Labor Day Week Fence Up, Memorial Day Week Fence Down

[XLFD]

I was walking through Stearns Park last night (Sunday, May 18, 2025) when it struck me that it was less than a week before summer officially started in Ludington with Memorial Day weekend, and we still had sand piles on the beach left by recently removed sand fences and barrel-supported sand fences still along the east side of Stearns Outer Drive.  

I ran the numbers in my head and found that when one adds up the days between the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend to the Monday of Labor Day weekend and you get 100 days.  If the DPW is able to get the beach ready by tomorrow (they were working on leveling the beach this morning), and they begin to put up the snow fences on the Friday after Labor Day (as they have in the past), that leaves 107 days in the year where snow fence is up at Stearns.  In other words, the fencing is up 70.7% of the year.  

This weekend also marked the first day of operations of the SS Badger, Baldwin's Blessing of the Bikes, and even with cloudy and sometimes inclement weather, notably increased traffic on area roads with early visits by tourists.  And yet, all those visitors from across the pond and coming up US 31 to check out what Ludington's premiere beach has to offer only saw barrels and rickety jail-orange fencing.  They couldn't even go to the state park because of its closure as it makes improvements.

Tourists aside, most locals would like to enjoy their own natural gift on the lakeshore but can only do so less than 30% of the time without sharing it with fences and barrels and even less rarely of that time without tourist crowds.  Those who insist on putting up fences early and removing them late, tell us that it needs to be done to minimize the sand loss when big wind weather events happen in the spring and fall and the high cost of cleanup after such events.  Yet, such events are rare from April to October's end, almost as rare as them happening in June to August.  Winds in June are actually stronger in Ludington on average than they are in September.

The City of Ludington puts up fences and barrels as a matter of routine and makes the decision to do so with at most a week or two before or after the 100-day tourist season.  The Ludington Torch has suggested alternatives that avoid the hazards of prematurely putting up fences and barrels, these have been used elsewhere successfully and are worth looking at.

Or we could present the vista above as the first look at our premiere beach to our locals and tourists over 70% of the time and have snow fencing up over 100 days more than the range when snow actually fell during the year.

What do you think?  Should we explore alternatives to the status quo to see if we can expand the useful time for Stearns Beach with minimal cost and effort or should we play it safe and continue laying fence at the end of Labor Day and taking the fence down just before Memorial Day? 

[stump]

I would explore your math , 100 days the fence is up isn't 70% of the year.

[XLFD]

Math is my strength, so I would explore your reading ability, Stump, after I double check my writing ability for an error.  If the fencing is not up 107 days in a year (which is 365.25 days) as it has in the past, the percentage is 29.3%.  In other words, the fencing is up 100% -29.3% = 70.7% of the time.

The 100 days I use at the end of the piece may have been confusing, in that I am saying that there is normally about 100 days in April, May, September and October when the fence is up but there is no snow on the ground.  

[Willy]

I made the same tour as you did but added a few more stops. I toured all the marinas, public and private then the Badger then viewed all the new sandy beach at the end of Ludington Ave along with the sand fence and finally spent time driving on the new asphalt road out to the State Park. 

As far as the sand fence, I don't think the City will ever have another shorter period when the fence is not protecting the park from sand storms because of the big blow we had when the entire grassy area of Stearns Park was covered with sand up to a foot deep at a minimum. The City is just not going to gamble on having another monster sand storm clean up. I would like the fence to be put up later and taken down earlier but that is not going to happen. I remember when that storm happened. I drove my car all during those days taking photos. My car was peppered with sand and there was so much sand that got into by brakes that I had to have the entire system repaired. Cost me a fortune.

I don't doubt your math but I still do not understand your equation.