In the October 5th Reader's Forum of the City of Ludington Daily News (COLDNews) they printed the two statements Diane Seelhoff delivered at the Ludington City Council meeting on September 25th.  We have already looked at the second part in "I Guess That's Why They Call It COLDNews", ironically the slight of their city hall reporter inspired Ms. Seelhoff to submit the comments to the paper.  If you think about it, the COLDNews editor is kind of illustrating to the public that their reporter was lax in his coverage.  

Diane Seelhoff, a recent member of our on-line community here at the Ludington Torch, brings up valid points about the proposed splash pad.  I would add that she had a bit longer list of questions that were never addressed before the city council gave the go ahead to set a portion of Cartier Park aside.  At this last meeting, there were still a lot of specifics about the splash pad that have still not been decided, even the three splash pad committee members that showed up were not answering Fourth Ward citizen Chuck Sobanski's query about the source of water for the splash pad; I would add that they still haven't indicated where the water would go afterwards.  Would it be pumped up the big hill to the WWTP or just drain into the nearby Pere Marquette Lake?  

Had this been an issue that went in front of the voters last fall, one would think that those specifics and more would have been investigated and presented to the public.  Instead it came before the city council, and with few questions and even fewer answers, the council approved the site and effectively committed to the maintenance and water/sewer costs once it would be built.  The public was given an even vaguer picture, being introduced to the proposal the weekend before the Monday it was rammed through.  Since the last meeting, we are committed to the larger splash pad without knowing specifics of where it will be placed or the difference in maintenance costs it will incur over the smaller pad.

Now neither I nor Diane would think of depriving our area's kids from a 'free' miniature water park in our town, but our children and their future children deserve all of our communities adults making an informed decision about the particulars, so as to sensibly consider all of the variables that need to be decided for this to be the best 'community' splash pad anywhere.  With the additional bonus that everything was thoroughly thought through and democratically approved.  

What do you think?  Are there any other concerns that Diane, Chuck, I, or others have left out?  Do you think this project could have been done better?  Does it make you believe even more so that the loss of the Copeyon Park fishing dock and wholesale destruction of 16 mature trees (many not diseased) where the splash pad is going was planned by city management, even though city officials have tried to deny it?

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I completely agree with all points by Diane, Chuck, and you... 110%. The placement is not the best and the specifics must be worked out and publicized before construction. I also think the city should put any change, or creation, to any park must be put to public vote. No matter the wording or interpretation of the city manager, city lawyer, and council.
There is also the issue of liability insurance cost on citizens and the presumable future security for the splash pad.
The dock must return too.

No... Thank you for all you're doing, caring, and speaking for Ludington and it's citizens.

I am absolutey stunned that the LDN printed her comments from the City Council meeting regarding X, FOIA and lawsuits.  I agree with DIanne's editorial. She makes a strong case for putting on the brakes regarding the splash park and looking at it in a more public and rational way. Isn't this the case with almost everything Shay and the Council are involved with. They sneak around and do as they please even while questions as to their motives and process are left unanswered.

One of the other main concerns I have is the hill at the entrance to the park. How in the World will handicap people be able to negotiate it when they are not riding in a car? And what about kids riding their bikes down the hill with vehicle traffic coming and going?

To me this is a no brainer. Copeyan Park is not the place for a water park. There are to many questions about it's feasibility to be utilized as the City wishes to do. Why not put it in the large green space located at the water front park near the marina or on the open area south of the Loomis st.  parking lot. How about stopping the boondoggle low income apartments downtown which will be costing taxpayers millions and install the water park there. Of course that would never happen because Ludingtons politicians and their cronies would loose a lot of graft induced loot.

His tactic last night was to try and discredit the city's critics by pointing to one error made in your calculation of water usage of the splash pad, try to lump it with my challenged premise of the listening session being a meeting of the city council (and ergo falling under the rules of the Open Meetings Act), and other recent claims made by others coming before the council, and suggest it's all misinformation and disinformation. 

It's a tactic that has been often used by Councilors Holman and Castonia before him to attempt to publicly shame and embarrass those who challenge their oft-erroneous beliefs.  Councilor Mike Krauch has shown he reads the Ludington Torch, if just for fuel for his feigned outrages, and councilor packets, so he wouldn't have likely missed your revised numbers, Dianne.  

Consider that he had to dig deep to find his criticism, in making your own conclusion that you are not only being heard, but you are also making them itch.  Undoubtedly, Little Mikey was irked that you praised the city clerk without kissing the ring on his pudgy little pinky or any other of the corrupted officials up in their raised thrones.

dianne

First of all, for as many years as I have been on this forum, it is a very rare occasion that X has ever used words describing someone negatively. If he does then whomever gets his descriptive assessment does in fact deserve the labels applied. X is always the calm and reason on the forum. If you could have seen how he has been treated over the years, I'm sure, you would agree with me. He has been personally attacked, maligned, his reputation has been smeared, he's been lied about and to, he has been deceived and in general treated like dirt by the established political cult that exists in Ludington. Krauch is getting off easy because he deserve a much harsher treatment not only by X but by all the decent hard working citizens who pay the bills and who are getting the shaft on every turn by Krauch and his cohorts. I'm not trying to be harsh with you but you must understand how years of mistreatment can cause people, at times, to be less than diplomatic. X has always been the gentleman and voice of reason but as far as I'm concerned what X stated was completely relevant to how the game of politics is played in Ludington.

 

Hate crime? No. Not at all.

Satire? Maybe.

Mockery? Definitely.

A public official even at as low a level trough as being an appointed Ludington city commissioner, should have thick enough skin as to not attack a concerned citizen especially without allowing the benefit of a rebuttal.

Krauch has earned the right to be mocked.

His stature seems to have left him as Napoleonic. 

Or as John Shay's lap dog.

Well said dianne. I like your style.

Would anyone from the Splash Pad Committee (SPC) like to address the common sense issue of having the splash pad abut a chemical plant?  No disrespect to Oxychem and their employees (they were there first) but is this the best and only location that the SPC could come up with?  This makes as much sense as constructing an athletic field next to a sewage plant. Oh wait that also happened locally.

It is unfortunate that the city didn't follow Port Huron's lead of constructing a state of the art splash pad using their $300.000 recreation grant money and instead Ludington will apply it of destroying the West End of the Avenue.

Oh and that $300,000 is about what a splash pad with all the amenities cost, not $100,000 as the SPC would like you to believe.

I see the splash pad as being nothing more but a diversion by the city to get people to focus away from the West End Scheme. 

And I would like to also hear why they couldn't find the funds to fix the fishing dock at Copeyon Park for est.$15,000 but they found the funds to buy a new truck for the rental inspector dude to drive around for $20,000 with him not having much to do for the next 2 years.

This is the city council mind set at work. A cabal of assholes as it is.

Thank you Dianne Seelhoff for writing the readers forum of the LDN. I hope citizens actually digest that article, and start to wake up to what's going on around our city hall officials. The notion that FOIA requests are not being answered and denied most of the time is strictly a vengeful individual named Shyster Shay that uses his position as a bully pulpit against X for his personal attacks. The Copeyan Park location I suspect will never get voted on, Shay has stated, as others have on the council, that they alone are in charge of these decisions, not the public. That attitude and position has us in the current fiasco of financial ruin with infrastructure nowadays.

The city's notion is that when anybody gets used to bad this or that, you put up with it, and forget it exits. That is all too true, unfortunately. You get used to bad cooking, you eat it. You get used to a bad spouse and don't do anything, you put up with it. Finally, you get used to bad streets, bad water, bad air, and bad governing, you feel you can't do anything anyhow, and get used to it, and put up with it. That being said, we don't have to put up with unethical and immoral governing, we can oust those whom continue in that fashion, thru voting, and thru recalls. And if it's an appointee, we can fire him, like Shyster Shay, he is way past due for this, just need to face it, and see that it's done asap. Trouble is, the city council makes that decision, and they must see him for what he really is, eventually, or else continue with him as a crook. 

I have a second home where there is a splash pad about 300 feet away. Kids are bused in with multiple busses during the late spring when school is still in session for special outings. Ludington's splash pad will  need seating for all those parents also. No place to set, never come back. parking problem solved.   Ludington's city water will be ice cold till August , maybe never warm enough to play in. Just waste of tax payers money that nobody will use.

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