The Place Where Ludington Talks
Oktet of Ludington Liquor License Violations, #8 of 8: When Oktoberfest and Fire Safety Week Intersect
For the last week or so, I have been putting up the results of two FOIA requests from the Michigan Liquor Control Commission on liquor licenses issued to government bodies of our area. Without an exception, the licenses have been knowingly filled out in violation of law by not getting the permission of our area churches that are present around the downtown area. Few other things are required for these licenses other than certain promises to obey the various rules for the dispensing of alcoholic beverages at these events, but is that necessarily going to be the case when they cannot even fill out an application correctly.
Our police chief has extended the fraud, signing his certification on these documents without regard for the churches within the radius. In #2, for instance, he certifies there is no church within 500 ft. of AM Galleries, but then certifies in #7 that the People's church fits that description. In fact, five churches fit that description, and by law need to have their pastor sign the application showing their approval. Chief Mark Barnett invokes the Lord's name in his invocations before each City Council meeting, attends his own church, but fails to extend this courtesy to these churches in the downtown area, even when it's required by law. Here are the other instances of improper behavior by him and other City Officials.
#3: NYE Ball Dropped Repeatedly
If they can cut corners on their applications for these events they spend an awful lot of tax dollars (primarily) on, think of how careful they are with spending tax money on other things. Seriously, if you or I filled these applications out as carelessly as they did, would you think you or I would get the no-harm/no-foul reproach from the State of Michigan when we have failed to be diligent in our licensing, whatever that licensing happens to be for. Their problems were noted last October in the Torch article Aaughtoberfest, they had plenty of time to look that over and decide that they need to be more diligent in their applications. They didn't, they're still making the same negligent mistakes.
This article is the eighth 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'.
The eighth and final (for now) liquor license violation by the City of Ludington officials has to deal with this years Oktoberfest. On September 9, 2013 I made the following statement on this application at the City Council meeting, just before they voted to support the liquor license for the event, amending their resolution to say it was pending on approval by the churches:
"Issue one: Oktoberfest's liquor license will likely be approved tonight. It is to be held on Loomis Street between Rath and James this year. You will note in your packets that the State Liquor License Form does not have all the paperwork including the approval of the heads of the three churches that are in that one block area. By state law, all churches within 500 feet of such an event must give their approval. Two of these churches are within 500 feet of the prior Oktoberfests and were never contacted by the City for their approval, and the contacts I have made with them this year seem to indicate they are being left out again. Approving this liquor license without their written approval beforehand is jumping the gun, and the City may want to get these three clerics okays before they submit a false application to the state."
The City Council was prepared to affirm this resolution to have Oktoberfest, a raucous festival of secular music, lustful drinking, and overzealous debauchery held right within a stone's throw of two churches. Were either of those two churches notified of this event to be held on Saturday, October 12, to be dispersed just before the Sabbath? Nope, but it was unanimously voted to go forth by the Ludington City Council.
After something transpired, they came to the next meeting, moving the festivities to the parking lot east of the Fire Station for this event. They had to revise the application to show this new map and they actually got permission from two churches in the neighborhood, but failed to get the third church's approval. Here is the appropriate map that shows this oversight:
The events of this years Oktoberfest, which happened yesterday, were displayed here. The beer tent was open at 3 PM and closing at around 10 PM, complete with musical entertainment. The previous day, a bunch of folks set up the area where it was to take place, it looked like this around mid-afternoon:
Which was according to plan. When looked at later that night, everything was set up for the funfest, I noticed a few things:
Contrary to the set-up map, the fence went over the downtown sidewalk, forcing people to walk out into the street to get around the venue, effectively contrary to public safety also. They are going to have folks under the influence wandering into the street while loud music is playing; nice. But that isn't the extent of the intrusions against public safety. Here is the area between the tent and the fire station:
Having been on the Ludington Fire Department for eight years, I can tell you that the set up above makes it difficult to accommodate the vehicles for the volunteer department. Up to 18 or more vehicles typically park right behind where the road blocks are set up, with the set-up the area between the sawhorses and the curb where they normally park was a little over 23 feet.
The alley behind the LFD was blocked by a sawhorse from both sides, and a dumpster partially blocked access if one moved those. Firefighters are known for having big trucks they drive as their personal vehicle, many of which are 19-20 ft. long with the possibility of back and front hitches and winches.
Considering that almost all vehicles are about 6 ft. wide, you've got a serious problem. Even if you can train the firefighters to park as far into this lot as possible, there is only room for 6-8 vehicles who have to go out in the same order as they came in. Other firefighters have to park across the street and further beyond to respond to emergency calls. This seriously can cut into response time, and morale when some get trapped in their own parking lot by their fellow comrades, or scrape their paint on other vehicles and fences.
The night of Octoberfest, the alley behind the LFD station was blocked by both sawhorses and vehicles, as seen here:
This was taken just after 10:00 PM, and the beer tent was remarkably empty by that time. The blockage of the LFD lot was still existent, even into the next day. These following pictures were taken shortly before noon today:
One can imagine with the previous track record of the Ludington DPW cleaning up these drinking events, that they will start breaking this down on Monday. Therefore, the safety of the citizens of Ludington has been compromised for about 72 hours by the Oktoberfest beer tent.
Pretty ironic when you consider that our mayor is a fireman and signed the liquor license application, the community development director is married to a Ludington fireman (who's on the City Council) and also signed the application, and that it all happened at the end of National Fire Safety Week:
Another bit of irony is that the aforementioned City Councilor/husband resigned from the LFD effective September 18, 2013 and it hasn't made the news.
Nick Tykoski had been a quality firefighter in the time that I worked with him, but has been an unethical public servant in his position on the Downtown Ludington Board (which he resigned from when he became a councilor, unlike Councilor Les Johnson) and has continued that crooked course as a city councilor. Unfortunately, the City of Ludington will lose a competent firefighter and retain a corrupted public official. It is too bad we cannot retain competent firefighters and lose some of the corrupted officials.
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