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.


Thursday, May 7, 2015

Supervisor MaryAnne Gale sez TALK to the Hand

Mullett Township Board with Streetscape Plans
This is an open letter. I wanted to publicly address some issues while Supervisor MaryAnne Gale is unable to exercise her "talk to the hand" maneuver and "I'm going to stop you right there" as she did during the last public meeting comment period. The Mullett Board under Ms Gale's leadership has reached new lows serving as an example of a  dysfunctional government unit with a single agenda: implement Tom O'Hare's master planned "streetscape". If the definition of government is a group of people that governs a community, then the Topinabee Development Association is the governing body in Mullett Township. The TDA controls some board members and the others follow or capitulate.  It doesn't matter if this is done to avoid breaking rank or out of fear of possible retaliation in their private or professional lives. I know well the actions of those anonymous supporters of the TDA who seem always armed for personal attacks. They hide behind anonymous bloggers on the web and unsigned letters shoved under doors. Welcome to Topinabee "A small community with a big heart".
The end result of this Board serving one master is the needs and issues important to the rest of the community are ignored. The lack of attendance by east Mullett taxpayers at last months east Mullett meeting was proof of that. The first east Mullett meeting was packed. Supervisor Gale did nothing. She took comments under "advisement". In fact, she did nothing and also told attendees they were out of order and "shushed" them like children. They left and never came back.

I would like nothing better than to wash my hands of Mullett Township as my patience has also been exhausted. I was fortunate of an opportunity and means to invest in Indian River, but I am unfortunately still a Mullett Township taxpayer.  The Mullett Board deserves only the same disrespect they show their constituents. Ms Gale continues her pattern of favoring any TDA crony or friend's request and publicly attacking anyone who has an opposing view. She continues to publicly insinuate that issues are fabricated, perhaps staged, and there is just the one lone complainer. Meanwhile, in the opinion of many, the heart and soul of the community, the Topinabee Beach Park was forever destroyed with the loss of almost every tree and the virtual closing of the winter access enjoyed by generations of users. It will now always be locally referred to as the TDA park. Now, the MNRTF and Mullett taxpayers are again being tapped with a fraudulently presented "need" for more parking hiding a storm sewer that will serve the TDA "streetscape".
Personally, other communities over the past 4 decades have always welcomed my business investments, however modest. I recorded over 40 real estate transactions; deeds and sales agreements; buying, improving, and selling properties in Pinal County, AZ alone in less than a dozen years. I invested in real estate in Mullett Township to again improve property, build, and sell homes. I envisioned a slower pace of selling here but could not in my wildest dream imagine what now serves as local government in Mullett Township. Behind closed doors deceit and hidden agendas piled upon incompetence. Supervisor Gale cannot maintain consistency of action or policy from the beginning to the end of a single meeting. From the simplest task; rental of a township garbage container, to the inability to maintain public grounds, a failure to retain employees, to publicly admonishing and attacking fellow Board members, to the inability to reach a compromise to enact a blight ordinance; failure piled upon failure. Supervisor Gale's way or the highway with her repeated refusal to compromise. The Boy Scout restrooms design was the perfect example of this obstinate behavior in the public view.

Instead of the respect that every citizen should enjoy, I am treated like scum by some Mullett Township elected officials and an association of lakeshore property owners who rightfully feel they  control the community. I have been harassed with a bogus criminal trespass charge for legally accessing the Sutherland road-end for a swim. The Mullett Board openly encouraged that behavior by looking the other way while all evidence of the public access has been removed by adjacent property owners and an attempt was then made to quit-claim public property to private lakeshore owners. I was the victim of a falsely filed felony stalking and harassment charge made by Mullett Clerk Rachel Osborn for asking a question in the Post Office lobby. For employment, I have previously passed criminal and financial background checks from local, state, and federal enforcement agencies, but I now have two bogus criminal charges on-record in Cheboygan County courtesy of Mullet Township.

I am sure Mary Anne wishes I was a problem that could be quieted with the simple threat of firing. Unlike employees, some on the Mullett Board, and too many in Topinabee, I am not intimidated by people who feel they are superior and wield power. The big fish in Mullett Township are very small fry in the outside world.

  1. I haven't seen publication of the synopsis of the April 7, 2015 Board Meeting minutes. The April 6th Election Commission minutes were published in the April 16, 2015 Resorter. The Board still has a public policy of publishing a synopsis of Board meetings. Were the minutes published?
  2. The March 3, 2015 minutes state: Motion to table the new Street Light District Resolution until such time as the Mullett Township Board of Trustees needs funds to pay the street light bill, offered by Kathy Flory and seconded by Dennis Dombroski, motion passed. That is not factual. The "Street Light District" was tabled. Please listen to the audio clip.
  3. After listening to the majority of the attendees at the Street Light District hearing voice opposition to changing or adding more lights, the Board was still going to proceed until it was clarified that the existing fund surplus could not be used to buy new lights. The Board then tabled the new district and stated there would be no change until the present funding was exhausted. No lights added or removed. Clerk Osborn and Supervisor Gale continued to answer to a Mr Bud Garlick, TDA Board member, who had called from Florida to ask if his new streetlight was installed. Now, Clerk Osborn is requesting the Board enact a resolution that will empower her to change the existing contract with Consumers Energy. This would give her sole authority to add lights wherever she wants. I encourage the board to not give Clerk Osborn this authority.     
  4. Mullett Clerk Osborn's proposed minutes for April 7, 2014 Board Meeting posted on-line make no mention of her attempt to get that resolution empowering her approved. Clerk Osborn is becoming well-known for her public exaggerations and out-right lies uttered in support of her and the TDA's agenda. As a Mullett Board member, representing  Mullett Township, or was it the TDA, she stood in front the Cheboygan County Commissioners and stated the Topinabee Beach Park usage had almost doubled since it was renovated (no facts or study to prove this) and that the beach offered the only ADA access within 90 miles. Devoe Beach and Camp Petosega both utilize the same ADA walks as Topinabee. I suggest the Mullett Board rein in this fabrication and exaggeration as you attempt to gain out-side support for the TDA agenda. We all know Clerk Osborn has a well documented history of "forgetting" to do what she doesn't want to do. 
  5. Trustee John Brown requested the Tax Review Board minutes be posted on-line. A tab was labeled as such, but like much information on the Mullett Township website, nothing was published there and now the tab has also disappeared.  
There are some citizen petitions presently in circulation in Mullett Township. Past petitions presented to the Mullett Board, notably a 200+ name petition asking to preserve the TAC swings at the beach and 20+ Topinabee residents requesting zoning restrictions on pole barns to protect residential neighborhood property values were ignored. I hope that the Mullett Board will revisit the resolution enacted that apparently empowered the TDA to represent all Mullett taxpayers. There was no petition presented in support of that resolution, just Tom and Mary O'Hare saying they represent us all.