Rep. Howard Walker has introduce a bill in the state legislature that would take away the ability of local townships to govern the placement of wind power generators via zoning, and would establish state standards governing the controversial behemoths.
This thoughtful piece on the MLUI site comes down on the side of state standards, but includes good arguments for maintaining local control as well.
Are you shocked by the roller coaster price of gasoline?
Aren’t you glad your electric bill doesn’t change so dramatically for no apparent reason at all?
When you think about it, electricity is probably at least as important to our day-to-day living as gasoline. Maybe even more important.
Try going a couple of hours at home or work without electricity. I doubt that you’ll enjoy the experience. Sure, you could probably live without the TV, at least for a couple of hours. But what about your refrigerator? The lights? How many other gadgets in your home require electricity to operate?
Expanding on this, how would our schools, hospitals and government services operate if electricity weren’t affordable and reliable? One of the greatest modern marvels, the internet, wouldn’t be possible without reliable and affordable electricity.
In Northern Michigan, there are over 200,000 of us who get our electricity from a member-owned electric cooperative. In the Traverse City area, chances are you get your electricity from either Cherryland Electric or Great Lakes Energy.
Both of these organizations are different from most nameless corporate utilities. The beauty of this type of organization is that the “owners” of the utility are the customers, working to serve the needs of the community – not investors on Wall Street.
Each year, the cooperative “owners” elect a Board of Directors. The cooperative Board of Directors fulfills an important role – making sure that the cooperative serves the “owners” in the community. The Board of Directors acts very much like our local school boards or county commissioners. It oversees the delivery of an essential service to our community – electricity.
The Board of Directors is responsible to make sure that electric rates are fairly set, services are reliable and that any special needs are met in an equitable fashion. It makes sure that the management of the cooperative is focused on serving the needs of the “owners.”
For most of us in Northern Michigan, we have no choice when it comes to where we get our electric service. If we don’t like our natural gas or telephone services, most of us have alternatives. However, if we don’t like the electric service we’re getting from our electric cooperative, we’re stuck!
This is why it is so important for the “owners” of an electric cooperative to participate in the oversight of their electric utility. The best and easiest way to do this is to vote in your annual Board of Directors election.
Beyond just getting the cost and service levels right, the Board decides how to invest the “owners’” money. Big commitments of “owner” money are required to secure future electric power supplies. Right now, the Cherryland Board of Directors is contemplating very large financial commitments that will drive electricity rates for cooperative “owners” for the next 30 years or longer.
The last time the Cherryland Board of Directors was faced with major supply decisions like this it invested in nuclear power. That investment failed miserably and ended up costing cooperative “owners” well over $150 million dollars over 10 years. Ouch!
The Board of Directors also can invest the “owners’” money in non-utility activities. At Cherryland, the Board invested over $4 million in a cellular telephone business, an internet service provider and alternative heating and cooling ventures. Virtually all of this “owner” money was lost and written off. Ouch!
Getting back to the core mission of the electric cooperative, did you know that residential electric cooperative “owners” in northern Michigan pay the highest rates for electricity in Michigan? If you have a neighbor who is served by either Traverse City Light & Power or Consumers Energy, compare your electric bills. You’ll notice quite a difference in the cost of electricity. Ouch!
To add insult to injury, did you know that your cooperative Board members compensate themselves far more than other cooperative Board members pay themselves? Compared to national averages, Northern Michigan Directors reward themselves much more than other cooperative Boards around the county. Ouch! (Source data from 2004)
Some Board members even voted themselves a special deferred compensation scheme that will reward them for years, even after they are no longer members of the Board. Ouch!
Yes, just as in private industry (think of Enron or WorldCom), when an organization’s Board isn’t doing its job, the “owners” pay the price.
Sadly, at Cherryland, only about 2% of the “owners” get involved in the election of their Board of Directors. At Great Lakes Energy, the turnout is even lower. Think about how well our school boards or county commissions would run if only 1% of the “owners” came out to elect leaders. Almost certainly things would be run by a small group of “insiders” who cannot be relied upon to represent the needs of the “owners.” Ouch!
Are you interested in “green power”? Do you want to see your local utility improve service? Do you think that regional power supply solutions could benefit our region? As an “owner” of your local electric cooperative, you can get involved to promote your interests. You can start by voting in your cooperative Board of Directors elections each year.
Cherryland Electric’s election will be held this year on Thursday, June 15th at 5:30pm at the “owners’” offices in Grawn. Along with having a chance to meet the great folks who work at Cherryland, you’ll be served a nice BBQ dinner. You can meet the Board candidates at the meeting and let them know what you want to see happen at your cooperative.
You can also vote by mail-in ballot. Ballots have been distributed in the May edition of Country Lines, the monthly magazine sent to all cooperative “owners.”
For more information on your cooperative, call Cherryland Electric at 231.486.9200 or Great Lakes Energy at 1.888.485.2537.
Think about how important electricity is in your life. Please take a minute to get involved. It’s your cooperative and you don’t want to be shocked!
John Murray lives in Solon township. He served on the Cherryland Board between 2000 and 2004. He also sat on the Wolverine Power Cooperative Board, Cherryland's wholesale supplier, from 2002 to 2004. While serving on these Boards John's efforts were aimed at providing reliable electric service, managing costs carefully and communicating effectively with the community. John is an experienced business leader with a passion for service excellence, especially in how utility services are provided to our community. He is a candidate for the Cherryland Board and can be reached via email at: jmurray1@aol.com.
When the legislation that permitted Indian-run casinos like Leelanau Sands was passed in 1993, it was with the understanding that some portion of their profits would be shared with neighboring communities. But questions have been raised about how some of those monies have been allocated.
In this Freep story, instances of questionable uses are cited, including grants by the the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians to send $101,000 to CMU Public Broadcasting in Mt. Pleasant to finance a documentary on the tribe's history, and $299,000 for Native American education programs at northern Michigan schools last year.
Lost in all the discussion about the financial crises facing area schools is the fact that Leelanau and other area schools receive much less per pupil than some downstate districts. Since school funding depends largely on a per-pupil allowance received from the state, of course enrollments are key. But how much a district gets for each pupil is also important.
Traverse City and Leelanau schools receive about $6700 per year per pupil. But some downstate districts like Bloomfield Hills and Farmington receive almost twice as much. It's an arrangement that can be "explained, not justified," according to this article in the Oakland Press.
Update 5/10/06: Update: The Record-Eagle has a thoughtful editorial on this issue.
It took quite a while, but the people who are behind the attempt to recall Deri Smith have finally revealed to us what the campaign is really all about. And it doesn't have anything to do with the charges you will see on the ballot Tuesday.
Yet another mailing from yet another committee is addressed to "Township Citizens owning 5 acres of land and more." The mailing claims that the new zoning ordinance being developed at the Planning Commission will somehow make it impossible for landowners to give land to their children, or to create clustered housing developments, or to allow wineries in the township. All these claims are demonstrably false. On the contrary, Elmwood township is finally making real progress towards creating a zoning ordinance that implements the Master Plan by enhancing existing neighborhoods and preserving the rural character of the township.
But forget all that. The real news in this mailing is that it reveals--for the first time--the agenda of the people who have bankrolled this recall. It's not about the claims that were ginned up for the recall petitions. It's about land use--and about making sure that Deri Smith does not continue to make progress in implementing the policies that the great majority of Elmwood residents support. If the organizers of this recall could not be honest about the real reasons they want to remove Smith from office, why should we believe anything they say?
Accounting numbers for the Elmwood Marina recently made available show that, contrary to claims made in the Leelanau Enterprise, income at the marina is not down. In fact, when an accurate comparison is made to 2004, income is up. The increases suggest that the reforms and management changes made under Superivsor Deri Smith have helped at the troubled facility.
Combining all sources of income for January 1 2005 through Dec 31 and adjusting for the loss of buoys and slips mandated by federal and state agencies, the balance sheet shows an increase of income of over $17,000.
The 2005 dock slip payments were set by the previous management and reflect their practices and standards. Under the new management, consistent enforcement of the Township-approved fee schedule should increase the 2006 seasonal slip income by $18,000. A new Township-approved credit card policy should add another $6,000 to income. Taken together with the storage and other increases, income at the Marina under the new management should be up over $40,000 over a comparable period under the old management.
Evidence suggests that most of the shortfall in the revenues in 2004 resulted from a practice of granting discounts as favors at the Marina. In a similar way, the waiting list of boaters seeking moorings or slips at the Marina was often ignored, with some individuals promoted over others with more seniority, although all had paid the same $100 application fee.
Keep your fingers crossed... if all the pieces fall into place, if township officials and appointed boards can meet the deadlines and keep the process on-track, the most significant facilities upgrade to the Elmwood's beach and marina complex in more than 20 years will be primed and ready to seek state funding—not in a year, not in the dim future, but by the end of March 2006.
Spearheaded by Elmwood's Parks and Recreation Board, the initiative includes the creation of a carefully detailed waterfront park including a pavilion, play area, boardwalk, special beach area with restroom, and the accommodation of significant natural features that are part of the compact site. In addition plans call for a significant face lift for M-22 itself, with features that are intended to allow the park site to become more accessible to pedestrians and TART Trail users while allowing the roadway itself to become more a part of the developing township waterfront. As an addition to the scope of this project the Elmwood Marina Committee is looking at making its planned marina expansion plans a part of a combined overall plan that embraces adjacent park and marina sites. Improvements to M-22 would take place in an ongoing process under the auspices of MDOT. The overall plan will allow Elmwood to take advantage of multiple state funding sources through grant processes.
In order to meet annual grant application deadlines Klaus Heinert, landscape architect for consultant Gosling Czubak Engineering, explained that the parks and recreation committee has been working to create the required up-date to the township recreation plan. The plan as revised will address the township's expressed desire to create the proposed improvements in a broad sense. The Elmwood Parks and Recreation Committee will present the plan and take input from the public at a 5:30pm meeting at the township hall on Tuesday, January 24th. Immediately following the township planning commission will consider its endorsement of the recreation plan up-date at its regular meeting on Tuesday, January 24th at 7:00pm. The Elmwood Board of Trustees will take take up the endorsement at a special meeting on Wednesday the 25th. The official endorsements of the up-dated recreation plan will not lock in design details or necessarily commit the township to any specific action. Official endorsement of the plan simply allows the process to continue through a public input phase, and a process that will lead to final plans, grant applications and eventually construction.
Heinert described the combined marina and park expansion plan as an excellent way for the township to leverage its funds by including as many funding sources as possible in one coordinated planning package. In order to accomplish the long awaited third marina dock the township is faced with making significant changes to parking arrangements at the marina site. Other long considered improvements like a fish cleaning station, dealing with environmental issues, and other improvements to buildings at the marina can be addressed in one waterfront planning effort. Including the marina in the mix would mean that grant applications in support of the overall project could be submitted to a variety of state, other public, and private funding sources. The designation of M-22 as a State Heritage route in Leelanau County could provide another funding enhancement.
Discussions and initiatives regarding waterfront improvements in Elmwood have been on-going for many years. Several false starts and unevenly coordinated planning efforts have redirected township efforts into what is now a potentially very productive plan. The process has benefitted from support fro the Michigan Coastal Zone Management program and other sources of funding that have allowed the plan to be developed to its current state. Plans and budgets are in a preliminary state, but well developed and ready to be finalized on a short time horizon. Many local partners, public and private institutions will stand to directly share the benefits of the project, and are considered to be important partners in the project. With access to the Tart Trail, new neighbors, including an interpretive historical center being created on the old TC Light and Power coal dock and other property next to the beech front park, and the Great Lakes Children's Museum, the Elmwood waterfront and M-22 corridor are poised to convert the promise that waterfront locations offer: a place where community can shine. With the development of other important public/private initiatives, like the acquisition of the Louis Deyoung farm by the Leelanau conservancy, Elmwood residents and visitors are witnessing and participating in a very positive period of change for their community.
The Jack Abramoff scandal has provided a rare glimpse into the way business is conducted in Congress today--and into the part played by our Congressman, Dave Camp (R-Midland).
Camp is one of more than a dozen members of Congress who intervened to help Indian tribes win federal school construction money while accepting political donations from the tribes, their lobbyist Jack Abramoff, or his firm. Here in Michigan, both Senators Stabenow and Levin also wrote letters that pressed a reluctant Bush administration to renew a program that provided tribes federal money for building schools.
Lawmakers received donations, ranging from $1,000 to more than $74,000, in the weeks just before or after their intervention. Ethics rules require lawmakers to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest while performing official duties. This requirement became famous a decade ago during the so-called Keating Five scandal (which ensnared, among others, likely 2008 presidential candidate John McCain) when legislators pressured regulators on behalf of Charles Keating while taking donations from the savings and loan operator.
Of the three Michigan lawmakers, Dave Camp got the most money - $35,000 - from Abramoff and American Indian tribes Abramoff represented, including not only the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe, but also the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana and the Tigua Indian Reservation, all of whom are Abramoff clients. Levin and Stabenow also received money from the Saginaw tribe, but lesser amounts - $2,000 for Levin and $4,000 for Stabenow (she also received $1,000 from other tribal interests).
So why was Camp so much more richly rewarded, compared to Levin and Stabenow, who are arguably bigger wheels in the Washington scheme of things? We've argued elsewhere that the missing link was Tom DeLay, the disgraced former Majority Leader in the House. Camp sided with DeLay on a staggering 92% of House votes. Abramoff was all about funneling money to reliable supporters of DeLay--who then marshaled support for interests represented by Abramoff and other members of the K Street Project. Camp got more because he did more than Levin and Stabenow to advance the interests of Jack Abramoff's clients.