MDOT Agrees to Open Red Door Gallery Curbs Against Public Safety Concerns

[XLFD]

In 2009, the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) used a fair amount of funds for closing a bunch of curbs on South James Street in Ludington (which also happens to be part of the US 10 highway).  Curbs had been opened throughout Ludington's history on that state highway even before it achieved that designation for past businesses driveways and parking lots.  

 

A letter from Richard Liptak of MDOT was sent to several property owners on South James, telling them of their intent to close these openings in the curbs to promote safety and to enhance roadside parking opportunities (the following letter has its recipient's name and address removed):

It contained the map below, which I have modified slightly with red characters to show what were the proposed curb closings that have been closed since that letter, and which have not.  The numbers will refer to the pictures below taken over this last weekend.

Number one was a driveway opening at the side of Brill's Manufacturing which has been converted to a side door access for them.  The curb closed is between the two orange arrows below, minus the pedestrian/handicapped curb cut:

 

Number two was an opening just south of Ann's Preferred Uniforms leading to a vacant grassy lot.  The area between the two red arrows below had curbs installed:

Number three is just before the crosswalk just south of Melendy Street, perhaps used at one point to load and unload at the nearby door.  The area between the two green arrows have been re-curbed:

Number four served as a James Street access point to what was a supermarket at one point long ago; the curb area between the purple arrows were closed using stimulus money from 2009:

Further up James Street, you can find more curb cuts that have been recently filled using the same techniques and materials used in the four previous fillings.  This picture shows one of these just south of Danaher, just beyond the map's range.  There are others further.

 

The following picture shows the situation at 420 South James Street, a lot just sold to the Grubich-St. Hillaire enterprise, Sweetwater LLC in a sweetheart deal at the latest Ludington City Council meeting. 

 

Part of the conditions the owners of the Red Door Galleries dictated for purchasing this lot was that they would be able to make a curb cut at the north side of this lot's street interface, as seen in the following E-mail to Rick Liptak of MDOT (the same person who sent the 2009 letter) by their proxy, Ludington CM John Shay. 

 

This lot which had been  assessed at nearly $50,000 eleven years ago (while neighboring parcels have spiked in value), was to be sold by the City of Ludington for $5000 by John Shay, who went to bat for the business with MDOT.  Not surprisingly, neighboring businesses Gibson's Custom Homes and Kirby who had written expressed interest in the lot years earlier (in 2006 and 2007 respectively), were not given any opportunity to get this property now:

In the second area highlighted, Shay indicates that the lot would allow a 'vehicle' to turn around inside the lot so they wouldn't be backing out of it.  Deceptively, he does not indicate that this would be a vehicle with attached trailer and that the proposed look of the lot would not allow such a vehicle-trailer combo to reorient itself within that area.

As seen in these strings of E-mails, you can see further instances of City Manager Shay trying diligently to unilaterally get MDOT to waive the public's safety and ignore extra parking opportunities, so as to open this curb for his daughter's soccer coach and his wife who has already profited from her time in Ludington's DDA making glassware for the New Year's Eve Ball Drops.  In the end, decision-maker Dan Lund makes a decision that he is clearly not comfortable with:  opening the curb at that location is viable: 

The permit process is currently underway to make this location very unsafe, since the owners will either have to back into the curb cut or back out of it with their trailer.  The whole length of South James Street has visibility issues at every access point because of the on-street parking, bump-outs, and buildings built close to the curb.  These force people to move into the main portion of James Street just to see whether there is traffic coming.

 

Isn't it ironic (or perhaps moronic) that MDOT's Rick Liptak (above) has all these basically unused curb cuts closed for safety and economic development purposes (increased parking spaces) back in 2009 at a good cost to the taxpayers, only to agree five years later to lobby and receive affirmation for opening a curb in that same area that will be arguably the most dangerous driveway opening on US 10 in Ludington and go counter to economic development (take away a couple of parking spaces)? 

[Willy]

Blatant cronyism. I would like to ask Shay if he received a bribe for this favor. I can ask that question because this deal is so obviously contrary to what would be considered prudent use of City property. Selling valuable property at an extreme loss to an acquaintance who is allowed to exit and enter the lot in such a way as to be dangerous to the public. These people are thumbing their noses at the citizens of Ludington. This deal makes all of the Council and Mayor subject to criticism that could include bribery and racketeering. If I were them I would release, to the public, all of the data and information regarding this deal to avoid the obvious questions that illegal activity may have  transpired to make this deal possible.

[AQUAMAN]

"These people are thumbing their noses at the citizens of Ludington". And now we can easily conclude, the MDOT authorities too. Willy, you've got that exactly right. This entire deal "STINKS" from top to bottom. CC Kathy and others in collusion with Shay says it doesn't? Bad FISH Stinks, and this one is a real stinker! How can they sit there and get away with this one? NO PUBLIC OUTCRY is why! Thanks for the great report X, timely and thoughtfully revealed as usual.