Fishing for Fairness

[David Organ]

I went fishing on July 30th at around 7:00 AM.  I took my boat on its trailer down to the Loomis Street boat launch area, and parked in the handicapped parking area in the lot down at the beach for that purpose, as I have a handicapped parking permit. 

 

 

I chose to park in the second spot at the ramp, because I figured that if I parked in the first spot, there would not be enough room for other boaters to use the three southernmost boat launch spots.  I also chose to park just a little ahead of the blue line so that other boaters would have more room.  My trailer was about two feet over the line into the first handicapped spot, as you can see here:

 

 

When I came back from fishing (when the above photo was taken), I had a parking violation on my truck.  I checked around and found that there were 6 or 7 other trucks ticketed for the same violation of improper parking and/or double parking.  Some had done a better job than I at parking, like these guys:

 

 

I also noticed, however, that there was also some Michigan State Police (MSP) dive team training going on who had come there with there own trailers and many of these people were parked over the lines on the pavement for parking, but for some odd reason, exactly zero of them had any parking tickets like the rest of us.

 

 

Thinking this wasn't exactly fair, I went to the Ludington Police Department and tried to explain to the police chief, a Mr. Mark Barnett, the reason why I was over the line, which as I said, was to allow others to be able to use the boat launch without interference.  I am completely deaf in my right ear, and 80% deaf in my left and so I have a habit of talking loud; he cautioned me that I was talking to loud and to tone it down. 

 

He was not willing to relax the enforcement of this ticket, so I invited him to go down to the boat launch so I could show him my reasoning (and perhaps the MSP's sloppy parking too), and he said he would look but that he wasn't going to dismiss the ticket.  I asked him whether there were any complaints as to how I parked and he admitted there were none.  

 

Further arguing along these points had him telling me that I was to get out of his office or he was going to arrest me.  I pointed my finger at his body and told him it was part of his job to hear my complaint, and then he accused me later of pointing my finger in his face.  When it felt useless to argue further, I paid off the $30 for the ticket (the ticket made by Beach Patrol Officer Kennedy was for $75, so I got an unexpected rebate thanks to the Chief not paying attention to detail).  

 

He asked whether I wanted a receipt, and I said "Yes, because I don't trust you!".  He then hollered at me to get out of his building, which I was happy to do after I received the receipt, but I thought it was rude and unprofessional of him to do so.  I needed to get back to Loomis Street to clean the fish I had caught.  I purposely parked in the first handicapped space to show them the problem I spoke of earlier. 

 

After about twenty minutes, Chief Barnett came down in a white SUV while I was still cleaning my fish.  He looked at the situation but did nothing, and even though he noticed me there, he would not talk with me.  I have noticed that the white-shirts of the beach patrol do seem to spend an awful lot of time in this area with their 4X4 vehicle when they are supposed to be keeping the beach safe. 

 

I don't see how ticketing a bunch of vacationing and resident boaters at the Loomis parking lot for imperfect parking is making our beach safer.  Except that maybe these boaters will think twice about coming to Ludington beach in the first place to launch (unless they are State police, Conservation Officers, or the like) for fear of getting $75 tickets for having a tire on the line or because you are being considerate to your fellow boaters. 

[Dave]

Odd how some of the cities officials would rather chase away money then to keep it in town... don't really understand that concept... apparently they are either a lot smarter then us or really just as dumb as we suspect some of them to be.

[AQUAMAN]

Thanks to both Dave's for the comments. I too was told this past week that a whole lot of parking violation tickets were issued at Loomis St. ramp. One gentleman came over to our marina, and asked for a slip rental, because he was very upset with a ticket issued to his friend, and many others, which they could not understand the rational reasoning for. It seems the LPD/Beach Patrol is on a mission. That of making an issue of nothingness to most fisherman coming to Ludington for many decades, and never being treated like this before. It bespeaks of childish behavior, and new rules, all of a sudden. The LAST GUYS visiting Ludington that should be hassled, is the fisherman. This industry ALONE keeps Ludington on the map, and the merchants thriving, at least for a short few months. What are you people thinking? And how come, as mostly usual, do authorities parked the same or worse, get off getting no tickets? Double standards again is what I say. Chief Barnett, please use your noggin, this is the busiest month of year for our fishing industry. Don't destroy what the rest of the fishing community has done to enhance it for the entire State of Michigan visitors that want to fish here. They can just as well go elsewhere, like Manistee, Pentwater, Whitehall, and many other ports that DON'T do this kind of petty thing. I am sure some damage is already done, and that won't be easy to fix now that the cat is outa the bag. We can cancel many of those shyster tickets now though, and keep some respect and loyalty alive. Would the LPD/Beach Patrol please concentrate on the duties you were hired for? That of reckless law breakers, and watching the beach for sudden drownings?

[XLFD]

That would explain why I have recently been seeing the white shirts of the "Beach" Patrol over in that parking lot lately-- when I am able to find them at all. 

Let's not forget City Officials, that unfair laws, two-tiered justice, and unjust actions of our public officials are the greatest energizers of the electorate than anything else.  When our police chief regularly violates, or allows violations of laws by his department, while enforcing dipstick laws on people that are clearly not meaning to violate the law in their parking, they potentially tick a lot of people off. 

Witness the origins of this website, effectively created not by me, but by the actions of the current code enforcement officer (who recently almost ran me over) and the Ludington Police Department and their current chief back in 2008.  I will stay active until the cancer affecting our City's government is allowed to continue unabated and unchecked, so that I can least have my abatements and checks of it.  I believe that at least for now, Dave Organ has been similarly baptized by the LPD into seeing Ludington City Government for the farce it has become during the Shay-Henderson-Barnett years.

[David Organ]

Amen Man! On sunday morning I was down at loomis ramp at 6am and a man at the dock was having medical problem asking for help because he was having chest pain, there was no officer there to help this man someone called 911 and ambulance was first one there to help this poor man!

[Willy]

I would bet that the Police Chief had been given orders to step up enforcement of the parking violations in order to raise revenue but such short sighted policies have a tendency to back fire just as this might do. Word of mouth gets around fast and I'm sure many fishermen will find other places to launch their boats. I hate to call City officials stupid but this type of enforcement is just that.

[David Organ]

thanks willy

[Willy]

Dave O

What have you been hearing from other folks using the boat launch? Are they going elsewhere or are they still going to keep using Ludingtons facility?

[AQUAMAN]

Take a look at picture #2, with the red truck and white trailer, note the new handicap sign just erected of recent. This is new, and so are the blue lines on the tarmack. I just barely missed hitting this the other day as it was never there before. Since then I see it has been hit fairly well, perhaps several times, and is now bent over at an angle. This is a hazard, not worthy signage. After talking with several other fisherman on fishing forums, I've heard quite a few complaints about the tickets too. No one wants this kind of petty nitpicking on parking down there. Some fisherman said they are going to Manistee, where this doesn't occur at all. Great job COL, thanks for chasing out your summer bread and butter to our area.

[David Organ]

Talk with man from ann arbor and he wanted to know if we had any private boat dock that could be used. he was unhappy with his ticket,his was for not displaying a daily sticker in his window, the officer was down there and he asked  him ( the officer) to check lock box that he had put his money in that box with his plate number on it and the officer refuse to look! 

[XLFD]

A truck and trailer combo was parked in the same location as Dave O's, and ticketed last night, but the ticket was not for improperly parking in a handicapped place, but for parking without a permit (a $30 offense).  Dave had a permit was parked the same way at the same location, but was given a $75 ticket.  The ticket-writer was different, so maybe these jokers should get on the same page in their effort to drive recreational fishermen away from the Ludington area.

I pity the boaters that will take fifteen minutes or more to park so as to stay off any part of the line, just to avoid these nuisance tickets. 

 

[XLFD]

I also saw a couple more tickets attached to windshields, but exactly none to these three parkers who all qualified the previous week for 'double parking' or 'improper parking' by parking on or over the parking line.  They had been there for a while too.  Maybe Dave's discussion with Chief Barnett had them change their policy?  As always, anyone from the City is welcome to post such change here or in the more accommodating City of Ludington Daily News (COLDNews).

[Willy]

If you look at the width of many of the boat trailers they would just barely fit in between the lines and would be rubbing wheel wells with adjacent trailers. Also most drivers assume the trailer is straight when the vehicle towing it is straight and never give  the trailer much thought. Ludington should stop this nonsense immediately and put on a friendly face for fishermen. I also wonder how many spaces will be given up to make way for the new Ludington ave. west end boondoggle tax gulping waste of money renovation.