Transportation Museum Would Require Taxpayer Investment
To the Editor:

The above-the-fold headlines have recently highlighted the latest work in progress masterminded by the select few at City Hall, and particularly at the Downtown Development Authority.

The "transportation museum" which folks smarter than I want to locate in the former food pantry/former bus depot has enjoyed scant consideration by few outside the "inner circle."

To widen that discussion, I would like to share some interesting facts I learned about this undertaking. To learn more, go to www.michigan.gov/tea on the computer, or call (517) 335-1069; you'll want to inquire about the "transportation enhancements" programs from MDOT.

The money starts in your wallets, goes to Washington, D.C., then returns to MDOT in Lansing. And it gets back here not as a traditional grant; it is a reimbursement program!

This process requires at least a 20% "hard" match; that's cash or donation of real estate. Over-match is encouraged, as the projects awarded to date have a 32% average match.

This cost will come from Saint Ignace taxpayers. Further, federal law requires that an asset created using federal funding shall be operated and maintained for its original purpose throughout the design life of that structure.

That cost of labor, benefits, and maintenance will again be borne by Saint Ignace taxpayers, forever.

And, what about parking? Nobody's mentioned where the hordes of visitors will stow their "magic carpets" while touring this proposed museum.

Yes, this land, too, must come off the tax rolls, so there'll be another increase levied on all Saint Ignace property owners.

The owner (DDA? City? Another Entity Yet To Be Named?) will be required to execute and record an historic preservation easement to protect the federal funding investment and to define maintenance responsibilities

Where is the groundswell of citizens desiring this project? Not anywhere to be found!

When I researched this question on the surveys submitted for the compilation of the Master Plan for the City, one reply possibly suggested something along the line of this project.

Now, that's a gamble! Perhaps a million plus of local dollars being planned to be spent on an idea whose support comes from one person, who most likely is an employee of the City.

Is this simply a "make-work" activity for the mayor's public relations, or to keep some people on the payroll now who properly need to be put on a "reduction of force" layoff, as there is no other grant writing to be done?

This cost and effort will create something to protect a 101-foot model of the Mighty Mac as a centerpiece; the donation of the one derelict aft engine of the Chief Wawatam may be stored somewhere close by.

Do you want to fund this project with $1 million or more of your local tax money?

Are we going to own an elaborate possession, entailing great and continuing expense, which is out of proportion to the usefulness it may provide?

In competition with the proposed Saint Ignace display, there already exists in the Wisconsin Maritime Museum of Manitowoc, a 60,000-squarefoot facility which houses the actual 65-ton displacement, triple expansion steam engine which powered the Chief from 1911. This one actually works!

How cool is that!

If your family had a limited amount of vacation money and an interest in auto ferry history on the Great Lakes, would there even be a serious consideration of Saint Ignace vs. Manitowoc as your family's vacation destination?

The city manager tells us the aft engine is "pretty sad to see ..."

And, I do love to hear a man in touch with his feelings, but I want to get in touch with some rigging and an oxy/acetylene cutting torch.

That may just be the first impulse of a skilled woman with an eye to the bottom line.

Mary Elizabeth Nichols

St. Ignace