I am a St. Ignace resident who attended the Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference the weekend of September 26-28. Since the last ferry to leave Mackinac Island is at 7 p.m., I had to stay the night Friday and leave early Saturday. While I realize that I could have left the Island Friday night, there are some conference workshops and parties that last past the last ferry, which I wanted to attend.

There was going to be a special 12:30 a.m. ferry to St. Ignace Friday and Saturday nights, but not enough people made reservations, thus it was canceled. It seems rather odd that here Mackinac Island is in Mackinac County, as is St. Ignace, yet attendees who want to stay in St. Ignace have to turn in early. Then there are no events for them to attend once they arrive into town. Of course the Lower Peninsula is more heavily populated, thus there would be more attendees from the Lower Peninsula, thus Mackinaw City would have more conference attendees staying over there.

But what if there were more people from the U.P., including the local area of Mackinac County, who would have liked to attend the conference but thought it wasn't worth their time or money if they figured that they would have to stay on the Island or leave early.

I was thinking that for future conferences, the Mackinac County Republicans, City of St. Ignace, local hotels, bars and businesses, Shepler's Ferry Line, and Michigan Republican Party could work together to promote St. Ignace. If the previously mentioned were to work together, it would bring in more attendees, which would help the Michigan GOP. Thus, more attendees would be staying in St. Ignace and bring in more tourism dollars. For what I paid to stay at the cheapest hotel on the Island, someone could pay to stay two nights in St. Ignace and have money left over to spend at the local businesses and restaurants. Perhaps like with the candidates hosting parties at the bars on the Island, one or two candidates could host a party in St. Ignace. If there were more attendees staying in St. Ignace, there would be incentive for Shepler's to have a late ferry, which attendees could go to all the parties and events on the Island.

This would not be the city or businesses endorsing one political party over the other. It would be trying to bring in tourism dollars in the lull 'twixt summer and snowmobile season.
Kathy Wells
St. Ignace