City To Seek Appraisals on Waterfront Property
By Ryan Schlehuber

Whether St. Ignace City Council decides to go forward in pursuing the purchasing of 1.2 acres of waterfront property near its American Legion Park will depend on what an independent appraiser says about the property, which has been priced at $680,000 by its owner, Star Line Mackinac Island Ferry.

Council, at its meeting Monday, September 17, voted to seek appraisal bids, which are to be opened by its Real Estate Committee Thursday, October 11, but Council was hesitant to move forward too quickly, even though it was encouraged by residents September 4 to "be creative" in finding a way to purchase the property and preserve the open, scenic view it has now.

"We need to find out more about the land, the possible potential land problems it may have," said Councilman Tom Della-Moretta Monday night. "Instead of jumping forward, it seems best to know everything we can about this property before we move forward."

Citizens had proposed that the city could obtain a Michigan Department of Natural Resources Trust Fund grant, which could pay 70% of the cost, and seek voter approval for a special millage to pay the rest. But Council is worried that it won't meet a November 6 deadline to place such an issue on the January 15 election ballot. The Trust Fund application would be due at the end of March.

Monday evening saw an equal number of arguments on both sides of the issue, both from the audience and from council members.

Councilman Willie LaLonde said purchasing the property will take yet another piece of taxable land off the city's tax rolls. He also pointed out that Star Line would retain riparian rights next to its railroad dock.

Resident Dean Baker, who is running for a seat on City Council in the November 6 election, agreed with Mr. LaLonde, stating that the city should drop the issue and save taxpayers the financial burden of having to provide funding to not only purchase the property, but to fund the task of recreating part of Star Line's parking lot into an expanded addition of American Legion Park.

Councilman Don Gustafson believes the city should pursue the issue carefully but with some haste, pointing out that Star Line's offer could still be made to private investors and that it would be in the city's best interest to include public opinion on the issue.

Citizens have argued that the best way to preserve the water view would be for the city to own it.

Star Line CEO Tom Pfeiffelmann offered the city a chance to purchase the land, which includes a little more than 100 feet of shoreline, since the city turned down a proposal last winter from one private investor seeking to build a 13- unit condominium complex there. Mr. Pfeiffelmann contends that the city is limiting the potential market for the property.

The Real Estate Committee originally recommended Council not buy the piece, citing "budgetary limitations," however, at citizen urging, Council directed the committee to research possible ways the city could afford to purchase the property.

Mayor Paul Grondin asked for a final report at Council's October 15 meeting.

The Real Estate Committee is composed of Councilmen LaLonde, Della-Moretta, and Merv Wyse and city attorney Prentiss Brown, Jr.

City Manager Receives

'Satisfactory'

Rating in Council's Evaluations

Mayor Grondin handed out copies of a three-page evaluation summary of the city manager's performance to each council member and offered copies to the audience. He said Mr. Dodson received an overall 'satisfactory' rating.

Each council member rated Mr. Dodson's performance in 10 categories, and were directed to rate him as satisfactory, unsatisfactory, or not having enough information to rate him. Council members were also allowed to include comments at the end of the evaluation [see information box].

Mr. Dodson received satisfactory ratings from Messrs. Grondin, Della-Moretta, Gustafson, LaLonde, and Paul Fullerton.

He received three 'unsatisfactory' ratings from Councilwoman Susan Tamlyn-Massaway in the "personal," "relations with elected members," and "leadership/ supervision" categories.

Councilman Merv Wyse marked two categories, "leadership/supervision" and "staffing," as not applicable. He said he unintentionally left the "relations with elected members" category blank.

"I appreciate the openness of the process and the candid nature of the process," said Mr. Dodson to Council. "These kind of things not only help me grow as a manager and hopefully get better all the time, there also is an opportunity to get better not for just me but for the city and the community as a whole, as well.

"There was some pretty good, constructive things within the evaluation that I can focus on and move forward with and I appreciate that," he continued.

In other action during the meeting, Council adopted a new city internship policy. The policy state's the city's encouragement of unpaid internships. Mr. Gustafson suggested that payment to an intern only be granted "prior to unanimous City Council approval."

The policy is a result of Mr. Dodson's violation of the city charter's anti-nepotism policy when he hired and paid $1,600 to Councilman Della-Moretta's daughter for work at the Recreation Department this summer.

"The biggest mistake I made in all of this is that I should have had this issue presented to Council on the January agenda," said Mr. Dodson.

Council adopted a new communications tower ordinance that sets regulations in place for the construction, location, and deconstruction of communication towers within the city limits. Prior to this ordinance, the city had no regulations on construction and dissembling of communication towers other than federal regulations.

Council held a public hearing before adopting the ordinance, though only one comment was made, which a resident asked about an existing tower on Paro Street, which Council had no information to whether it is in use today.

Mr. Dodson said he will write a letter to Waste Management's corporate headquarters in Texas to inquire the minimum fee for trash disposal for commercial businesses, which is set at $100. At its regular meeting September 4, St. Ignace Visitors Bureau Director Lynne Piippo addressed Council with a complaint from an anonymous business that the $100 commercial rate is too high, pointing out that it costs just as much to drop off one bag of trash as it is for four.

Mary Swiderski, of Mackinac County's Michigan State University Extension office, seeking to provide rental bicycles for workers, lowincome residents, and senior citizens within the city, told Council she may likely abandon the project after hearing local bicycle businessman Michael Buby is planning to provide rental bicycles next summer.

Council agreed that, owing to liability, it should not be involved in such a project. Mrs. Swiderski was seeking insurance coverage through the city.

City Marina Director Eugene Elmer, also the city's treasurer, said the marina is up 14.5% in revenue compared to last year. As of September 31, the marina generated $496,000 in revenue, compared to $433,000 in 2006.

Expenses were up 3.5%, which includes cost of fuel.

The marina is scheduled to close for the season October 15.

City resident Don Larson, who owns four parcels of property, made another plea to Council to relieve him from the water department's readiness-to-serve charges, which he said is charging him up to $700.

"We are required to have that security in place," explained Mr. Dodson to Mr. Larson. "Unless we have somewhere else to guarantee that funding, such as raising taxes, it has to come out of that readiness-toserve charge."

Mr. Larson contends he should not have to pay the charge since he does not use water at any of his four parcels of property.

Council made no action on the issue.

Council approved Chamber of Commerce Director Janet Peterson's request to close Ellsworth Street from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. October 6 for the annual pumpkin roll during the Autumn Apple Days weekend. The event will include a pumpkin decoration contest and live music at the city marina.

Council approved a taxi cab driver license for St. Ignace resident Mark Nordstrand. City Responds to News' Letter in

Open Meetings Act Violation

In response to a letter from The St. Ignace News, in which the newspaper states that City Council violated the Open Meetings Act when it closed its regular meeting September 4 to discuss paying Building Inspector Paul Sved's for unused vacation time, Mr. Brown stated he believes what the city did was not in violation, according to state statute, however, he did advise that city department heads not to request closed meetings with Council in future discussions regarding issues like contract negotiations. Personal issues, he said, should be the only reason department heads should request a public meeting to be closed.

Mr. Brown contends that Council discussed the matter in private because Mr. Sved asked it to, and that a collective bargaining provision in the act allows that. He argues that Council had the right to close the meeting under a collective bargaining clause in the Open Meetings Act, since, he said, Mr. Sved had requested the discussion to be private. This newspaper charged that the collective bargaining provision doesn't apply to a non-union employee.

The Open Meetings Act, said Mr. Brown, does not provide clear enough definition about collective bargaining, as he pointed out that if a janitor in a union can request a closed session, then Mr. Sved should have that right, as well.

"He should have the same privilege as the janitor in this building, who is in the union," he said. "I wish the Legislature would straighten [the collective bargaining section of the Open Meetings Act] out. They would say either that it does apply to contract people as well as union people, but they haven't."

Mr. Dodson pointed out that he will be attending a Michigan Municipal League meeting in either Frankenmuth or Grand Rapids where discussion of the Open Meetings Act will be scheduled.

The St. Ignace News, through its attorney, has said the law is clear and the newspaper is prepared to take the matter to court, as Mr. Brown invited it to do at the September 4 meeting.