An aerial shot of the St. Ignace Public Marina shows both proposed parking plans for Arts Dockside and other annual events that take place in and around the marina. For Arts Dockside, the proposed barrier will be erected, running from the entry driveway to the north corner of the marina building. Only marina guests will be allowed to enter through the northern driveway for the lot, giving the opportunity to pick up and drop off near the dock and park in one of the 13 paved spaces or in the grass and gravel area just north of the parking lot. Thirtythree “red spaces” will be designated for marina guests only during all other special events, although a different color may be used to identify these spots. The one exception will be the St. Ignace Auto Show, when the marina's lot will be closed completely to marina guests. The future is in question for one of the oldest annual events in St. Ignace, the Arts Dockside art and craft festival, as a result of the resignation of the Arts Dockside committee, a group of volunteers who organized and ran the festival.

Committee member Jennifer Joseph said a number of factors influenced the group's decision to step down, the foremost one a decision by St. Ignace City Council to reserve a portion of the marina's parking lot for boater parking during the festival. Arts Dockside committee members are Mrs. Joseph, Jeanette O'Rourke, Donna Pope, Ben Goudreau, and Carol Mitchell.

An apparent compromise was reached between Marina Director Gene Elmer and Arts Dockside organizers at the September 15 Harbor Authority meeting, when authority members decided to reserve 13 parking spots and the gravel and grass lot belonging to the Department of Natural Resources at the northwest corner of the marina exclusively for boaters during the event. This plan would create about 33 parking spaces for marina guests, Mr. Elmer said.

This change, Mrs. Joseph said, would create a dangerous mix of vehicles and pedestrians, as well as taking away valuable space from an event and its vendors that have been using that spot for 32 years, longer than the current marina has existed. This year would be the festival's 33rd.

"There is no way I am going to host an event with both moving traffic and pedestrians like that," Mrs. Joseph said. There is also a concern among committee members, she said, that this change is the first step in a bigger plan to take more space away from the event for boater parking. Half of the lot was originally suggested for parking by Mr. Elmer.

"I don't think he is done taking more parking," she said.

Mr. Elmer said the marina has no plans to take any additional space away from Arts Dockside and he is confident that the current plan should correct the problem.

"That is all that I am going to need," he said. "I'm not planning on taking any more than that."

The decision by the Harbor Authority to reconfigure marina parking during Arts Dockside stemmed from eight complaints from displaced boaters during Labor Day weekend last year.

Mr. Elmer said the marina plans to improve communication with boaters as well by staffing an employee during special events to let boaters in and out of the reserved parking area and to inform them on where to load, unload, and how to find overflow parking. Harbormaster Jeff Davenport said the marina should send out updated parking policy information to all seasonal boaters in the annual newsletter that is mailed with seasonal contracts.

As a state-funded marina, Mr. Elmer said, he is obligated to provide parking for boaters, especially those who pay for a seasonal slip and likely drive to St. Ignace when they want to use their boat.

"For the most part, the whole marina parking lot is for marina patrons," he said. "I'm the one bending over backwards and giving spots away on a busy weekend."

After 10 boaters contacted him to complain and five of those threatened to take their boats elsewhere next summer, Mr. Elmer said he was facing a loss of about $20,000 in revenue, something he felt was unacceptable for a marina that is trying to dig itself out of the debt from its construction.

"They have since all been calmed down," he said of the boaters. "They have been told that we have the problem under control; I guess this summer will be the proof."

Mr. Elmer contacted several other marinas for advice about the problem, and found the majority of the marinas he contacted do not give up their parking lots for special events.

"Most of them don't give up a lot at all for special events," he said. "Rogers City has a lot of events and they don't give up anything."

Committee member Jeanette O'Rourke said she wasn't willing to call up vendors, some of whom have already paid for their spots in 2010 and some who have been attending for 32 years, to tell them they might be moved from their usual spot or that there is not room for their booth at all.

"We have crafters that have come back to the exact same spot for years and years," Mrs. O'Rourke said. "We have had crafters call since last Labor Day to say that they love the show but don't want to give up their spot."

After the Harbor Authority made the decision in September, she said the group met and decided that if nothing changed, they would all step down.

Adding the element of moving traffic so close to large groups of pedestrians, she said, is a responsibility the committee was not willing to shoulder. People walking to art shows, especially those with children or dogs, would not expect to have moving cars to deal with and could be put in danger by the situation, Mrs. O'Rourke said.

"We don't want to be responsible for anyone getting hurt," she said. "People just don't expect you have to worry about cars at a craft show, no matter what town you are in."

Mrs. Pope, who has been volunteering for and attending Arts Dockside since its first year in 1978, said vendors who have been attending the fair for many years could be moved from their usual spots or displaced completely by the city's decision to partition off 13 parking spaces and the grassy area north of the marina building.

"These people have been coming so long," Mrs. Pope said, "they are not going to be happy. We don't want marina boaters to come park where the vendors are supposed to be."

Public parking across the street, she said, should be sufficient for the marina guests during special events like Arts Dockside.

Mr. Elmer said there is a plan to use the city-owned parking lot on Spring Street as an overflow lot during special events, but he believes that boaters need at least some nearby parking and a way to pull their vehicles close to the dock to load and unload.

Mrs. Pope said some of the problem could be that Arts Dockside is the sixth event during the summer that the marina's parking lot is used for a special event, which means by the time it comes around, some boaters are already frustrated.

"By the time they get down to us, they are mad," she said. "That's not our fault. The fact that there is no parking on certain days needs to be written up in the contract with boaters beforehand."

In 2009, six events were held in and around the marina lot, including the Yooper Motorcycle Show, Antiques on the Bay, the St. Ignace Auto Show, Fish Feast, Bayside Music Festival, and Arts Dockside.

Mr. Elmer said that a different parking plan will be put into effect for all other events, which would hold 35 spots at the north end of the parking lot exclusively for seasonal boaters. This plan would take up nearly half the parking lot. The lot will be closed completely once a year for the St. Ignace Auto Show, he said, when all boaters must park elsewhere.

Mrs. Joseph said she hopes the event would continue in future years, although it will have to be without the small group that has organized and run the event since it began.

"We are all kind of taking this as an opportunity to bow out while we can," she said. "I hope people will not forget that we are a city of tourism and to take something -- a huge event like that -- away would be detrimental."

Mrs. O'Rourke said she has been happy to be a part of the craft show for many years and hopes that the event does not disappear because of this disagreement.

"I really don't want to see it go away," she said. "There is a lot of work and a lot of energy that goes into planning and organizing it, really all year."

Janet Peterson, St. Ignace Chamber of Commerce director, has worked alongside the Arts Dockside committee to plan and run the show, and said the chamber's board has formed a committee to discuss the future of the festival.

"I just don't know who will step up to the plate," Mrs. Peterson said. "It would be nice if somebody does."

She said the group is working with maps of the area to see if reconfiguring the traditional Arts Dockside layout can allow them to make up the area that will be lost in the northwest corner, somewhere else.

If the chamber board decides it is not willing to take on the festival alone, she said, the next step would be seeking another group of volunteers to take over.

About 15 vendors have already registered for the 2010 Arts Dockside, Mrs. Peterson said, and the chamber plans to update all previous vendors on the show's status.

The Chamber of Commerce committee plans to meet at 1 p.m. Wednesday, January 13, at the Driftwood restaurant to discuss the future of the show.