A Quick Tour Of Mullett Township

Mullett Township News & Views-Promoting Open Government in Mullett Township

There is also the Mullett Township Party Line or you make drink the Kool-Aid from the Topinabee Development Association "Artesian" Well

Mullett Township is a general law township in Cheboygan County, Michigan. The population was 1312 in the 2010 US census. The township and Mullett Lake are named for John Mullett, who with William Burt, surveyed much of the area between 1840 and 1843.

The commercial center of the Township is the quiet unincorporated Village of Topinabee located on the west shore of Mullett Lake on M27 highway. The village is a trailhead for the DNR Trail with off-street parking and restrooms.

The village has a Post Office, Convenience Store with gas pumps, Public Library with 24 hour outdoor WiFi, an artisan-owned woodwork shop, a breakfast cafe and a bar and grille. Township owned buildings include the Library, Township Hall and Fire Hall, and an unused former school building on Lea St.

Recreation needs are served with a beachfront park and covered picnic area, free public boat launch at the north end of the village, a small public access to Mullett Lake across from the Nokia Cafe and tennis court, ball-field, and playground equipment at a public park located up the hill on Lea St.

The east side of Mullett Township is largely rural, with no commercial development. Township services include a Fire Hall and volunteer East Mullett Lake Fire Department.


Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Mullett Township Match For 2011 Grant Applications Now Totals $323,000

 Cheboygan Tribune
Letter to Editor-10/11/2011

Fall is here and that means it is open hunting season for Grants in Mullett Township. 

At a last minute “Special Board Meeting” on September 28th, the Mullett Board, as directed by the Topinabee Development Association (TDA) approved this year’s DNR Trust Fund Grant application of $410,000 for a beach front park, apparently ignoring the scoring criteria used by the DNR. A project cost exceeding $50 per capita is defined as a significant deficiency and this application is more than $300 per Mullett Township resident.  A 30% match, $123,000, would come from local taxpayer’s pockets. Increasing the total project at the last moment from $370,000 to $410,000 also topped a $400,000 threshold; costing additional points that should have been earned with a 30% match.


On October 4th, the annual TDA sponsored Federal USDOT Tiger III Grant application for the M27 “Topinabee Green Corridor” was approved by a unanimous vote of the Board without any conceptual plan, design, engineering or a cost estimate completed and with no public vetting. It was approved with the stipulation to “not exceed” $1,000,000, with a local taxpayer contribution of $200,000. The Board also gave tacit approval to the TDA to come back, if necessary, at another “Special Meeting” to increase the Grant amount by another couple hundred thousand dollars. Last year it was $2.8 million with a $100,000 match. Now, the project, of unknown design, has shrunk by 65% and the Mullett Township taxpayer’s commitment has doubled to $200,000. Will the TDA be back for more?

Joe Mullett is not lobbying for these pie-in-the-sky Grants. People with little or no connection to Topinabee can sign on-line petitions supporting the “Topinabee Green Corridor”, but they aren’t at the Mullett Township Board meetings or paying the costs of these Grant applications because they don’t live here.