LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Area's Assets Are Not Dependent

To the Editor:

on Economic Factors

I applaud the recent letter from Tom Della-Moretta, describing some of the great things we have to be proud of here in St. Ignace. People from all over the world come here to "get away from it all." When they do, they find a place second to none in beauty and charm. We have the privilege of waking up to a sunrise over the bay, and retiring for the night after the sun dips into Lake Michigan. I, like so many of you, was born in St. Ignace and grew up here. I headed off to college, and work life took me away from here for 14 years. I couldn't wait to come back, to see those bridge towers while driving north on 75, to breathe the air, walk the boardwalk, and sit on the porch at the Marina Pub watching the boats come in. Fortunately, I was given the opportunity to return home, serve my community for the city, and reunite with old friends.

I realize that the economy has placed a real strain on St. Ignace, and the entire state of Michigan. I realize that hard times have been here for a while. I also realize that what we have here, natural beauty, is not dependent on economic factors. Natural beauty is our gift that we have to offer travelers from their corner of the world. It's a place to dip your toes into fresh water, skip a stone, dive on a shipwreck, or take a sunset cruise. It's playing a round of golf while admiring the Mackinac Bridge from the fairway, or skating with your family at Little Bear East. It's a hot dog on the Fourth of July with the local fire department, or rolling a pumpkin in October. St. Ignace is a great place to work, play, and raise a family.

I encourage everyone to follow Mr. Della-Moretta's lead. Think of the 10 things you love most about this place. Post it in your business, talk to your friends. I assure you, it's hard to stick to just 10.

Oh, and here's my list (in no particular order):

1. You can eat the best fresh fish fillet for dinner, while bragging that it was swimming earlier that day.

2. You can be a tourist in your own town, climbing Castle Rock, feeding the deer at the Deer Ranch, and being mystified by our very own Mystery Spot.

3. You can enjoy your favorite book at a new library built with the hard work and support of people who love this town, and even catch a movie on movie night.

4. You can walk your dog on the boardwalk, leash in one hand, ice cream cone in the other, and catch a Bayside Live concert during that same walk.

5. You can wake up in the morning after a snowstorm with the streets plowed and the sidewalks downtown already clear.

6. You can own a snowmobile or a boat, and not have to drive 300 miles to use it.

7. We have an airport, where private and corporate aircraft come from all over the nation to see the natural wonder of the Straits area, attend a business meeting, or to just fill up with fuel after being greeted by Sally, the golden retriever.

8. We have a fully equipped, well trained fire department, ambulance, police force, and even a Coast Guard station.

9. We have a public golf course, tubing hill, disc golf course, ice arena, fitness center, pool, tennis courts, marina, deep-water docking, boat launches, parks, a brand new lighthouse, convention center, historical sites, and museums right here.

10. We are home to the best car shows and truck show anywhere, period. (Where else could you see Potsie and Ralph Malph from "Happy Days" stand up at a wedding performed by the mayor, while Shirley Feeney looks on?)

That's without even considering the island in our front yard, or the modern man-made marvel in the back, the Mackinac Bridge.

And the list goes on...

Eric Dodson

St. Ignace City Manager

'50s Americana a Natural Fit

for St. Ignace Thematic Vision

To the Editor:

I was inspired by a recent Letter to the Editor that offered ideas to bring to light what a great place St. Ignace is to visit and live. This is a letter in that same vein, and I hope it is not the last, since this seems to be a good public forum for it.

I would like to pitch an idea for a downtown thematic vision. Many nearby downtowns have a similar things these days, where a town takes an intentional design direction with the look and feel of their town, giving that unique quality that is so common among so-called "cool" cities. Visionary towns like Gaylord, with its alpine village theme, and Indian River, going for an up-north-log-cabin look, are good examples of this.

I would offer that, for many reasons, St. Ignace should adopt a city theme of late 1940s and 1950s Route 66 Americana.

It's a perfect fit for many reasons. Tourists are drawn to nearby Mackinac Island, and a large part of its appeal is the historical element of it. St. Ignace could do a similar, but not exact same, thing like this. This era of American history is fondly and nostalgically thought of by many, still, in much the same way turn-of-the-century America is charming in Mackinac Island's case. TV shows like Happy Days and movies like American Graffiti, and the local success of a recent musical show in Mackinaw City called "Lost in the '50s" is a testament to that.

During the construction of the Mackinac Bridge in the 1950s, St. Ignace was a boomtown. Have you ever visited an old gold rush boomtown as a tourist? Many of the buildings there have a look like the American old west. It didn't just fall this way by accident, but it was by intentional design of city planners. It pretty much is elaborating on what the town essentially is seen as anyway, and giving the visiting people what they expect and want.

The summer car show in St. Ignace has become a major part of the town's identity. The 1950s is seen by many as the stylistic golden age of American transportation. And, being a town right next to a famous and beautiful bridge for vehicles (also built in the 1950s, coincidentally), well, it just seems a "natural." St. Ignace should be seen as an obvious choice for its car show, and this adopted theme would make this tie even stronger, such that even a consideration of having this car show somewhere else would be an absurd idea.

So what would be some specifics of this? This letter can only illustrate so much, but an attempt will be made here: An old-fashioned "Welcome to St. Ignace" sign, complete with many round, fraternal organization signs. Pastel colors with chrome. Signs with art deco fonts, and rounded corners and kidney shapes, and neon. (Remember neon signs?) There are many more small specifics and nuances, which would be long to list here, but models of this theme can be seen in period piece movies like "Back to the Future," Disney's "Cars," and many other sources. There are artists who specialize in renderings of townscapes to illustrate more clearly an intended vision, which can help. (Such artists could be of use to design promotional travelogue graphic art, too, which could change to embrace this theme as well.) On that topic, tying back to the car show, if you have ever seen the official annual posters of this event, it's clear these particular artist renderings seem to be trying to portray St. Ignace in this very way!

Given St. Ignace's present identity, this is really no wild stretch by any means - its actual identity and this particular theme are really not far apart. Local establishments like Bentley's B-n-L and Clyde's Drive-In seem to actually have "gotten it" long ago, and are already there. Many souvenir shops already seem to have items that are toward this theme anyway, right now. Beyond the downtown, the majority of homes in St. Ignace seem to have been built in this time era with the distinct architecture of the time, so it's a good fit like that, too. There is a Big Boy in town, and its franchises in Marquette and Grand Rapids have been designed in old art deco motifs, so for this particular establishment, it would seem all of the hard work of conception, design, finding of specialized furnishings and such, are already done; it's just a matter of deciding to do it the next time redecorating comes around.

That last point deserves some elaboration. Achoosing of a town thematic direction does not mean a radical...starting over, but rather just a collective early buy-in to a common vision by key town decision-makers and an evolutionary but steadfast movement with subtle, piece-by-piece changes over years' time. Gaylord and Indian River have done it this way, and they got there; why not St. Ignace?

It's been said before that St. Ignace should try to be another Mackinaw City, or Traverse City, or Petoskey, or even Mackinac Island. For a unique thing, putting it perhaps simplisticly, I'd suggest that St. Igance should try to be another Winslow, Arizona. on Route 66! As mentioned, St. Ignace seems to be drifting toward this naturally and sub-consciously anyway in many ways. This idea is more of a call for leadership to intentionally, consciously "go all the way" with it.

Gene Perry

St. Ignace

Explaining the May 8 Special

Education Millage Request

To the Editor:

The Eastern Upper Peninsula Intermediate School District will be submitting a request to voters in the May school election to consider adding additional millage for the purpose of special education. In a recent letter to the editor, a local citizen raised a variety of questions surrounding the request for the millage increase. This article is an attempt to provide factual information that would help voters when it comes time to decide how they will vote on this issue. This article is a question and answer format to the most likely questions that this request raises.

1. How much is the request for? The request is for 0.75 mill for a 3 year period.

2. How much will this cost me? On a home valued at $100,000, the tax increase would be $37.50 per year. That amount would be slightly less than 75¢ per week.

3. How much money would this raise? This request would raise a total of $1.4 million dollars for the three-county EUP region.

4. How much money would be raised for the students in St. Ignace Area Schools? The money would be spread around the region based on current special education needs. For St. Ignace Area Schools, this would result in an increase of $97,000 to be used in the special education program.

5. How will this money be use if approved? 100% of it will be used to fund special education programs.

6. What has to happen to have this request approved? More than 50% of the voters in the Intermediate School District must approve the request.

7. What happens if the voters in St. Ignace approve the request but it is turned down in other locations? Overall, 50% of the voters in the entire region must approve the request.

8. Why is this a regional EUP request instead of just a local St. Ignace request? The law states that a request must be made on a regional ISD basis.

9. If approved, when would the new millage be assessed? The millage would be assessed with the December 2007 tax notice and begin in the spring of 2008.

10. Why is this request being put before the voters?

+ Current data shows that special education expenses in the EUP region are currently under funded by over $4.2 million dollars.

+ Ten years ago, the total population of the region was 9,242 students,

*Please turn to page 13 920 of them received special education services, almost exactly 10%.

+ Today the total population has declined to 8,050 students, but the number of students receiving special education services has increased to 1,208 students, almost exactly 15%.

+ The EUP currently collects 0.77 mill for special education. In the State of Michigan, the EUP ranks 55th lowest out of 57 ISDs in per-pupil funding for special education services.

+ In order to pay for services that are mandated by law, additional funding is required.

11. Will this request be enough to fund the entire cost of the special education program? In St. Ignace, our budget for special education expenses is $540,000. Funding for the program includes $112,000 in state foundation allowance for the students in the special education program and $73,000 in flow-through money from the federal government to help with special education programs. Revenues to fund our special education program are insufficient for the needs of the program

12. Why do special education numbers and expense continue to rise? Special education services and programs are mandated by law. The state and federal mandates must be followed, regardless of the conditions of the district's finances. As our diagnostic abilities improve we are more able to recognize individual student needs. It is our responsibility as a district to address these needs when they are recognized.

13. Why isn't the request made to pay for the entire program costs? The maximum request that can be made by law is 0.75 mill.

14. What kinds of services and/or programs are provided in the special education program? Learning Disabled (LD), Speech and Language Impairments (SLI), Physical Impairment (PI), Health Impairment (OHI), Visual Impairment (VI), Hearing Impairment (HI), Cognitive Impairment (CI), Emotional Impairment (EI), Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Severe Multiple Impairment (SXI), Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).

Additional services are provided for psychological evaluations, school social work, occupational therapy, physical therapy, transition services, homebound/hospitalized services.

This letter is an attempt to provide some of the factual information needed to answer some of the questions that are being asked in regard to the special education millage request. Voters should review the information and make up their own minds as to the reasonableness and the need of the request. If the letter does not answer your specific question or you would like additional information, the following local and regional contacts are available:

Michael Springsteen, superintendent St. Ignace Area Schools, 643-8145, mikes@eup.k12.mi.us; Bill Peltier, superintendent Moran Township Schools, 643-7970, wpeltier@eup.k12.mi.us; Peter Everson, superintendent EUP Intermediate School District, (906) 632-3373, peverson @eup.k12. mi.us; Sue Kabat, superintendent for Special Education, EUPISD, (906) 632-3373, skabat@eup.k12. mi.us.

Mike Springsteen

St. Ignace

St. Ignace Musical Talent Rivals

any in Northern Michigan

To the Editor:

I was invited to [LaSalle High School's] Night of Jazz by my nephew, Mario Calcaterra. While at the concert, I was mesmerized, watching the MAC Percussion members pour their hearts into those buckets and road barriers. The steel drum players were amazing, with flawless execution, creating an enchanting avalanche of musical waves. The entire event was top-notch, easily comparable to the professional performers we see in Traverse City. I was truly inspired by the student performers (and adult performers). All of the performers seemed to be thoroughly enjoying themselves while producing unforgettable musical sounds. The atmosphere was electric and contagious.

I am truly grateful Mario and [his mother] Rebecca introduced me to the MAC Percussion and the steel drum bands. Now I realize Traverse City and Interlochen do not have a monopoly on musical talent in Northern Michigan. The St. Ignace Night of Jazz will continue to grow and inspire more people each year.

Thank you for the memories.

Matthew Mokanyk,

Grawn

Appreciates News Coverage

of LaFramboise Family History

To the Editor:

I just received your news article printed in The St. Ignace News, dated September 28, 2006 ["Dedication Highlights Falling Leaves Moon Festival," page 12]. I am also a direct descendant of Madame LaFramboise.

In September 2005, several cousins traveled to Mackinac Island to visit Madame LaFramboise's home. I was deeply moved to visit the home of my great-great-great-grandmother.

My great-grandfather, William LaFramboise, was the son of Madame LaFramboise's son, also named Joseph. He (Joseph) migrated to the United States and set up a trading post on the Missouri River in Pierre, South Dakota. He traveled extensively in eastern South Dakota, helping to keep peace between the settlers and the Sioux Indians.

My grandfather was Harve LaFramboise. My father was Malcolm Hale LaFramboise, and I am the oldest of his five daughters.

I had two older brothers, James LaFramboise, who died of cancer in 1996, and Thomas of Watertown, South Dakota.

I am Nancy LaFramboise Michaelson of Holts Summit, Missouri. My sisters are Alice LaFramboise of Phoenix, Arizona, Linda Redlin, Peggy Lindahl, and Kathryn Schulz, all of Watertown.

My cousins and I are very much interested in our family history and all are very proud of our heritage.

Thank you for a wonderful article.

Nancy LaFramboise Michaelson

Holts Summit, Missouri