Back at the end of September, a little over a month before Fifth Ward voters went to their brand new polling location at the Lakeshore Resource Network on Tinkham Avenue and voted, the Ludington Torch pointed out that the parking situation in the area was rather tight.  You can see the LRN in the foreground of the picture below and some congestion.

The reason why the parking was tight that day, and almost impossible to find on many other days is that the LRN is the center of at least 15 agencies whose goal is to strengthen local families and individuals in the community, and to provide the service of a centralized food club, where drop offs and pickups of food are fairly commonplace to see during the day.  The only way for a vehicle to enter or exit the LRN Building complex is through a private drive off Tinkham, to the front parking lot, which can hold nearly 30 vehicles, or two back lots, which offer nearly 20 more spaces, as seen below. 

The red area is where the new fire station is going in, the orange circles show back entrances to the LRN leading from the two back parking lots; like the LRN the only vehicle access to and from this building is on the thin private drive shared with the LRN.  As noted in the LT article, there will be unsafe and inefficient traffic under normal conditions when a fire alarm goes off, along with parking issues.  

Unsatisfied with this needless degree of danger, the City's Clerk, Assessor, and Attorney, who together comprise the Ludington Election Commission (LEC), has decided to take it to the crazy level of hazardous.  They want to make the new fire station the polling place for the Fifth Ward (see p. 39-40).  

At first glance, one might ask what's the big deal?  You move it from the front building to the back building.  But here's what's in play when you do this move when there's a fire station that could erupt in a blaze of furious action in a minute's notice with up to 20 volunteers driving in to get to the firetrucks and several ponderous engines and a 100' ladder truck moving out.  

Consider that the LRN regularly overfills their current lots of about 50 spaces.  The new fire station can probably accommodate about 5 or 6 parking spaces in front of their squad room area, but that's the only extra parking that can be added to the existing lots.  On an election day, there are minimally about six election workers present, the last presidential election can see a turnout of over 500 Fifth Warders (less than 50 of who will absentee vote), each who will each take about 15-30 minutes average to finish the process, depending on a variety of factors. 

On average then, about 40 will vote per hour the polls are open, which means over ten people will be at the polling place at any given time.  That can vary dramatically, of course.  So say it's after four in the afternoon on election day, and you have the LRN still in regular action, perhaps getting extra visits by voters checking their services out while they're in the neighborhood.  50 vehicles parked for the LRN, 6 vehicles parked for election officials, 20 vehicles of voters (already a deficit of parking spaces of 20), and then a major fire starts.

Each volunteer firefighter coming in, provided they can get past the illegal parkers with their trucks, have to hunt for a space while dodging vehicles and pedestrians in the cramped area north of the station (same on the way out).  Likely, the private road will be effectively one lane due to the parking deficit (as seen above in the picture), and the first truck out will likely have to play chicken with their fellow firefighters coming in.  

This is one of the dumbest recommendations ever in the history of Ludington.

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Good analysis of the parking situation, XLFD. Any idea why they would move the polling location? What's wrong with the new building? Having a polling location in a fire station in the first place sounds like a potential conflict of safety in the event of a fire.

MCL 168.662 (mistakenly dubbed MCL 168.162 in the packet's resolution) suggests the best places for voting in cities, townships, and villages are public facilities which includes such facilities as fire stations.  The LFD station on Loomis actually served as a polling place until it was moved to the new city hall without any problems, mainly because there was ample parking in the area and very little potential traffic conflicts if an emergency happened during election day. 

The geometry and calculus of the limited parking/movement spaces you have at the new station/LRN complex once the new fire station is completed poses a very obvious logistical problem that needs to be addressed. 

Thanks for the information X. Another dumb decision which deserves another look at how City Hall appears to most common sense people.

Willy, we may need to update that picture to reflect that the current Ludington City Clowncil is a public body that is made up mostly of our womenfolk, and that should be reflected by having some female clowns.  Or at least some male clowns in drag.  

Let's also reflect that the officials who made this call from the Ludington Election Commission are definitely clown-folk on this particular call and that they aren't councilors.  Councilor Angela Serna of the Fifth Ward appears to have noticed the same problem independently of my observations and from what she has released on Facebook, indicates that she knows of a better location for the polling place that follows election law directives and is prepared to discuss that on Monday.  That alone may make going to council/clowncil worth the price of admission.  

I'm shocked X, in this leftist gender neutral world, that you would suggest there are clowns who could be male or female. I tried to find an image of naked clowns but the vomit factor became to high so I decided change the title to reflect a representative neutral sign. Until the Council eliminates the fire station as a voting precinct, I'm afraid Ludington is still stuck with a bunch of clowns.

I wonder what the average fire truck calls have been on election day?  I wonder if they are considering making the fire house a sort of public meeting place?  One thing I can say about this present zoning/planning, DDA and city administrators is that they seem to be lax about planning for parking needs.  

I hope the new fifth ward councilor will start a discussion at the next council meeting about this. Of the committee of three who proposed the idea, two don't live here, one is new to his job, the city attorney seems the least concerned about things that are right, and can change the sun to the moon and make it right and legal if the council wants, but the clerk should maybe know better as ADA needs are highly regulated at polling places.

This ADA Handbook for Voting discusses the minimal needs a facility must have to accommodate those less able, and I'm not sure whether the fire station has a dedicated van-accessible space planned for the area in front of their squad room since firefighters are presumed to be able-bodied individuals, but the Fifth Ward has Longfellow Towers and other senior-heavy facilities that are more apt to have handicapped populations, this should be taken into further consideration.

thanks for that info, X. As an XLFD you'd know more than most about the traffic parking around the LFD or any FD for that matter than an attorney, assessor or clerk.  

Maybe I do, but it really ain't rocket science.  I think most people would think it is self-evident that the parking/traffic situation would be bad at the Tinkham location if they took the time to consider it and seen the level of use associated with the LRN.  The same vast minority of people wanting to make a polling place here are the same lineage of folks who thought that three lanes on Ludington Avenue would work better than five. 

The current scary LFD parking situation to me is what is going on at the old fire station.  It is surrounded by construction zones but still holds the apparatus and equipment of the LFD.  If West Shore Bank didn't have a sizable amount of parking across the street and the willingness to let the LFD use it, there would be only a couple spaces up front of the station and street-side parking that necessitates a long line of travel from parking to station.  Even with the WSB lot available, the rushing firefighters have to be careful not to run out in front of other incoming volunteers in their vehicles as they cross Loomis.

Fortunately, this is only a temporary situation until the new station is on-line, but I have to worry that if somebody calls in a cooker after dark that requires a full response in bad weather, there is a lot of extra danger extant in just getting into and out of the station due to the transient parking problem.

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