David Ogg, Topinabee Development Association Member, Mullett
Township Park Committee member and the liason/contact person for the Mullett
Township Board on the Lakeside park project famously gave a lengthy explanation
a few months ago of choices that must be made and how we decide. Candy bar or
ice cream cone? Do we want a wall or a window? Choices must be made. David Ogg
said if we have a window, we can’t hang a picture. If we have a window, we can
look out the window instead of looking at a picture. If we have swings,
something else might have to go.
I don’t want a candy bar, an ice cream cone, a window or a
wall. I think most Mullett residents
want a nice Topinabee Park that serves the needs of all the people without
busting the bank.
For now, it appears we have neither. We apparently will still
have hundreds of feet of retaining walls, hundreds of feet of concrete
sidewalks, fences, flower beds, $50,000 to $60,000 worth of plastic playground
equipment and Dave’s digger, an $800+ toy excavator in the beach area for
someone who can’t afford a dollar store shovel and pail to play in the sand. Those
are David Ogg’s choices.
With $400,000 budgeted, we won’t have an ADA accessible
viewing dock on the shore. We won’t have any shoreline riprap installed to
protect the park. We won’t have an artesian well/water feature. We won’t have a
section of steps serving the play area. We won’t have any information kiosks.
And, we will not have any swings, not that David Ogg wanted any swings.
Remember the candy bar, ice cream cone argument? Those are David Ogg’s choices.
Many of us watched as the Mullett Board, at hearings without
public input, made those tough decisions. This design or that design of expensive
architecturally designed pre-cast stone? Should we use this expensive concrete
finish or that expensive concrete finish? The sky is the limit with $400,000 of
someone else’s money.
Don’t worry about public input asking why the ADA entrance
to the park was 300 feet from the ADA parking and restrooms. Don’t worry about
how snowmobilers and ice fishermen will access the lake in the winter. Don’t
worry about those kayakers and canoeists who unload their craft in the Library
parking lot and hand carry their watercraft to the beach. And especially don’t
worry about the hundreds of local people and visitors who signed petitions
asking for the TAC swings to be retained in the park.
Instead, make something “pretty”. The park needs to
complement Lakeshore Drive and Tom “Scrat” O’Hare’s vision and the Topinabee
Development Association’s ongoing, never-ending search in the taxpayer’s
pockets for $1,000,000 or better yet, $2,000,000 for the latest reiteration of
the Topinabee/M27 Streetscape/Green Corridor project. None of the people involved in the project
actually use the existing park. They are simply looking for something “pretty”
to show off to friends and visitors and that fits within the Topinabee
Development Association’s Master Plan for Topinabee.
Now, David Ogg, Fleis & Vandenbrink , and the Mullett
Board need to tell the taxpayers why they made promises with a $400,000 park
budget, and now can’t deliver those promises. When people are entrusted to
deliver a product within a fixed budget fail, we expect answers, not a pared
down project for more money. Who failed? The finger pointing may be interesting.
With essentials like the riprap shoreline protection
removed, other items “sold” to the MNRTF Board to gain approval gone, the
initial “baseline” bids are still over budget by tens of thousands of dollars before
the project even starts. The argument may be; all the “pretty” stuff will still
stay. That would be fine if we just needed a little show piece for Topinabee,
something that “fits” that TDA Master Plan.
The present park serves the needs of the residents better
than the proposed park. The question should be: Why are we spending $400,000 to have a park that ignores the present users. Topinabee needs a functional
“township” park which serves the needs of all the diverse people who live and
visit here.
MULLETT TOWNSHIP NOTICE OF SPECIAL
MEETING - MARCH 11, 2013 - 6:00PM (local time)
MULLETT TOWNSHIP HALL
] 1491 No. Straits Highway
Topinabee, Michigan 49791
(bid recommendations)
The Mullett Township Board of
Trustees will meet at the Mullett Township Hall, 1491 No. Straits
Highway, Topinabee, Michigan 49791. The meeting will commence at 6:00pm
local time. This is a special meeting which will address the
following:
Fleis and VandenBrink
Engineering will make a recommendation concerning the award of the bid
for the Topinabee Beach Grant which was awarded by the Department of
Natural Resources Trust Fund. The Mullett Township Board of Trustees
will approve or disapprove of the recommendations made by Fleis and
VandenBrink and reserves the right of refusal.
All alternatives which are listed on
the bid will be addressed and recommendations by the Mullett Township
Board of Trustees will be discussed and any changes made by motion will
be carried forward.
To discuss the total budget for the
Topinabee Beach Grant and any motions regarding the limits set will be
made by the Mullett Township Board of Trustees.
To discuss any items to be taken out of the total budget would need to be motioned by the Mullett Township Board of Trustees
To discuss and act on any other matters that may properly come before the Mullett Township Board of Trustees.
To approve an amended amount to the
cost center budget for the Mullett Township Hall to pay Stuart Hancock
for the month of March 2013. This amount will need to be $2,000 for the
wages earned to work at the Mullett Township Hall.
