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.


Friday, January 3, 2014

2013-A Mullett Township Year in Review-Part 2



April Fool’s Day 2013 Board Meeting- 

If you have not yet clicked on the YouTube link, please click here and listen to over 30 minutes of well rehearsed testimonials, pleas, threats, and a few letters read aloud by Mary O’Hare, President of the Topinabee Development Association.  What an amazing, spontaneous public outpouring of community support to pour more taxpayer money into the grossly over budget Topinabee Beach Park project. If you believe any of this support was spontaneous, you never saw the emails originating from Chairman of the Board Tom O’Hare extolling the flock to attend the Board Meeting.  Far from a spontaneous act of community support, Tom O’Hare’s emails coached people to say this or you could say that or phrase it this way. The Mullett Board swallowed it whole. 

After Supervisor MaryAnne Gale thanked everyone it was back to business. Supervisor Gale approved rehiring James Hill as a Mullett Township employee to paint the Pavilion at Boy Scout Park. James was one of the employees “fired” 2 months earlier.  There was discussion of Supervisor MaryAnne Gale’s project, “personnel policies”. Does the policy have a revolving door clause or a method for employees to accrue seniority based on being fired then, hired later, fired again, and now, like James Hill, hired again at $18 an hour to install and re-install the Topinabee Beach Park snow-fence? 

In the past year Mullett Township had a definite problem retaining employees. Wages paid "new" employees ranged from $13 to $18 an hour with excellent PTO and sick time benefits apparently starting from day 1 of employment. With this pay range and benefit perks in a community where many people work for $8 an hour with NO benefits, the old adage "it must be the boss" is the most likely problem. Does the Mullett Township Personnel Policy address "employee retention"?

Supervisor MaryAnne Gale and the Board approved sending a letter of intent to the Cheboygan County Road Commission to transfer Jewell and Devereaux Lake road ends to Mullett Township ownership. This action, similar the December approval paying $1,200 per annum to Patty King for hall rental, will become what we now call a MaryAnne “Mulligan”.  

Much ado was needlessly made about the Trail Town Grant meeting on April 29, 2013. Was it a Special Meeting? Did Board members charge their $70 per diem? Ask them. The only attendee who was not a Cheboygan County employee, Mullett Board or TDA member was Carl Muscott. Where were all those community minded members of the flock who stood up or had their words read aloud only 4 weeks earlier? Not at this meeting. Like too many grant funded initiatives, the Trail Town designation is simply hype and required only a rubber stamp from the Board. Eventually, a Trail Town sign will apparently appear somewhere.

The busy May 6, 2013 Mullett Board meeting started with public comments and questions. An attendee asked the Board why 10 people supporting an irrigation system for the Topinabee Beach Park had more sway on the Board than a petition signed by 200 people asking that the TAC swings be retained. Ten versus 200? Were the ten TDA members? Oh, question answered. When is Chapman Street going to be repaved? I think that has become a hypothetical question. David Ogg asked about the policy covering business use of the library? Tom O’Hare told the Board and attendees what subjects the Park information kiosks would cover. Paul Chapoton expressed his opinion that Lakeshore Drive is a private drive and he was tired of being harassed by people.    
Former Mullett Supervisor Bill Morgan attended another CCRC meeting, acting as a paid proxy for our Supervisor MaryAnne Gale who sets the example for the rest of the Board by not charging a per diem to attend “local” meetings. The other Board members should follow MaryAnne Gale’s example. State your intention to save Mullett taxpayers money by refusing the $70 per diem and instead, hire a crony or relative to attend meetings when you are too busy or too incompetent to attend and allow them to be paid from the public purse.

Another boat house lot owner, Brian Callaghan hired an attorney to further his attempt at adverse possession of a public roadway. The Board, capitulating to an argument that if it had any validity should be tested in court, agreed to a ridiculous quid pro qou swap of Quit Claim Deeds, allegedly giving Brian Callaghan the footprint where he has allowed his shed to “squat” on a public roadway. In return, Brian Callaghan would quit claim the rest of the roadway to Mullet Township.

To quote Wiki-Pedia: Unlike most other property deeds, a quitclaim deed contains no title covenant and thus, offers the grantee no warranty as to the status of the property title; the grantee is entitled only to whatever interest the grantor actually possesses at the time the transfer occurs. This means that the grantor does not guarantee that he or she actually owns any interest the property at the time of the transfer, or if he or she does own an interest, that the title is free and clear. It is therefore possible for a grantee to receive no actual interest, and because a quitclaim deed offers no warranty, have no legal recourse to recover any losses. Further, if the grantor should acquire the property at a later date, the grantee is not entitled to take possession, because the grantee can only receive the interest the grantor held at the time the transfer occurred. In a year with many stupid actions by the Board, this may be the prize winner. 

This was closely followed by another action, approval and adoption of the long sought and much needed Mullett Township Fireworks Ordinance. Great job! That is sarcasm for those who read every word literally. Passing unneeded laws is a waste of the limited smarts shared by this Board. Leave the boom-boom legislation to the big boys in the state house. The state has since re-done their legislation and Mullett doesn’t need to waste time enacting unneeded laws that will never be enforced. 

The meeting continued with discussions on the “Streetscape” and Park project with public participation restricted to people with a last name starting with “O”, as in O’Hare or Ogg. The “Streetscape” was still at the 3 plan stage and Paul Repaskey of Wade-Trim euphemistically described it as a process to “organize” parking in Topinabee. Others might call it paving over paradise. The issues: no parking spots at hardware, where to put bump-outs to most effectively impede snow-plowing, and how to address storm water run-off as more of Topinabee is paved over. Should the project be phased or does the Board want to destroy the “unique historical character and charm of Topinabee” in one fell swoop. 

David Ogg then provided an update on the Park project. Another yawn, but, pay attention, this was the first “public” mention of banning snowmobiles from the Topinabee Beach Park. How long had the topic been discussed behind closed doors? The discussion was how much fence would be needed? Along the DNR Trail? Along the Mullett shore?  Maybe we can eventually just gate M-27 at the approaches to Topinabee, build two nice little gate-keeper houses and hire a couple security guards to check whether you are on the approved resident or guest list. 

On the subject of unwanted trash in Topinabee, how hard can it be to rent a small dumpster to contain the township’s trash? It is apparently unbelievably hard. There are just so many decisions to be made. How big? How much per month? How many times does it need emptied? Who needs access or a key if locked? If Topinabee gets one, doesn’t the “other side” of the lake deserve one? This Mullett Board amply demonstrated their incompetence by failing to resolve the 2013 “dumpster” issue. We had none at the beginning of the year. After a lot of discussion, we still have none at the end of the year and continue to pay Topinabee Market by the bag to dispose of trash. We put our faith and trust in a group of people who cannot agree on a simple trash dumpster.   

Supervisor MaryAnne Gale reluctantly agreed to invite Cheboygan County Community Development Director Steve Schnell to a future Board meeting to discuss the option of developing a zoning overlay to restrict “private storage buildings”, AKA pole barns in Topinabee’s residential neighborhoods. Did you do that MaryAnne?  When can we expect him? One developer has already used the loopholes left in the present zoning to get a “condominium” pole barn development approved that could not be built under Cheboygan County commercial zoning. A very nice new pole barn now sits adjacent to the School House Park. The horses are already out and Supervisor MaryAnne Gale would rather shovel manure than close the gate.

Part 3 of 2013 Year in Review begins as the Board dodges the potholes and finds their way to the “other side” of Mullett Lake for the June 3, 2013 Mullett Board Meeting.