City Hall: Stop Putting Up Roadblocks to Commerce
To the Editor:

This letter is being written to alert City Hall to the fact that St. Ignace has an economic problem.

I would like to make the people of St. Ignace aware of the reasons why, and hopefully embarrass City Hall into taking action.

First, a couple of years ago, we had a small business with 12 employees move to our town, and over a short period of time it grew to 83 employees. I stopped to visit them several times, as they were in my district as County Commissioner. Each time I asked if anyone from City Hall had been to visit and each time the manager would have the same response, "No." I am certainly not saying that City Hall could have kept the small business here, but it seems to me they could have skipped one of their 45-minute coffee breaks to visit one of the largest private employers in the county. And yes, they did finally visit, once the company announced it was moving.

Second story. Eight months ago, I went to City Council to tell them I wanted to start a new business, which would have employed six or seven people at a little higher than minimum wage, but I had one simple demand. Since I had trouble opening my last business, Jabber Joe's, I wanted a state building inspector to work with my new construction. I already owned the property, and had discussed a grant from the state. This would not have cost the city one dime. Well, you would have thought I was asking for the keys to City Hall. Two City Council members came to me personally, and stated it would never happen; we were asking for too much.

Third story. A year ago, we put a banner on the back of Java Joe's, very much like all the other businesses in town. Well, City Hall couldn't let that go, so we received a letter demanding we remove it immediately, or they would see us in court. We took pictures of all the businesses in town (one had 11 banners, and one had seven and was partially owned by an employee of City Hall). Then we sent letters to all the businesses, warning them of the City's intention. To make a long story short, we were summoned into court over our banner. Can someone in City Hall spell "harassment?"

My point in this letter is not to ask City Hall for anything other than stop putting up your self-imposed roadblocks for new business. There is a point when it just isn't worth it.

Joseph Durm

St. Ignace