The West End Project and the Trail Town Master Plan

[XLFD]

As we await this year's decision by the Michigan DNR Trust Fund on whether to send Ludington $300,000 to alter the West End of Ludington Avenue, in a move that has proven to be vastly unpopular among locals and tourists alike (except those set to gain access to and/or control over the grant monies), let's take a look at what our leaders of the city have been looking at to go with this. 

You may have heard that a bicycle trail now heads through Ludington, which only means the state has decided to put a bunch of signs along the road where it thinks it is good to bike on, without doing their research all that well.  The trail goes on a long segment of undulating well-traveled Jebavy Drive, which about a foot of shoulder on each side, so you can't ride on it with a bike without hanging into the road.  Worse, the western shoulder has mailboxes hanging over it so if you are not paying attention, you will slam into them if you try to ride on that shoulder.  The alternate route of Dewey plus Lakeshore will get you to town quicker and safer.

Surely nobody from the Michigan Dept. of Transportation (MDOT) has ever rode the route themselves, but it makes them and other agencies happy because they have created a trail, imperfect though it may be.  And all they had to do was spend a few thousands on directional signs and spent many thousands more showing the public they exist through pamphlets and internet advertising.   

It's the same thing with water trails on the great lakes.  It sounds like a great idea to have a nice system which we can advertise and tout as an extensive and well-marked way to take your canoe or kayak around the state, but what is actually going on here.  Michigan agencies like the MDOT, MIDNR, and even the DEQ are investing a lot of resources into trying to make canoeing the Great Lakes which surround us a lot more appealing. 

But it's a rather ridiculous and dangerous scheme to wrest tax dollars into creating public recreation which does not meet a public need.  There are numerous private facilities in the county to take advantage of navigating down the Pere Marquette River and other rivers and inland lakes of the county.  In the Great Lake State, it would be hard to find a place where they could not make the same claim. 

If someone wants to take their kayak down a 'water trail' from Big Point Sable to Little Point Sable via Lake Michigan, the wind, weather and waves of Lake Michigan are a lot more to deal with than what you would find on an inland lake or stream.  Experienced boaters sometimes take their more substantial craft out on what appears to be a nice day, only to experience rough seas, and the need to turn back. 

Canoes and kayaks going on 35 mile trips like this lasting many hours take a great risk unlike if they travel the well established routes along our rivers, routes which are not only much safer but far more interesting.  These are among the reasons why private entrepreneurs have never tried to create such trails for the casual canoeist. 

But now, our public officials have chosen to invest our money into creating and marketing these dangerous but boring 'water trails', with the added public shame of going into direct competition with the private sector who have already created such trails without the exploitative fanfare.

The State's Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is the major brainchild of these water trails, no doubt influenced by other agencies of like mind.  They have come up with a Trail Towns Master Plan for the lower Lake Michigan coastline that incorporates their recent manufacture of bike and water trails.  Reading through this master plan you think that these expensive and odd ideas are inevitably going to be inflicted on us, just like they have incorporated the proposed changes to the West End of Ludington into them. 

Please look through this bizarre master plan, kept away from the public for the most part.  Of particular interest to our community:

p.8:  "Key stakeholders and staff in each region and community — especially the Ludington Community Development Office, Ottawa County Parks and Recreation, and the Southwest Michigan Planning Commission — were instrumental in the development of this plan and will be central agents in both local and regional Trail Town implementation efforts."

The 'Ludington Community Development Office' consists of Heather Tykoski, who makes her living off supplicating to state agencies looking for free money wherever it may be found.  You can see her fingerprints all over the portion of the master plan involving Ludington, including the alteration of the West End to landscaping and a host of kiosks, canoe racks, benches, signs, and lots and lots of pavement.  Exploiting nature at its finest.

p. 63:  The kayak/canoe storage lockbox will be about 8’ wide & 22’ long. The paddler should be able to carry their vessel and slide it into the box without making a sharp turn, in other words parallel to the accessible route from the launch.

A permanent and big lockbox will run along the new paved areas near the lakeshore.  This is going to be a government-funded business in need of personnel to run and maintain it.  It is doubtful whether it could be self-supporting even though it will be effectively created totally with public dollars.

p. 166:  The City of Ludington has identified West End Beach as the potential access site. The
Beach is located adjacent to a large parking lot at the end of Ludington Avenue. This
entire parking lot and the adjacent streets are expected to undergo a dramatic
transformation in 2016.

There will be no transformation in 2016, thanks to the state nixing the West End Proposal funding by the DNR Trust Fund from the last few years.  If the West End scheme gets passed this year, it will be due in part to a bunch of misguided state officials thinking this will make a good 'trailhead'.  The West End plan and maps offered to the Ludington public since its inception about a dozen years ago have never included this 'trailhead' option in them.  Here is what we may see at the West End terminus:

The universal access designs will also make the need for such bathrooms being closer to the facility.  Right now, the nearest accessible bathrooms are quite a ways away from the launch as the wheelchair rolls.  Here are the changes  viewed from above:

It's highly credible that CDD Heather Tykoski and City Manager John Shay have placed this trailhead onto the West End designs so as to get more points on their grant application this year.  With the DEQ and other related state agencies going gung ho over trails of any or all types, no matter how ridiculous they appear to you or I, this application will be harder to fight against than it has in previous years. 

Here is what they plan on having the West End looking like below.  The bushes, the canoe racks and the kiosks/signs look as if they are blocking the view of the lake, but nobody who wanted to take a look or picture of the lake in its natural splendor would want to go here anymore anyway after all this is put in place.

[shinblind]

Headsup X

I am getting a malware trojan warning from my security program when I clicked on Trail Towns Master Plan and a failue to load. 

Otherwise a great piece of commentary.

I will weigh in my opinion after I  see the Master Plan.

[XLFD]

Thanks, Shinblind.  Try it now, or try this more direct link:  http://www.ludington.mi.us/DocumentCenter/Home/View/660

[shinblind]

Thanks X. New link works fine.

My initial opinion of the modifications to the West End?

What a load of crap.

[Jasper]

That wheelchair ramp is butt ugly! The ADA does not require beaches to have accessibility. After visiting other places throughout the Country a lot of communities and even Federal Parks these places offer wheelchairs for rent to traverse through sand etc...There are numerous names for them if one googles.....beach access wheelchairs, all terrain wheelchairs etc. they feature oversized balloon type wheels, and are available for manual use/ or battery operated. Now there is a business for someone in the COL! Again those ramps are so not natural fitting with the natural environment!! Who dreams these things up?

[Willy]

Thanks X. If not for you the public would be left out in the cold on this project. All I can say is that this is a monumental waste of money. One would think that we have dollars to burn. Heather and the gang just can't leave this alone. I don't know how many times Aquaman has stated how outsiders are sticking it to Ludington's citizens. These people think they know what's best for everyone and their damn well going to see that everyone gets it even if they have to shove it down their throats. I'm going to read the document you posted then get back to this.

[XLFD]

Thank you very much!  I believe Shay gave up the concrete walkway to the breakwater in his application in order to free up enough cash to do most of the constructions needed for the trailhead in this phase.  If this does go through, look for future applications to go for that walkway again.  When I get a copy of the application he sent to the state, I will complain loudly to the DNR that the public was not given adequate information regarding this year's application. 

If you were at either of the public hearings and viewed the drawings on the MCP and the city website packets, you will discover that nothing to do with the 'trailhead' portion was publicly divulged or explained.

[AQUAMAN]

I think that pierhead walkway was put on the back burner because it politically affects the natural dune, and people are not happy with altering that natural asset we now have there. This entire West End Project on Lud. Ave. could simply be put elsewhere, and not many would be unhappy and fight it most likely. Why not move it then? Say over by the new Maritime Museum or USCG station? There is room there.

[Brad]

Very good investigation X and thanks for posting it.

Obviously the Water Trailhead placement at the West End is nothing more then manipulation of the DNR Trust board by Tykoski and and Shay. 

This information makes me more troubled about what will come.

I had also gotten information from someone who spoke with Tykoski a ways back that makes me think there is a possibility that the city may shut down the West End yet this year.  Maybe to make a point or to show DNR that it's already not in use.

So we all must publicize opposition to others on Facebook, Twitter, etc about the Trust board hearing in October and December.

[Brad]

And... Don't forget that the marina parking lot use to be gated... How long or what kind of instance will have the city reinstalling the gate on that parking lot and making that area restricted..?

[XLFD]

You refer to the boat launch parking at the end of Loomis? 

I believe the WEP was instrumental in that parking lot switching from being gated to not, because the gate interfered with getting extra points on their WEP grant applications for accessibility to the public.  Without the gate, they can say (for now) that the public has free parking there, as long as they do not have a boat trailer and park in certain areas.  Once these grants are secured, or if they someday give up on these grants, it would be a short time before they once again come at a cost for all who park there, and a proving ground for the beach patrol.

[shinblind]

There will be more issues as people who trailer in their boat and kayaks will be subsidizing the kayakers who use a pickup or a cartop carrier.

[XLFD]

Can you imagine how ticked off future kayak guys and gals would get when they trailer in their own kayaks and find themselves being ticketed by the diligent beach patrol officers who try to explain the rules.  It could develop into arrests, fisticuffs and a full house for Sheriff Cole's villa.

I just received the 2016 application back from the MI DNR via FOIA, whom I thank for their very timely response.  I know Aquaman is going to be interested in what I've looked at so far.