Circa Fifteen Years Ago

Back in the late 20th century, I took the kids down to play at the new Waterfront Park overlooking the Ludington Municipal Marina.  At this point in the development of that area by the previous administrations, the playground equipment had been installed, but the band shell pavilion (with its restrooms with a view) had not yet been constructed.  There had been times when one or more blue porta-johns were in the area, but on this particular occasion they were not available.  It may have been too early or too late in the year. 

 

Anyhow, as the afternoon progressed the natural urge to purge took hold of them, and their mother suggested they should go to the nearby, newly-constructed marina bathrooms inside the Ludington Municipal Marina.  Us adults believed the marina was a public facility, and we allowed the kids to go ahead and use the restrooms.  Imagine our disappointment, particularly the kids', when they doubled back and reported that the bathrooms were locked and most had combination locks on them and said "boaters only".  A fact I confirmed by looking at the doors, and their mother confirmed by asking the marina employee she located.   

 

 

Fortunately, one was able to hold out until they got to the nearby Wesco.  It kind of struck me as odd at the time that they would restrict the general public from the restrooms at a public facility. 

 

And Recent Revelations

 

While poring over some records from a recent FOIA request's reply from the Michigan DNR,  came across an interesting agreement between the City of Ludington and the Michigan DNR about the bathroom facilities that were funded by State taxpayers by and large.  Here is most of the first page of that agreement:

The City as you can see, shared the cost of the construction of this facility with the much-needed restrooms and showers for transient, recreational boaters to on their mind.  But nary is a word said about how the seasonal/long-term boaters and charter boat crews would be able to use these facilities in the preamble.  However, later on in the terms and conditions:

"Open to the public on equal and reasonable terms"?  Shortly after these were built in 1997, two young kids needed to use these restrooms badly and found that they could not open the door, that the door said they weren't able to use them because they were not boaters, and told by a high school kid that they would have to park their butts elsewhere.  Then and now, the City Marina, a public facility originating by public funds, and subsidized greatly each year by even more public funds, insists that the public that paid for them cannot use them, only those wealthy enough to afford a recreational boat (or a charter boat, the City Marina hasn't been following agreements involving that aspect either) and purchase a slip at the marina can do so.  See the complete agreement here.

 

This is a clear and ongoing violation of the agreement, and should make the City liable for the funds that the MI DNR contributed.  The Ludington Torch will fight to save our kids, and everyone else, the embarrassment of being denied entrance to these public restrooms.  Particularly since these marina restrooms likely do not have cameras trained on their toilets and urinals.

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Good find X. I agree with you. This is a publicly built and publicly paid for facility and should be open to the public.

 Thanks, I overlooked including the full agreement in the thread heading, and added it for completeness sake just now.  And whether it should, or not, it is part of the agreement, which Ludington has decided not to do, snubbing their noses at the DNR who have paid a lot of bills at our public marina at the expense of competing in a free market with our private marinas. 

I was ion Pentwater the other day and noticed that the bathrooms there at the public marina are locked with the same type of door lock, they do have a unisex restroom on the other side of the building but the showers and restrooms that are designated "women" and "men" are locked.

Thanks for that info, Ill check that out over this next week, to see whether the marina there has similar restrictions.  As quite often happens, today's public servants do not seem to believe that written rules and public agreements do not apply to them.  Time to re-educate them.

On the one hand, unless you look like a vagrant or panhandler, you can usually ask almost any boater nearby for the combo, and they will gladly give it to you, esp. if kids need to go. However, on the other hand, since the contract for these facilities specifically states that these bathrooms are to be open to the general public, the COL has a snafu to explain, and to correct for the future. Imagine that this has been going on for 16 years already, and no one until now uncovered this breach of trust and contract, hmmm. My guess is that this too will not be changed by the CM nor CC. It does open them to another legal case in the future,  either way imho.

You'd think that would be the case, an eight year old girl doing the potty dance wasn't enough to get the use of these bathrooms.  But she was turned aside because the parents, taxpaying members of the community did not have a boat in the marina.  I couldn't find fault with the employee, however, since they were at least following protocol set by the marina manager, who directly or indirectly had the 'no public restroom' idea advanced by the marina board, who really should know better-- but don't.

This won't get changed solely by the actions of Ludington personnel; if anything happens look at the initiative coming from the Waterways Commission/MI DNR. 

Your right Aquaman and X the City will ignore this and continue an their merry contract ignoring ways.

Wouldn't it be interesting to know if in fact these restrooms also have cameras installed for spying on boaters too? It sure wouldn't surprise me after what we know now about other restrooms in the city of Ludington.

I find that highly likely, particularly since the year 2000 camera invoices show the purchase of smoke detector cameras for the 'water maintenance' fund.  Wouldn't it be ironic if the LPD or DPW has been recording  Mayor Henderson's daughters (who worked there during summers) taking showers and going bathroom at the marina? 

In an article in today's COLDNews named"Manistee opens marina showers, offers drinking water to residents w..." it is divulged:  "Starting on Thursday, the Manistee Municipal Marina restrooms and showers will be open for use by residents suffering from frozen water pipes.

City Manager Mitch Deisch announced the policy Wednesday afternoon.

The marina is at 480 River Street and it will be open for use of its shower and restroom facilities between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. Monday through Friday until March 20. 

Residents will need to bring their own personal hygiene items (towels, shampoo, deodorant, etc...) with them. People using the Municipal Marina facilities are asked to park on River Street and access the facility down the service drive."

In Manistee there are an estimated 70 households that have had frozen pipes and are without water utilities.  One has to wonder that if we had similar numbers in Ludington, which we might, would our city manager open up the verboten, unlawfully closed to the public, facilities at our supposedly public marina that the city leaders just petitioned the State DNR for the first of six grants (maximum $150,000 each) for the docks at these facilities?   No-- they're too busy applying for more state DNR grants for the West End Projects to screw up Stearns' Park to have to deal with such trivia as citizens living in Third World conditions.

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