DEQ report requested by COL

[jfc123]

Hoping that some of this money the COL is trying to collect is going to clean the Creamy corners/PM bayou mess as described by the DEQ it its latest 480 page report that the COL requested. Have waited patiently for 2.5 months and have seen/heard no clean up plan. The COL has a marina and need it full so I guess that is why they have no regard for us, a mom and pop operation just trying to make its way. DNR, DEQ, city/state government, why are you not trying to help tax paying businesses out? Why does it seem so blatant that the COL and Mason county are corrupt? And the bigger question is why can no one expose and correct the issues there? Why do they have all of the power? Who out there can help us?

[AQUAMAN]

You hit the nail on the head there Willy. Sorry for your experience. They are responsible though for boats when people live out of town, or even in town, and liability issues too for lawsuits if someone gets hurt or drowns. Someone from the outside defecated in a men's urinal last Labor Day weekend too, so that's a bad scene and concern for the paying marina customers.

[Willy]

Any of the marina slip renters could be thieves or could have left that tootsie roll where it's not wanted. No offense but those are just excuses to keep the peons out. The marina customers are not the only ones paying for that marina. If the marinas were privately owned, were self sufficient and needed no tax dollars or Government help to operate then they could legitimately exclude whomever they please. The marinas feed off the Government but try to act as though they are independent and self sufficient. They think they're operating a country club or yacht club. I'm sorry but these types of people whose noses are up in the air while at the same time having their hands in the taxpayers pocket trying to get at their wallets won't get any respect from me.

[jfc123]

100% agree Willy! Taxpayer backed means open to all, period, what makes it different from a park! The fact that they act like this and can get away with it just proves the corruption that is happening there, most backed by people that have money. Ludington and Mason county left that tootsie roll in the pm bayou and have not cleaned it up and are putting us out of business. DEQ pointed it out, in detail, EPA, COL, state of MI all a blind eye, well until we come with that attorney im searching for. He/she is out there and our team is coming. There are huge loss/damages to be fought for, not just them cleaning it up! We did not start this the COL did with their lack of response. We are a God loving, trusting family whose trust has been violated and I am seeking retribution and to recover what we have lost, which is a lot! Why can a government compete against its taxpayers? I thought this was the USA? This is illegal.

[AQUAMAN]

I totally agree with all your points Willy, just wanted to point out some other factors that play into the big picture. Believe me, I have encountered the same more times than I want to count on the same 2 taxpayer operated marinas in the past. Now, I also want to address what jfc said about higher taxes to pay for broken water and sewer infrastructure, that which is the COL's duty to maintain with every tax dollar it takes in, every year. It has been neglected severely, in place of way too many tourist related projects. The COL either has already, or will soon be floating, about $13 Million in bonds to correct problems they are responsible for, and have known about for many years. This will definitely make all city residents and businesses pay higher taxes as a result. It didn't have to be that way if someone was doing their job right to begin with, but it's too late now, and they have no choice but to hike everyone's taxes. That in itself say anything about the great reviews our current City Manager gets year after year for 10 years now? Well, unless you are brain-dead, it should. It should tell you he siphoned funds for infrastructure to appease the tourists, and to get more unneeded grants, and line the pockets of close minions of the COL. Guess maybe this is starting to get across now to some around the area, now over 400 views and counting steadily upwards.

[jfc123]

Aquaman! Well said! Just wait until my lawyers come and claim our due diligence! I have loved that city all of my life and have so many great memories of it throughout my childhood, but I did not pick this battle, the COL did! Thank you for your continued support, we will get this fixed. I hope that it will also include all that work and strive for the greater good and not the self sucking snobs that think they can place their thumb on us and suppress all of those below them! Fishtown up!

[Willy]

I agree, well said Aquaman.

[XLFD]

I waver sometimes in my beliefs about John Shay.  At times, I think he's incompetent, because when faced with the prospect of many millions of dollars of necessary infrastructure repairs at the WTP and WWTP, he contracts without a bid for water tower/tank painting and puts $1.5 million from the water fund into the effort. 

The next year he learns that the COL will not get a discharge permit for the WWTP, so keeps it under the radar for the next few years, while he's petitioning the state to supplement local funds (likely to exceed $2 million locally for the seven or eight phases) to do the West End Project, which would alter the delicate beauty of Stearn's Park into a complex mess.

But, as Aquaman intimates, if Shay is actually competent at his job, and there are plenty of indications he can competently do some shady stuff, then there is a bit of classic liberal methodology in his actions.  For if he diverts all of the funds away from maintaining the city for long enough, when necessary repairs are needed, the funds will need to come from fee and/or tax raises to meet the demands of borrowing large sums of cash, like the $30 million plus we need for the WTP and the WWTP.

And let's forget having any empathy from the council or other officials.  Two meetings ago when the rate consultant came to the meeting and bored us into submission, the council thought that raising the sewer rate nearly 100% over three years, and smaller raises to the water and readiness-to-serve rates would have minimal effect on our citizens with fixed incomes and to our other citizens who are lucky to be seeing their incomes rise at all. 

[jfc123]

The amount of views this has generated makes me realize how passionate we all are for our Ludington. Maybe not the things that are going on in local government but with one/another and how we wish things were simpler and more caring of its people, all of them. So what was the turning point? Where did things here start going bad and what can be done to make things back to the way way it used to be? I just pray that God will help us get things right. COL GET YOUR ROAD AND SEWAGE OUT OF OUR BAYOU NOW!!!! Still attorney searching!

[jfc123]

I am sure Shay and many council/big shots/county government/etc.  are viewing these posts. What I find that is funny is that they do not try support/refute any of this. Do they think we are all silly little fools? Just like El Nino is warming our winter this site is putting the heat on them and they should be working to cool the fire.

[AQUAMAN]

Those people don't move, shrug, think, nor ingest any common sense into anything. You have to build a Big Fire under their butts before they even glance your way. That means, as Kaye Holman the female yeti says, bring out the people in great numbers at the CC Mtgs.. Make a big stink for change, not status-quo. Reappointments of the city manager and attorney is the biggest problems to becoming fair, reliable, and honest for local government to start with. Once we get caring honest competent locals with some knowledge into the equation, things will either move positively, or you get recalls on the stubborn councilors that want to remain fixed in historical boondoggles. It won't be an overnight process, as years of incompetence and cronyism has been in place far too long. Making an hour or two of public comments in simultaneous meetings is going to hold their attentions, and make them late for their cocktails, so that's a best start imho. When you see all their faces turning red, by the hour, it's going to fester in their conscience for a while. Even the local media will have to report this dire situation if it comes about, it will be overwhelming if they don't.

[XLFD]

To her credit, Councilor Yeti Holman has been on the right side of several votes where the public made a solid impression on her:  she voted against rental inspection, against the historical district designation, against confidence man/city man'ger Shay's reappointment more than a couple of times.  And she does not even have had to worry about reelection since she started her last term at the beginning of 2012. 

She at least has the capacity to read the overwhelming public sentiment after a dozen years in office.  Frankly, if more people cared about why the City has been stonewalling FOIA requests for six years, why the city has been permissive of corruption, and voiced those concerns to her, rather than her listening to Shay's rhetoric, she may have a better outlook on this citizen activist whose goal is to find out what the city leadership is doing and why it doesn't want to let us know.

[jfc123]

Seems as though there are at least two that I see on here that would be a better fit for the COL council. Imagine if all the people....sorry, got a little off track. But seriously what is the obstacle that is holding this back? There are many that peruse these pages, most I assume support and like what you say. The DEQ report at over 680 views shows that people care, more than we think. I am a great advocate and would like to support you both in a run for what is right in Ludington! They would not know what to do.