Did you miss the rare opportunity to see the revised Topinabee Park Plan plans and the discussion during the Tuesday April 3, 2012 Mullett Township Board Meeting?
Was it because Mullet Township Clerk Rachel Osborn only placed a public notice of the discussion in the same day’s Cheboygan Tribune?
Was it because Mullet Township Clerk Rachel Osborn never placed a notice at the Mullett Township Hall?
Maybe it was because Mullet Township Clerk Rachel Osborn never placed a notice on the “official” Mullett Township Website?
Those are just poor excuses. It was a Regular Meeting and by law, the Board may and did use the meeting to work on the TDA sponsored, taxpayer funded Park. It further serves the Board’s apparent desire to operate out of public view and without oversight. If you don’t attend every Regular Meeting and especially every Special Meeting, you are just not part of the process. That’s the word from Mr Tom O’Hare. It is equally important to attend the annual TDA meetings where nearly 100 people provide their input.
Former CEO Mr Tom O’Hare, a founding member of the TDA and ½ of the public representation on the Mullett Township Park Committee reiterated his position in the Park planning process. If you are not part of the TDA, an association, a user group, a board or party that was polled by him or the other public ½ of the Park Committee, Mr David Ogg, a fellow TDA member, your input was probably not heard and doesn’t count. He named numerous entities, the majority of which do not use the Park, or even reside in Mullett Township, stating this was the “community” support the park design has received. An informal, unadvertised, written survey that 47 people responded to answering what features they used in the present park and looked for in a new park was referred to as 47 surveys supporting the park. During a ten minute speech to the Board, Fleis and Vandenbrink staff, and less than 10 members of the public, he spun and spewed rhetoric worthy of a corporate shareholder’s meeting.
He conveniently ignores the fact the Park design has lost the focal point that “sold” it to the MNRTF Grant review Board and is no longer the design shown to all his approving poll participants.
I’ll not denigrate the useful work done by Mr Ogg and Mr O’Hare. I simply feel and many others agree, the process used was outside the normal process used for taxpayer funded community projects of this scope. They polled like minded individuals and groups, including the TDA and even their own private Lake Shore property owners associations and then state proudly everyone we talked to loves our design. They might as well look in the mirror and ask, “Am I pretty?”If everyone agrees with you, you are staying in your comfort zone by asking too many family members and friends.
This too closed process, demonstrated again by this planning discussion held with virtually no public notice, excludes users of the Park and also ignores historic use of the Park. Earlier questions from this writer asked if during earlier closed doors planning sessions, alternative designs had been vetted to more fully integrate an ADA compliant ramp. Mr O’Hare answered a “switchback” design had been eliminated early in the process. The engineers again on April 3rd showed a ridiculous ADA ramp in response to an area that does not meet ADA specs. It went north, and then turned 180 degrees south, appearing to be a proboscis of some sort or an ugly growth that a doctor should remove.
A simpler plan was presented to the Board, using a fully integrated ADA access that makes use of wasted space in the present TDA design, descending between the terraced levels west of the Beach area, encircling a larger and more useful commons area and then continuing a 1 in 20 slope as it descends and encircles the play area before reaching the Beach area. I'm sure there are other alternatives that improve on the TDA sponsored design that requires handicapped individuals leaving the ADA restrooms to travel 350 feet north on the DNR Trail before starting back south through the length of the Park to reach the Beach. The simple design shown here also recognizes the historic winter use of the Park by sportsmen to access Mullett Lake by leaving a 5 foot wide path from the DNR Trail to the shore on the south boundary of the Park. This path also affords easy access for hand carried kayaks and canoes in the summer.
Am I a disabled person? No. Not yet. Am I an advocate for the handicapped? Not really. I do feel the measure of a community is how we respond to the needs of all our citizens and visitors, able-bodied or not so able-bodied, rich or not so rich, young or not so young.
Is a disabled person going to cry and whine because they have to go 350 feet out of their way to use a restroom? No.
Are we going to be a community that requires them to go 350 feet out of their way, 350 feet that an able-bodied person does not, to use a restroom?
The Mullett Township Board, Mr O’Hare and Mr Ogg will have to answer that question.
