Ludington's First North Lawn Meeting

[XLFD]

If you hear the words 'executive', 'meeting', and 'north lawn', you might envision the President of the United State holding a press conference out in front of the White House.  But thanks to the magic of the Chinese coronavirus, these words applied to a meeting of the Downtown Development Authority's Executive Committee who held their own conference on the lawn to the north of Ludington City Hall earlier today at 1 PM.  

The outdoor environment allowed members to engage in the business at hand from a safe distance apart, and with much greater diffusion of all those airborne particles coming from the actions of breathing and speaking.  They agreed to use $1500 in event profits for additional funding for the gift certificate program, after listening to the one public comment from Dave Diephouse (the man on the curb, above).  

After the meeting, City Manager Mitch Foster related that the open air meeting was held to facilitate COVID-19 precautions while providing an interactive and open forum.  He noted that it is likely that next week's Planning Commission meeting is likely to be cancelled due to no new or old business requiring their immediate attention being part of the agenda at this time.  

He advised that they are still looking into the governor's recent executive order on the Open Meetings Act and how they could try to be in compliance with that.  The new requirement for closed captioning if such a meeting were to be held is the main obstacle they face.  Foster did not rule out the possibility that the scheduled April 13th council meeting could be held outside on the north lawn with an expanded consent agenda.  

[Willy]

LOCAL HEROES SAVE THE PLANET AND LUDINGTON

[Freedom Seeker]

This is essential government business.

[XLFD]

City Manager Foster has indicated that the 'essential' board/committee functions of the City is to be found in the Planning Commission and city council.  I believe this was a social science experiment to see whether they could perhaps:  1) conduct board and subcommittee meetings in a fairly safe environment during this period and/or 2) conduct PC and CC meetings the same way.  

Learned yesterday that the pickleball courts are going to be closed, this follows the school closing the playgrounds.  Officials are worried that surfaces like slides, swings, pickleballs, etc. will transmit the virus between those playing.  I am currently living in fear that future restrictions will close down other entertainment options because of other mostly-irrational fears, including one of my favorites:  tennis. 

Our governor would rather threaten you with jail time for tossing footballs and baseballs around with friends than consider whether you are doing it 'safely'.  But when she finds out you actually are in jail for playing 'catch' or for throwing a viral spiral, she will let you out because jails aren't safe.  She loves martial law, it lets her do things that the state congress wouldn't ever allow her to get away with before.

[Freedom Seeker]

https://www.michigan.gov/coronavirus/0,9753,7-406-98178_98737---,00...

It could be essential business depending on what they are planning to do with the gift cards like giving the to needy.

[Freedom Seeker]

https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/michigan-gov-gretchen-whitmer-...

For anyone who missed Gov. Whitmer last night on school closures and questions and answers, above is a link to a transcript.

[Willy]

Thanks for posting those links FS. I find it hard to read the idiotic drivel that comes from Whitmer. She and all the others who want to shut down and ruin America are half wits at best and treasonous at worst. Back in the 1940's and 50's a half a million people a year world wide were paralyzed or killed by the polio virus. That virus was deadly and very scary but no governments shut down then. This insanity cannot continue and if not for the corrupt media and leftists we would not be in this situation. Another thing I am sick of hearing is that  the  Corona virus has caused all of this. Wrong! The Government has caused this unprecedented shut down.

[Freedom Seeker]

It was hard watching it too. I've thought the same thing about the 1918 flu and the polio virus. In the polio virus there were certain closures of swimming pools and homes were marked as "quarantined" but the whole society didn't close down. There was no vaccine for the 1918 flu at the time either. It hit hardest in large population centers. What this "lockdown" may do to our economy and national debt may be hugely more devastating than the deaths. In the U.S., over two months time now we have a little over 7000 deaths. That is sad and too many, but flu deaths happen each year. What the final count will be is unknown and scary, but I don't think it will be "exponentially" spreading to 14 million in 21 days from one person, that's debunked. We are near our 60th day since the first case in Seattle area. Still, I don't want to be cocky or risky, personally because the virus has some unusual severity to at-risk population with easy transmission rate, no vaccine or proven remedy. I think our governments, federal, state, and municipalities will learn a lot from this. I hope they learn to quarantine the at-risk populations, and perhaps limit large gatherings, but let the rest of the population continue going on with business in any future outbreaks. With many children who may easily be unaffected "carriers" of the virus running around in Walmart and in the public playing games, the real quarantine may not be completely effective anyway.

[Freedom Seeker]

https://www.michigan.gov/coronavirus/0,9753,7-406-98163-520743--,00...

It's interesting that someone in Michigan gov doesn't include Mason County as a county. The link above is a footnote of Worldometer under Michigan.

[Willy]

Let's not forget that last year's flu saw a death total of 42,000 people with 45,000,000 people infected. And that was with an available vaccine and what was considered a mild flu season. The coronovirus death toll so far is 6500 and 277,000 cases without a vaccine. So If people did not panic over last years flu season why are they panicking now? Of  course, corrupt media, the Democrat Party and deep state never Trumpers. It doesn't matter what your politics are, if people cannot see that this is an attempt to bring down our economy and change America into a socialist ruled country then there is no hope. People have got to pay attention. Also, Ludington is under a lockdown, why?. Can anyone tell us how many people in Ludington have died from Coronavirus?

[Freedom Seeker]

excellent points of perspective, Willy.  The liberal thought as seen in Whitmer's video is that by being in lockdown state we are preventing asymptomatic carrier transmission.  And just wait when the virus slows down the bragging rights will be because of the early total lockdown.  While I see some truth to that, such as in Germany's low death rate, a study showing that many of the cases came from young people skiing while in Italy returning to Germany.  Italy's early lack of "lockdown" is being blamed for their high death rate, I wonder if they will ever admit to the lack of hospital facilities.  I wonder why Detroit's death rate is relatively high if lockdown was implemented?

[Willy]

My suggestion is to stop listening to the news. They will not give any positive information. I don't listen or watch any media outlet. But while I was listening to a talk radio show and the hourly news came on the first thing said was about the death total from the virus. Do you remember a time when a running tally of flu deaths lead each news report? Please look at the numbers, nothing that's happened requires a lock-down, quarantine hysteria or panic but when the economy collapses it will be time for panic and hysteria.

[Freedom Seeker]

I know, real panic and hysteria when the economy collapses, but that, too, will be Trump's fault, not the dems who edged the stimulus bill up to $2 trillion and who panicked behind it all, imo, forcing Trump to get as drastic as he has.  The only liberal news channel I watch is PBS.  Judy Woodruff and her two women reporters ooze Trump hatred and have gone off the deep end.  Makes one miss Gwen Ifel.