The Place Where Ludington Talks
Unbeliveable pt 2!
It is so sad this happened! The Macomb County Executive was fighting for clean up of Lake St. Clair the other day when Snyder was here speaking. The COL council tames my statement like it is no big deal! The fact that Madison Rd, our docks and all of the raw sewage is still there is a HUGE deal since Gov. Granholm and the Federal government gave them money to clean it up. They spent it elsewhere! FRAUD! Plain and simple!
The fact they left out that they are spending 1.2-1.8 million on their city owned marinas for upgrades and have dredged 2-3 times proves they are not acting as a city/democracy should in helping all of its residents. They told us they did not have any money to clean the bayou?
The MDEQ report states point blank, the east end of the bayou is unusable except for even the smallest of boats due to the 2008 storm debris still being there!
This has been a life changing event that happened to us. We were running a thriving business until that storm. The COL inactions have caused us great loss. The founder of this marina is why salmon fishing is in Ludington, doesn't that matter to them?
This is true history and why we matter:
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.
As it turned out, the PM got plenty of those initial coho plants when they returned from Lake Michigan on their spawning runs, but the river — and by association, Ludington — got the lion’s share of the first class of Chinook salmon.
Towns opened the first sportfishing marina in Ludington — the Tamarac Sportfishing Dock — with his sister, Mary Jane Shipley. He made 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.”
He raised Christmas trees in the area and then took them to Chicago to sell them. George Jr. said he would come home with stacks of cash from the sales.
George Sr. was involved with creating the Ludington Pumped Storage Plant. He had a contract to dig and haul clay for the project.
“He devoted most of his time to that project,” said George Jr. “He stopped all of his other work. He worked at night because he wanted to get everything done. He would eat dinner, go to work, come home and sleep a little and then do it all over again.”
George Jr. said his dad’s work was so well-known and projects came his way in multitudes.
“Everybody loved him, I have never met a person that was as loved as dad,” said George Jr.
With partner Glen Bowden, George Sr. purchased the carferries in 1983 from the C&O Railroad. They formed the Michigan-Wisconsin Transportation Company with a fleet, including the SS Badger, SS Spartan and SS City of Midland.
We are not outsiders as Krauch tries to say. My immediate family has owned since 1983. Mary Jane, Georges sister opened this marina. We are originals and why the COL has been able to build 2 marinas and spend so much!
We just want to be the same property we were before the COL WWTP failed and dumped on us, is that too much to ask?
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by XLFD on
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You deserve answers from the current city mismanager. Don't expect to get them cheaply.
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Permalink Reply by jfc123 on
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Agreed! Problem is finding someone to help us find those answers that wont try to just drain an elderly couples bank account. Sad this is the way government treats its people! There is absolutely no integrity anymore it seems. I would not be able to sleep at night if I treated people like this.
Again thank you XLFD for this forum and your desire for the greater good, you have allowed me to vent my frustrations which is appreciated!
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Permalink Reply by Willy on
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It's to bad but the 4th Ward has always been sort of looked down upon by the City. I don't know why but that attitude definitely is practiced by the current Council and Administration. The bayou could be a beautiful area but it is being treated by the City as though it were an unwanted stepchild.
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I agree Willy, well at least it has been since the COL built their first marina, got much worse when they built their second!. Prior when there were the big salmon tournaments and no city marinas the council members then were always looking for photo ops when boats were lined down Water St. waiting to be launched at a property we leased from Lunde Boat co. The line ran east and down Madison and was an hour long! The good ole days, the ones that built this city!
They are afraid to clean us up with the mess made by their WWTP failure but I will keep emailing the state AG until action happens!
Well, unless I meet a good respectable lawyer that wants to make some money!
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Want to see some beautiful fish caught back then? Stop in we have 3 trophies cased that are reminiscent of those times.
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One more thing Willy, out of all the docks available in Ludington, all things equal, where would you rather dock you 100k boat as far as safety from the weather? Ideally the one on the west side of the pm Lake but second has to be the PM bayou with its inland setting and low lying reach from storms/winds!
If you don't agree then think back how many boats were damaged in the 2008 storm? Yet the surge that went in there was about 10 feet high at the bridge as noted by a very respected owner.
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