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, February 5, 2014

Supervisor Gale, Contrarian or Argumentative?



The current Mullett Board’s continuing discussions, actions, inactions, and failures was demonstrated on February 4, 2014 when Supervisor MaryAnne Gale again used I, me and my to attempt to sway the Board to adhere to her agenda.


The issue of a proposed Mullett Township blight ordinance has been on several meeting agendas over the last year and Supervisor MaryAnne Gale chose again to ignore opposing views on “her” Board. She previously ignored good advice from several people with practical knowledge of the trials and tribulations of enacting, and even harder, enforcing a local blight ordinance. She moved ahead with weak half-hearted support and wasted Board time, tax dollars, and most probably thousands of dollars in attorney fees drafting a “proposed” Orwellian blight ordinance. 


A “hearing” was held in November, 2013 on the proposed Blight Ordinance. Supervisor MaryAnne Gale apparently thought her ordinance would be lovingly embraced. Why else would you have a hearing? A hearing should only be held when all public and Board input has been considered and the “draft” is near final form. Not so. Several public attendees and other Board members raised issues with the unknown costs and the need to address issues ranging from trash to RV’s; from stored fire wood to unsafe buildings when the stated problem was only junk, trash, and rubbish. The draft also empowered Mullett Township to condemn and appropriate property. This proposed ordinance was soundly rejected by a majority vote and was sent back to the drawing board for simplification. 


The revised, simpler Blight Ordinance was never published or distributed for further review or input. It was allegedly pruned to “only” address junk, rubbish, and trash. The concerns with the cost of enforcement and in particular, who would be the enforcer was not answered. 

 

February 4, 2014 Meeting Attendees

On February 4, 2104, a full year to the day after Supervisor MaryAnne Gale publicly started her task, unable to gain the support of only two other Board members, the proposed Blight Ordinance is “dropped”. Not tabled, just DROPPED. It’s her way or the highway. 


The MaryAnne way, or the highway, was shown again when the Boy Scout Park “concept” plan was discussed. Years of Mullett Board “talk” never built a restroom in Boy Scout Park. The Board, including Supervisor MaryAnne Gale, had approved a DNR style two holer pit toilet to be built by her “uber” employee. Then, the Board decided to enrich Wade-Trim again and develop a “concept plan” for the park to make sure the new toilet wouldn’t have to be moved as the Topinabee water feature/”artesian well”/TDA monument required. The Wade-Trim concept apparently now requires an architecturally designed two-holer.

Wade-Trim "Concept Plan" for Boy Scout Park


Ask why? Ask Supervisor MaryAnne Gale why the “conceptual plan” now needs this more expensive toilet? Ask Supervisor MaryAnne Gale why if the toilet cost is justified, the included separate change room for people to doff their swimwear is such a terrible and expensive burden for taxpayers? Ask Supervisor MaryAnne Gale if her definition of “change room” is actually a diaper changing table as her comments seemed to imply? Ask Supervisor MaryAnne Gale why, after spending thousands of wasted dollars on her “blight ordinance”, reducing the change room area by about 14 square feet to make it a storage closet is “sound” fiscal management? Ask Supervisor MaryAnne Gale if her 30 minutes of I, me, my arguments about the cost of two linear feet in building size was a waste of everyone’s time? Ask Supervisor MaryAnne Gale why she thinks, after this and the previous Board spent at least four years sitting on their butts while park users had no place to sit,  the Mullett Board should now try to seek a MNRTF Grant and wait another few years?  Ask Supervisor MaryAnne Gale: Are you a contrarian or just argumentative? 

A complete annotated audio recording is available on YouTube


Next post: a proposed $4,000 to $8,000 fix to eliminate the Topinabee snow fence and is anything in Topinabee really “anonymous”?