effort to do enforcement on this. After reviewing the vrbo site it appears that we could have many (50+) properties which are not in compliance with the zoning ordinance due to their renting of their homes on a transient basis. The challenge I see for us is that we don’t define transient. ….Currently, when I get a complaint, I’m reviewing the property for any previous permission to rent on a transient basis and to see if they are renting by the night or by the week. Anything less than renting by the month I’m enforcing as a violation of the ordinance.. ( Insert previous Dwelling-Family definition)….. I’d like your opinion on how solid this is legally if challenged. So far I’ve enforced this on 3 parcels and 2 of them went smoothly and the third was very polite but surprised and not happy about it. I can see more resistance so I’d like to be sure of where we stand….”. The legal counsel reply was verbal and off record.

Mr Schnell stirred up a hornet’s nest and got a boardroom full of protestors who had offered vacations rentals, some for decades, with few or no problems. The problem was Mr Schnell.  

He told legal counsel in writing: “Peter, We have recently begun to receive more and more complaints…” 

Steve Schnell-Community Development Director Oxymoron 

A FOIA to Mr Schnell sought those “more and more” complaints. Within the “enforcement” records provided by Mr Schnell, there was no record of any complainant’s name or any formal documented written complaint. Can Cheboygan County afford this form of Community Development? 

Cheboygan County Clever-How's That Working For You?

I remember a conversation from the movie Fight Club when Brad Pitt says to Edward Norton, “Oh, I get it. It’s very clever” Norton’s character replies “Thank you”. Pitt then asks, “How’s that working out for you? Norton asks “What?” Pitt replies, “Being clever.” Norton says, “Great “and Pitt shrugs, “Keep it up then.”

If you are clever, and it is working for you, keep it up. The failure comes when any of us individually, as a group, community, or as a society think we are clever and we are not. A few weeks ago, everyone who reads Speaking Freely got advance notice that our Board of County Commissioners planned to spend at least $400,000 of our tax dollars to match a $400,000 DNR Waterways Grant to replace aged fuel tanks at the Cheboygan County Marina. That expenditure will be the first of $3.5 million dollars of neglected maintenance indentified over 8 years ago. The marina cannot support itself without using your tax dollars and the $3.5 million of neglect has assuredly grown larger.

Did you not know you are partial owner of a marina? It is your only county owned and developed recreational area. It is your Cheboygan County Park. It is open for all of to use and can accommodate your 50-foot yacht.  You say you do not have a yacht. Nah.., I can’t believe that. You and every other Cheboygan County taxpayer must have a nice boat because the Commissioners voted unanimously to start down the road spending millions of dollars more on the marina. Commissioners Brown and Sangster said they had heard many comments supporting the taxpayer-funded marina despite only seven county residents using it seasonally last year. There was only one protester as these clever County Commissioners started a new round of Waterways Grants that will saddle your children, and grandchildren, with another 20-year commitment for a park they will never use unless they inherit your yacht. The few raves for the marina found on-line described the cheapest marine fuel on the Straits. One Captain said the savings on just the fuel compared to Mackinaw paid for the entire stay.

Commissioner Brown commented that the Cheboygan County Marina is an essential part of the local transportation infrastructure, the same as roads or the airport. Sorry Mr Brown, a yacht harbor is a recreational facility that serves a very small demographic. The need for a safe harbor refuge on the Straits with more than a half-dozen similar sheltered dockages for recreational boaters is a foolish argument. When several tugs sought safe refuge and sank more than six years ago, Duncan Bay was the harbor of choice. The 270 residents of Beaugrand Township and their inability to fund needed road repairs is a real infrastructure problem. Chris Brown often laments about that real need but spends money on the marina. 

   

Commissioner Sangster gave the tired argument that people, please do not ask how many, just people, had first docked at the marina and subsequently settled here buying houses or second homes. He even offered an anecdotal story, admittedly unsubstantiated, that someone might have invested up $10 million dollars in the area after docking at the Cheboygan County Marina. What a magical place. Rich Sangster is dipping from the same well drawn dry by visionaries like Tom O’Hare and other current and former Cheboygan Economic Development Group (CEDG) members. Those clever people have espoused for years that tourism and ideally, taxpayer subsidized tourism advertising, encourages and entices people to settle here, start new businesses, and create jobs. That sounds clever. How is it working for us? Should the millions of tourists who visit Mackinaw City each year create a handful of visitors smitten with the Straits to take root and add to those 800 permanent Mackinaw residents?  

Most people never pay attention to their local government until it directly impacts them. The hurt might be a vehicle destroying pothole or a tax bill that slams their pocketbook. If they receive any redress for their grievance, like an Ostrich they then stick their head back in the sand. All too often, if their grievance is unresolved, they go back home and still stick their head in the sand. How’s that working for you Cheboygan County?