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Oktet of Ludington Liquor License Violations, #2 of 8: Hospital Chair Auction, June 2012
This article is the second 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. We should at least make sure our public officials follow the rules however, when they apply for liquor permits.
The second violation was for an auction that was organized by the Memorial Medical Center(remember that area hospital?) to be held at AM Galleries at 115 W Ludington Avenue. The following excerpt from the application has signatures of MMC volunteer board president Judy Owen, Administrative Assistant of MMC Cindi Lehrbass, and secretary Virginia Fox affixed.
Note that the application says there is no church or school within 500 feet of the event. That couldn't be further from the truth, but Ludington Police Chief Mark Barnett certifies that there are exactly no churches within 500 ft. of this venue when this license application crossed his desk:
The AM Galleries occupies the old Oddfellow's Building, which most recently before housed Zig's Half-Off Discount and Military Supply Store in beautiful downtown Ludington. One could think such a centralized location must be near at least one church. You'd be right. Let's looks to the north. One finds the Reorganized Church of Jesus and the Community Church within 500 ft.
And to the south, there's three more churches in range, a couple within 300 feet, less than a football field. The James Street Church of Christ at 219 S James, the Greater Life Church at 208 S James, and the People's Church at 115 W Loomis Street.
I will give the volunteers of Memorial Medical Center a little leeway on their knowledge of downtown Ludington's churches, but I won't allow that same leeway as regards the Chief of Police. He has certified that there is not a church within 500 ft. of AM Galleries, while five fit the bill. He can't claim any sort of ignorance on this issue, since he was clear about the locations of downtown churches when the Girls Gone Wild bus came into town and tried to regulate their actions under the City's zoning law for 'Adult Businesses'.
It can be argued that a small drink-serving event for a good cause (fund-raising auction) held indoors wouldn't affect these churches; however, the applications have no exceptions. If you're within 500 ft. of a school or church, you need permission from them to party with booze. Otherwise, you are submitting a false application to the State, and breaking the law.
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