The Place Where Ludington Talks

Launching the Splash Pad, a Cautionary View

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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