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Oktet of Ludington Liquor License Violations, #1 of 8: LACA Dinner Theatre 2012
This article is the first of eight articles on the violation of State of Michigan liquor laws by the City of Ludington by submitting knowingly insufficient or false data to the state as regards their application for a special liquor license for a special event. This negligence was compounded by Ludington's Chief of Police Mark Barnett certifying each and every one of these events by signing his approval after 'investigating the application'.
I am not a prude by any means, but there has been a shift away from the Ludington community throwing family-friendly events that can be enjoyed by all members of the public, into a series of special events spotlighting drinking which necessarily exclude parts of the public, often from the public squares and streets of our fair city. New events including the New Year's Eve Ball Drop, St. Patrick's Day beer tents, Oktoberfest, Friday Night Lives (starting this year), Ludington Area Art Council dinner theatres, and other drinking-centered events held outside of our local drinking establishments have popped up since then.
Such changes reflect an organized effort to change the direction of how Ludington is perceived, and one can soberly reflect that this trend does not help that perception. Back ten years ago, you could probably be hard pressed to see a handful of special events with drinks being served by Ludington publicly funded entities in twenty months. But a recent FOIA request to the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (DLRA) shows that about 40 events have sought these special permits in the last 20 months.
Does this reflect that the current leadership of our community love to hit the bottle, or that the suppliers of beer, wine and spirit for these special events (who happen to serve as Ludington officials) are out looking for private gain? Not necessarily; but one should begin to question the agenda being covertly set around town. In our goals for representing Ludington as a great tourist destination, do we want to appeal to families or just appeal to the tourist looking for a drinking party? We can't successfully do both.
The first violation occurred for an event that was taking place at the Ludington Area Center for the Arts (LACA, aka LAAC) back on February 11, 2012. LACA is technically a non-profit organization spotlighting the arts in our area, but it does seem to have a silver spoon in its mouth when trying to get help from City Hall.
One such instance was noted here back in 2010, but the Board of Directors LACA have managed to utilize the fund-raising skills of Ludington Community Development Director and subsidy-seeker extraordinaire Heather (Venzke) Tykoski. Fellow DDA member/former City Councilor Barry Neal also links this non-profit board to the potential financial benefits of the Downtown Ludington Board, primarily funded by a 2 mil DDA tax and tax increment financing that nets them close to $150,000 each year which they use for a variety of other non-public purposes. Here's the event:
Lakeside Civic Players is giving a perfect Valentine’s gift to the area with its production of one of Off-Broadway’s longest-running musicals, “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change!”
The show debuted last weekend at the Ludington Area Center for the Arts and continues this Friday, Feb. 10 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Feb. 12 at 2 p.m. On Saturday, Feb. 11, the performance will be part of a special Valentine’s dinner theater beginning at 6 p.m.
MCP Notice of Valentine's Day Dinner theatre
The application for a special liquor license was filled out by Executive director at the time, Terry Murphy and Marion Riedl:
You will notice it is signed by the pastor of the Community Church, who also signs, along with Police Chief Barnett, in the police chief approval section:
The Community Church is roughly about 400 ft. away, basically a block and a half away to the north, a church that has been permissive over such events, many taking place next door to their parking lot at the North James Plaza. What isn't noticed on this application or certification is the other churches in the immediate area, including one that is slightly closer to the LACA's dinner theatre. This would be The James Street Church of Christ at 219 S James. Another falls within the 500 ft. proximity also, The Greater Life Church at 208 S James. Both have active worshipping and web presence, as seen by the links provided, but they were not provided the ability to give this event their thumbs up-- or thumbs down.
Just out of range is the People's Church, further up W. Loomis than this map indicates. This February, the Lakeside Civic Players presented more dinner theatre with "Rent" and applied for a liquor license for the two Fridays and Saturdays it played at the LACA. I had not specifically requested the application, but one can presume they did the same exclusion of these two area churches for four more violations.
Ludington Area Church of the Progressive Arts
Let me finish by noting how ironic it is that the LACA was headquartered in a long standing Ludington church, and now allows the drinking of non-sacramental spirits at these events and the decidedly progressive theatre of the Lakeside Civic Players, whose productions all seem to be on mature, adult-themed topics lately. The aforementioned "Rent":
The follow-up production, "Baby with the Bathwater":
And the very recent follow-up to that, "The Vagina Monologues", which was performed at the AM Galleries at 115 W. Ludington. This production has very adult themes, but was advertised without noting that fact, if you look at the recent posts at the LCP's Facebook page.
Such plays and productions, like the selling of alcoholic beverages, seem to be indicative of our community leaders decision to go away from activities that are family-oriented and indicative of them having a mindset that is not shared traditionally by the community at large. Isn't it?
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Jane on
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Don't you think there are plenty of activities to be had with kids in tow and that these events are meant for the parents to get a night out without the children?
Do you think that the people at LACA are intentionally putting on adult themed events so they can seat more people and adding alcohol sales to help fill seats and make more money than say a performance of "THE LITTLE MERMAID", or BRAVE?
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Permalink Reply by XLFD on
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If the theatre group is looking to expand their audience they shouldn't be 'playing to the same audience' on each production. It seems logical to me that they would get more exposure, and play to larger, more diverse crowds, if they varied their repertoire.
There's room for mature-themed, progressive-oriented plays, but if it's the only type of play they perform, it limits and labels them, and stunts our kids' exposure to the theatre to school-produced plays.
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