Scottville Update, May 2023

[XLFD]

It's been quiet in Scottville over the last two months until this month began and brought in some interesting issues which begged to be reviewed, analyzed, and speculated on.  This article will look on some of those topics summarily.

Another City Commissioner Resignation

When Susan Evans took the oath in front of Clerk Kelse Lester in the picture above, it was earlier this year when she replaced City Commissioner Nathan Yeomans who resigned at the beginning of this year and at a meeting where it the commission accepted the resignation of Commissioner Ryan Graham.  The year is not even half over, and Ms. Evans has tendered her resignation to be considered at Monday's commission meeting and her position is likely to be filled 15 days from now at their next meeting.  

In her resignation letter, Evans avoids naming a reason for the resignation from the commission and the various standing committees; oddly enough, Evans is still listed as being on the Planning Commission, so it's surprising that she hasn't formally resigned from that post at this opportunity.  It would lead one to believe that her resignation may be more in line with the other two resignations this year, who took issue with the aberrant way other officials acted last November and the subsequent unlawful re-installation of Commissioners Rob Alway and Marcy Spencer.  

Alway and Spencer Legitimacy Update

Our readers will note that the Ludington Torch filed a quo warranto lawsuit in regard to the unlawful ascension of Alway and Spencer to their present positions.  After last November's election where Alway was reelected and Spencer was not, Alway abruptly posted on his website a volatile resignation letter saying that he would not serve his second term, which began the Monday after the election.  Two days after the vacancy was official, he decided to un-resign in a manner that was not recognized by city or state law. 

His vacancy needed to be filled by the commission, which was unable to do anything in November due to their perceived lack of a quorum, but was never done within the allotted period so a special election needed to be held.  Spencer would be unlawfully appointed to her position well after the time expired for an appointment, another vacancy that needed to be filled by special election.  

The lawsuit's filing followed and was subsequently denied filing by Circuit Court Judge Susan Sniegowski who went totally outside of the law to justify her actions.  We went to the appeals court for a writ of superintending control in order to have the case reinstated with an outside hope that the court would follow an earlier precedent.  We were stymied in that court a little over two months ago by their decision that stated there were alternative remedies outside of the writ (which was true but involved getting special leave of the appeals court, which seemed an unnecessary step).  

A new deadline for filing the leave to appeal was set, and we have been mostly procrastinating en route to an eventual filing since it has been rather disheartening getting denials by two courts when the law is so readily available showing the improprieties of Alway and Spencer claiming their offices illegally.  The leave should be filed by the end of the month and will likely see a long drawn out process that will allow these two to serve for awhile.  We are hopeful that talk of a special recall election for Spencer will materialize this year and be successful and that one for Alway will not be needed if we are successful in court.

Walkability and Lively Downtown Plans

Scottville got some free consultation from an unlikely source, a bunch of Michigan State University students.  The School of Planning Design and Construction took a serious look at Scottville, something I'm dubious that many of those in charge have done themselves, and made some recommendations for bettering the community, find them here, and part 2 here.

One of the nice things about these studies is that the consideration of money and effort is low priority, so they can actually focus on the issues and not the counting of beans, so they can show a map like above which shows where crosswalks and sidewalks should be in Scottville.  These students, however, did a very good job of assigning priorities and getting several of them correct despite their limited time on the ground.  

One wonders why city leaders have been tardy in recognizing some of these simple concepts until you hear what the city's manager (reported by 'Commissioner' Alway) says after this presentation here:

“I have been working with Amber Township officials for over a year to try and get a stoplight at the bypass. While this is not a pedestrian zone, the Michigan Department of Transportation, which regulates the highways, has previously said that slowing traffic in this area will slow traffic in town. However, we have not had very good results getting information from MDOT.”

The bypass is effectively a T-intersection, where those coming from the US 31 North bypass are almost exclusively turning right.  Westbound traffic is not heavy or consistent enough to cause backups to eastbound traffic turning left onto the bypass.  Stop signs and stop lights are not made for speed control, nor would the effect be significant would there be an unnecessary stoplight there.  Stay in your lane and your jurisdiction, City Manager Newkirk, there are some attainable goals inside this report and they definitely do more than this would.

MCC $31.5 Million School Bond Proposal Defeated in May Election Again

We have already noted what this proposal was about, how it was perhaps doomed to failure by the district's inability to get their plan in sync, and even suggested how the bondproposal could be improved while keeping the costs to the district's taxpayers low.  The walkability plan shows that a lot of school property lacks simple sidewalks abutting them and there really is no excuse as to why some of these areas have went without for this long and why sidewalk additions weren't part of this plan. 

You may wonder why making sidewalks and crosswalks aren't part of the architect's (GMB) plans for Scottville, and you need only look no farther than what they did in Ludington with the new elementary school.  Their interior sidewalks were terribly designed and they left sidewalks off the main roads (Jebavy and Bryant).  When the school opened up, much of the basic road infrastructure and signage was not in place and it's still madness to let your kid ride a bike or walk to the school, because of the lack of any safe route.  

The problem seems to be that they don't put a lot of thought into anything beyond the core constructions, and it's why they should take a step back and let smart people like those MSU planners (not Jimmy Newkirk) and those who voted against this latest dumb proposal take a stab at what can improve this district.  Then do your own research to see how much it is likely to cost before letting GMB and Christman pick their favored contractors and set the prices to enhance their profit motive.  Then have someone with a spine be the liaison between the school and these contractors, so that they don't waste the taxpayer's money like we've already seen them do in Ludington.

[Willy]

Thanks for the report. Lots of information. It looks like the students did a very thorough job. I like the sidewalk idea but I doubt that the residents will feel like spending more of their hard earned money while inflation continues to eat away at their paychecks.

[XLFD]

Within 24 hours after formally receiving the walkability report at their meeting the first post-study pedestrian accident happened at the intersection of First and Main Streets with a school-aged child shortly after school, as if to punctuate the findings.  The info above is all I can find about this incident so I presume it wasn't fatal.  This isn't the safest intersection in Scottville for pedestrians, it lacks any kind of crosswalk and lacks sidewalks on the north side of First Street and has the post office's exit driveway too close by.  

I won't speculate on who was at fault with the information given, but I object to the MCP's characterization of this as a traffic crash in the headline, which implies that the pedestrian is an obstacle, rather than a person.  A pedestrian is either hit or struck by a vehicle.