The Elk Rapids Blog

POWER COALITION STAKEHOLDERS MEETING, THURSDAY 8/28/08
JORDAN RIVER WATERSHED CENTER, 5:30 – 8:30 PM

VII. 6:30; CHAIR and CO-CHAIR REPORTS – Richter, Stewart
A. Received another CD from EPA with data and engineering plans for
Western part of Bay Harbor development. Much to review but
interesting comments on Seep #2 and reversal of groundwater flow
when Petoskey’s municipal water well pumping hard.

B. Still no word from Senator Levin’s office or EPA on differentiation of
TOC or USCG investigation. Will attempt phone call update?

C. Billboard up!

D. Need to craft letter to Rep. Stupak, Senators Levin & Stabenow with
findings about Seep #2 and eye- witness accounts about illegal
burial of industrial wastes insisting on special investigation.

XII. NEXT MEETING - 9/11/08 – JRWC

The Master Gardener Association of Northwest Michigan is hosting an interesting presentation next month. Here are the details.

Designing Rooms for Your Garden
Presented by David Gianneschi
Landscape Designer with Douglas Hoerr Landscape Architecture in Chicago

Saturday, September 13, 2008
9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon
Registration: 8:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.

Leelanau County Government Center
8527 E. Government Center Dr.
Suttons Bay, MI 49682
Cost: $25 for one person; $45 for two people registering together

Download registration form here.

For additional information please contact:
Marina Rodriguez
email Marina

The dilapidated water works building is headed for demolition unless somebody figures out a way to keep it. A final decision on what to do with this building is on hold, pending further opportunities for citizen input. Historic or eye sore? What say ye, Boyniens? Thumbs up or thumbs down?

There is ongoing exploration for natural gas in Elmwood Township. An article in today's Record Eagle gives important insight into the process, anticipated results and also issues that arise when such exploration occurs. Not a Let There Be Blood scenario.

"As they go along through here, they drill a well, see what's there, test it out as part of their exploration phase, and depending on what they find, they move on or make decisions based on that," said Rick Henderson, a district supervisor at the DEQ's office in Cadillac. Record Eagle

Michigan is the only state to increase its percentage of residents living in poverty from 2006 to 2007 according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Data released on Tuesday shows Michigan's poverty rate increased to 14 percent, a full percentage point higher than the national average. Northern Michigan groups said they've experienced a steady increase in new cases of people falling on economic hardship.  WJML News  Also see Record Eagle

(AP) -- An alternative energy company says it wants to place 20 to 28 large wind turbines near the Lake Michigan shoreline in the Huron-Manistee National Forest.  White Pines Wind Farm LLC is a subsidiary of BP PLC and has applied for a special use permit with the U.S. Forest Service.  Each turbine would be 420 feet high from ground to blade tips and would generate 2.5 megawatts of energy. If all 28 are constructed, the project would produce 70 megawatts - enough to supply 20,000 homes.  Project manager Stephen Pulich says the electricity would go into the power grid for use in the Manistee area.  Forest Service spokesman Ken Arbogast says it probably will take a year to consider the proposal.  TV 7&4

Here are the highlights of last night's Village Planning Commission meeting.

First Presbyterian Church
A public hearing was held regarding the church application for a Special Use Permit to build a parking lot to the south and across the street from the current main entrance. Neighbors of this proposed parking lot spoke and/or had written letters of concern. Lengthy deliberations commenced over a retention pond in the road right-of-way, landscaping, the removal of three mature trees and site plan elevations.

One irony - When many current Commission members expressed concern about building parking lots in residential neighborhoods, it turned out that the Village ordinances themselves mandated off-street parking for this church. The new lot will replace the parking spaces that are lost when the church builds an addition.

In a 6-to-2 vote, the Commission approved the permit with the following conditions. (Note that the following conditions are complicated, and my highlights should not be interpreted as exactly matching the forthcoming minutes.)

1. Village Manager Bob Peterson, who was not in attendance, states in writing that it is OK to have a retention pond on a Village right-of-way.
2. The church agree to maintain and repair the pond as needed.
3. Extensive screening and other landscaping be done. The Commission wants to review a final landscaping plan.
4. The site elevations must be modified according to Village Engineer Tim Roche's recommendations.

Ordinance Amendment
Acting on legal advice, the Planning Commission addressed a possible ordinance change that would replace the temporary moratorium enacted by Council on applications for approval of developments larger than 3,000 sq. ft. Considerable discussion ensued. I had to leave the meeting before the vote was taken, so I can't report the results. My sense of the meeting is that the amendment passed.

The Friends of the Jordan group has written to announce the following:

The TV show we did in Grand Rapids is going to be re-broadcast up here on Charter tv2 on Wednesday morning at 8:00 AM and Saturday morning at 10:00AM.  If you know anyone who may be interested in learning about the Alba Injection Well please let them know. (Email, 082608)

Recap of Up North TV 2 schedule:

• Wednesday, 8/27/08 at 8A.M.
  
• Saturday, 8/30/08 at 10A.M.

CENTRAL LAKE - A local water protection group is encouraging residents along the shore of Torch Lake to take action to keep the water clean. The Torch Lake Protection Alliance [TLPA] gave out Shoreline Legacy awards at their annual meeting in early August. They rewarded six property owners, one from each township surrounding Torch, for maintaining shorelines that are healthy for water quality - usually by having natural plants along the water to help capture phosphorous, sediment or to prevent erosion. The characteristics of each of the selected properties varied, from hilly, to forested, to flat and wide. Antrim County News   Good article to peruse

Hostility between Meijer and Acme Township continues. For some reason, Meijer's proposal to build a new store on M-72 erupted into remarkable controversy that promises to continue for some time.

Meijer last week won a round in an escalating battle with local officials when a three-judge panel in Grand Rapids temporarily halted Acme Township planning commissioner Robert Carstens' suit against the retailer.

That judicial panel froze Carstens' suit while it considers Meijer's appeal of a Grand Traverse County judge's ruling that allowed Carstens and other Acme officials to sue Meijer for harassment.  Record-Eagle

It is not likely that this temporary suspension will be the end of the dispute.

TRAVERSE CITY -- Starting in just a few weeks, county meetings will be available both live and on demand through the information superhighway. The information can be accessed anywhere in the country 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Web streaming is a digital version of audio and video that is sent over the Internet in real time.

The County Office Manager, Katie Lowran, says launching the new program will give people new opportunities to stay in touch; "It was a way that they could reach the citizens- to try to transform the communication that they currently had. Another venue that they're looking at is e-newsletter so we're trying to reach another audience."  TV 7&4

It is possible to do this for Elk Rapids meetings as well, but a cheaper way is simply to record the sessions and posting the videos on the Web. Should we implement either of these new technologies?

As the litigation commences over the proposal to construct a Class I deep-injection well near Alba, I went looking for what a Class I deep-well project is, and I found this info on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Web site.

"When liquid wastes are injected, there is a pressure increase near the injection well during the period of injection. Most of this pressure decreases very quickly as the liquid which is forced into the porous rock formation spreads away from the injection wells, although it takes a period several times longer than the period of injection for the pressure to dissipate completely. This pressure due to injection is the force which is most likely to cause contamination of drinkable water: if there are paths by which the waste can move upward into underground sources of drinking water, this pressure will cause that movement to occur. However, because the waste must pass through many layers of rock, there is little chance that the amount of vertical movement will be sufficient to allow contaminants to reach underground sources of drinking water."  EPA

The EPA maintains that, if done properly, Class I wells are safe, but Star Township is right to push this analysis to the limits to verify the EPA claim.

Given the spotty record of the EPA in this administration, I recommend that the township do everything possible to continue this disagreement well into the next administration.

August 21st, 2008  A new survey done by The Grand Vision found residents of Grand Traverse County and neighboring counties believe they have it good and expect things to remain that way. The researcher says he rarely finds people so upbeat about the place they live. Dee Allsop says for a rural community residents are very aware of growth issues and surprisingly open to tools for preventing sprawl.  IPR Blog

Do these results apply here in Elk Rapids?

I have been working on a route for a walking tour of Elk Rapids, which points out the neat features as well as historical stories/structures. Here is my preliminary path. It starts and ends at the Cedar Street parking lot near Kids Pond.

Are there other places I should include, such as 1st Street, more of Cedar Street, more of Bridge? Your comments are important.

On the heels of an Aug. 1 decision that denied an appeal of an injection well permit, opponents of the permit have filed a lawsuit in circuit court.

"We're quite disappointed," said Richard Steel, supervisor of Star Township in Antrim County. "We had a township board meeting last night (Aug. 6) and the board decided to continue to the next legal step."  Citizen Journal

Bay Harbor is determined to dump its caustic leachate in Antrim County. Star Township and friends want to stop it. I think Bay Harbor should continue trucking the stuff to Traverse City, where it is processed, and not stick Antrim County with the unprocessed contaminants. Related article

The Michigan Natural Resources Commission (NRC) gave developers six months to obtain financing for the $161-million proposed Grayling theme park project, during their Aug. 14 meeting in Lansing.

According to Mary Detloff, DNR spokesperson, if developers meet the deadline, which includes a review of finances by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation and an independent third party, they have an additional nine months to get state and federal permits. “Once (they) meet those two conditions, we’ll transfer the property,” said Detloff. Gaylord Herald Times

Not my usual news, but I could not pass up showing off this new technology, an animated hologram. Check out the future. 

Bay-front planners are working on proposals for improving the Traverse City waterfront area, such as "a public pier, fish cleaning station, amphitheater, rental and concession stands, and restoring the Boardman River to a more natural state."  Record-Eagle

Top priority attention has gone to the increasing pedestrian traffic across Grandview Parkway. Summertime in general brings a gaggle of tourists who head for the water. Special events, such as Cherry Festival, add to the congestion. At many intersections along the parkway, too many pedestrians vie with too many cars for limited road space. Accidents result.

The Town Meeting has provided a description of the new lights that will illuminate the downtown and Memorial Park.

The lights are to be replaced with new globes, which include a LED fixture inside. A new medal [metal?] head supporting the globes will now direct the light down and out as opposed to up, Village President Dan Reszka said. This promotes a dark sky over Elk Rapids.  Town Meeting

These new, high-tech lights are expensive, approximately $900 each. So the seven park lights alone will cost about $6,300.

Is there grant money available to defray part of this cost?

Here is the contents of an email I just received from the Grand Vision project:

As summer comes to a close, the October 7th - 28th Grand Vision Decision is getting closer and our efforts to raise public awareness about the importance of the Grand Vision are really heating up! We have three new opportunities for you to get involved:

County Informational Update Meetings
The next two weeks will have meetings in each of the six counties to provide an update on the Grand Vision process. Attendees will what happened at their county workshop in May, hear about the community values research results, and learn about the upcoming Grand Vision Decision activities in October.

August 25 - Kalkaska County, Civic Center (6:30 - 8:00 p.m.)
August 26 - Benzie County, Mills Community House (7:00 - 8:30 p.m.)
August 26 - Leelanau County, Government Center (6:00 - 7:30 p.m.)
August 27 - Wexford County, County Building (6:00 - 7:30 p.m.)
August 28 - Antrim County, Bellaire Senior Center (6:00 - 7:30 p.m.)
September 3 - Grand Traverse County, Michigan Works (6:00 - 7:30 p.m.)
 
Results of a Survey of Community Values
Last week the Grand Vision consultant team released the results of a scientific random sample survey of regional residents that clearly describes how people feel about living here. The consultants were amazed by the results, although those of us from here may not be: regional residents are consistently much more satisfied with quality of life, and much more willing to support protecting the environment than the national average. Our primary concern is the cost of living. Put simply "A view of the Bay is worth half the pay!"

Read a summary of the results and view the full PowerPoint right here: http://www.thegrandvision.org/blog/harris-survey-impacting-the-grand-vision/

Cool New Web Stuff!
If you haven't checked out the Grand Vision Web site at www.thegrandvision.org lately, you're missing a lot! There are several new features including a new blog where YOU can share your thoughts about growth in the region, a new video highlighting many regional residents opinions about future growth, Flickr, YouTube and Facebook pages and lots of supporting resource materials and tools to help you be more informed about this groundbreaking project. Check it out!!

Hope to see you at the upcoming meetings around the region!

Our moratorium that temporarily suspends applications for large businesses is front-page news in today's Record Eagle. The proliferation of big-box stores is cause for concern in Elk Rapids, because we want to retain our small-town character.

Officials in the Antrim County village this month stopped accepting applications for certain types of commercial developments in Elk Rapids while they continue to look at ways to better regulate bigger businesses.

"Obviously, you can't stop progress ... but maybe there should be little vestiges of simple, small-town life left in the world," said [Steve] Montero, [owner of The Moose and] also a board member of the Elk Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce. "There are other people that think we should be the next Acme, but personally ... I think it's kind of nice when you have customers on a regular basis come in and you know their name."  Record-Eagle

Main Street America, a proposed theme park near Grayling, still faces problems, because local lawmakers and residents want to receive more information on financing from the developers, Axiom Entertainment, before selling public land to Axiom.

Rebecca Humphries, director of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, gave Axiom Entertainment of Rochester until February to get full financing for its proposed Main Street America development near Interstate 75, just south of Grayling. The company could pay about $5 million for a tract of 1,400 acres of state forest land in Grayling Township.

Humphries' decision amounts to an agreement to sell the public land, but only if full financing exists for the multi-million dollar, year-round amusement park.  Record-Eagle

My take on this matter: It is always good to be cautious with large deals involving the sale of public land.

Intel Corporation's chief technology officer took a fascinating look at how technology will bring man and machine much closer together by 2050.

Justin Rattner, during his keynote today at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco, predicted big changes are ahead in social interactions, robotics and improvements in computer's ability to sense the real world. He said Intel's research labs are already looking at human-machine interfaces and examining future implications to computing with some promising changes coming much sooner than expected.

"The industry has taken much greater strides than anyone ever imagined 40 years ago," Rattner said. "There is speculation that we may be approaching an inflection point where the rate of technology advancements is accelerating at an exponential rate, and machines could even overtake humans in their ability to reason, in the not so distant future."  Intel Developer Forum

Some of the other topics were:

• Recharge your laptop wirelessly.
• Computers that change shape
• Robots in your kitchen

In honor of all the attention, both good and bad, that China is receiving during the Olympics, I PhotoShopped this composite graphic.

 

There is a persistent rumor that the Amish are dying out in America. Stories abound that young people are leaving, not to return. As an AP story points out, this rumor is not true.

States such as Missouri, Kentucky and Minnesota have seen increases in their Amish populations of more than 130 percent. The Amish now number an estimated 227,000 nationwide, up from 123,000 in 1992, according to researchers from Elizabethtown College's Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies.

Over the same period, Amish settlements have been established in seven new states, putting them in at least 28 states from coast to coast. The new states are: Arkansas, Colorado, Maine, Mississippi, Nebraska, Washington and West Virginia. TV 7&4

Food for thought:  What are the reasons for such a surge in the numbers and scope of the Amish population?