DEQ report and why it is important to the history of Ludington.

George Towns and Mary Jane Shipley.....

Towns opened the first sportfishing marina in Ludington — the Tamarac Sportfishing Dock — with his sister, Mary Jane Shipley. He made his own downriggers and started a charter operation on his 38-foot boat, Moonlighter.

“It’s hard to estimate what sportfishing did for Ludington,” Towns told the Daily News in 2002. “But a 1969 issue of the Chicago Tribune magazine states that Manistee netted an estimated $1.9 million from the first Great Lakes salmon fishing season in the fall of 1967 and those are 1967 dollars.”

Also there is a wing in the hospital dedicated to Great Aunt Roberta donated by this big hearted man.

Quoted from an article from the LDN Sat Aug 15, 2009. Mary Jane was my grandmother and Uncle(Great uncle) George L as he went by were the passion and people who in a big way helped shape Ludington into what it is today. He was always someone I loved to spend time with, even though I was just a child the way he spoke and his demeanor were something I always looked up to. My grandmother fought hard and worked hard to build this business in a time when it was all male dominated, she knew how to take charge, probably learned as a production worked at GM during the war. Even fought the building of the city marinas and the allowance of charter boats, which she helped win a limit but the current management/DNR do not adhere to.

Another very important legacy they left:

In 1967, the Department of Natural Resources announced which rivers would receive the first coho salmon plantings. The Betsie, the Manistee, the Pentwater and the Muskegon all were stocked, but not the Pere Marquette. Towns and friends Glen Bowden and Walt Leversey were angered by this and lobbied the Michigan Conservation Department (now the DNR) to have the salmon stocked here as well. The Pere Marquette never did get coho salmon plants, but in 1968, the agency opened a rearing pond in Ruby Creek, home to a tributary of the P.M.

So many of us love fishing there that the COL built 2, not 1, but 2 marinas.

So many random thoughts, as a child I used to love going to visit in the spring since there used to be tens of thousands of salmon spawn and living in a cement dock we leased from Lunde Boat Co, getting ready to swim out to the lake. How long has it been since fishing was still ok in the PM lake? maybe since 2008?

This "small" area called the pm bayou or creamy corners drain has so much importance to the area. Whether it be a rich history that brought fishing to this area, the important people that helped build up this town, help build an infrastructure and huge manufacture home park , a clean safe area for salmon to spawn and move on. What does it take to get through to the people that are getting big paychecks to do what is right? WHY WILL THEY NOT CLEAN THE ROAD OUT OF THE BAYOU THAT HAS BEEN THERE SINCE 2008 THAT THEY RECIEVED FUNDS FOR TO REMOVE?

I am just asking that the COL respect its history and do what they should have done years ago and clean this mess up. Sad that this once great legacy is almost out of business only because the COL will not clean its road out of the bayou from 2008 and maintain the creamy corners drain, its been many, many years!

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Interesting history jfc123. After looking at some photos of the bayou drainage I have a question you may be able to answer. The large concrete drains are the replacement for the old collapsed drain but I'm curious as to what area the third opening is serving. It appears to be a metal drain. I've circled the drain opening that is in question.  Do you know where the water comes from that feeds this drain? City streets or the parking lot across the street?

Thinking that was prior to the mess?

How many knew of this, btw still in the bayou not cleaned or maintained!

http://www.masoncountypress.com/2012/11/26/ludington-repairing-sewe...

Shay needs to go, why cover this up? If it was the city marina what would be the outcome? Love this site, all I need to do is bookmark and send to potential attorneys, to steal from my fav pastime, football, "common man!"

Maybe it is Shays faulty raw sewage into the bayou drain line that he will never clean up?

I'm going to send a FOIA to the city to find out what this pipe is for.  Thanks needs to go to Willy for not only noticing this, but drawing a nice yellow circle around the drain that will help further explain my request.

See the past article here, which explains a FOIA I sent to get to the bottom of it:  http://ludingtoncitizen.ning.com/forum/topics/an-emergency-city-man...

Due to the Wizards of Ning, some of the links and pictures in the article did not survive their fiddling around.  I will look at my E-mails and see what I got to help your cause further.

Thank you!

Here's the invoice.  The article describes what our city management did wrong.  You think with a city manager, an assistant city manager and WWTP supervisor Rob Allard (currently Village Manager of Pentwater) handling this at the time you could get more than a work invoice for the $10,000 + expenditure.   

Good observation and question, Willy.  Further up I heard there were some other mystery drain(s) going into the lake between the bayou and the carferry docks.  With the DEQ's complacence on Flint and other Ludington problems, one cannot rest easy without wondering whether they are doing their jobs responsibly.  They appear little more than run-of-the-mill bureaucrats from Cadillac and other far away places.

I was looking at a satellite map of the area and from what I could tell [I could be wrong] the concrete outlet drains in the bayou are fed by a drainage ditch that I traced from the bayou to the corner of W. Sixth St. and S. Meyers Rd. This drain zig zags thru a lot of areas that might be considered industrial including next to the sewage treatment plant. It's possible that this drain ends at the plant and Mosquito Creek may begin at the same area which can be confusing. I can see where a lot of questionable drainage could run into this drain and empty into the bayou. I tried to link the map to this reply but was unable to do so. So I'm including a link to the web site where the Ludington area can be found by zooming in on the map.  http://www.earthcam.com/mapsearch/

Great info here also Willy, the DEQ report details a lot of what each company could have contributed to the mess in the bayou. This is why I printed 2 480 page copies to give to whoever will represent us in court. All are to blame but Granholm signed a clean up and the col council and mayor spent it elsewhere. Worst part is the raw sewage, and the subsequent raw sewage breaks  even after, and never cleaned up. Remember they closed the beaches for a reason, it flows per DNR charting north right into your drinking water intake!

Not gonna stop because you in Ludington are going to pay for 1.2-1.8 million in bonds floated and paid for by taxpaying citizens to upgrade the city marina for the snobs that look down on most. How many out their want to pay more tax dollars to bring in more people to look down at you in the store? The Marina board is headed by people that fit this profile, when is the last time your tax dollars allowed you anything special at "your" marina? At least Cedar Point gives locals a discount, Disney also?

Also the fact that the bathrooms at the City Marina are off limits to the general public, the same public who provided the money to have it built. What we should all do is make an effort to use those bathrooms and after finding them locked simply relieve ourselves in the gas and oil filled waters at the end of a City Marina dock.

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