Kudos to the Anti-Mine Activists!

It was encouraging that three Menominee city officials wanted to stop the city from accepting donations from Aquila Resources, the Canadian company that wants to put an open-pit sulfide mine near the Menominee River.

Aquila has tried to buy off the entire area, but especially Menominee and Menominee  County, for a decade now.

Unfortunately, a majority of the city council nixed the donation ban last week.

Most local organizations and individuals aren't that stupid. Almost every municipality in our corner of the world has come out against the open-pit sulfide mine that Aquila wants along the Menominee River. The city of Menominee has lagged behind.

I've been to the mine site. I know how close it is to the river. I've listened to the propaganda Aquila spews. (Fortunately, the Canadian mining company has yet to hire anyone with the savvy to sell its plans with any expertise.)

Another big plus is the many average citizens who have fought against the mine for many years now, beginning with the Front Forty movement some 11 years back.

My favorites are those who frequent the Save the Menominee River Facebook Page. I won't name names, but they seem like a great crew: Driven, dedicated and resourceful.

They've testified, marched, picketed, donated, made signs, created memes, written letters and done much more to keep the Menominee River - which is finally clean after decades of contamination - safe from destruction.

Along the way, I suspect they've learned a  lot about the civic process and made what I hope will be lasting friendships. I really like these people, at least online. I admire their dedication.

I applaud the progress these good people have made. Now there's more than one federal agency that is looking askance at the Back Forty Mine. As it should.

Sure, the mine might bring a few jobs to the area. But that's not so attractive now with other businesses expanding.

And no amount of job creation is worth losing our most valuable resource: The Menominee River.

Stop the mine.

Henes Park: The Next Century

Trails are named for great thinkers.

Now in its 110th year, Menominee's Henes Park, through the generosity of the family whose name it bears, will see an update.

Read the story here.

The late John and Jewel Henes, as thoughtful and as community-minded as any local couple could be, conceived a plan for a park building that takes the park well into the 21st century. The Heneses, along with people like Sara Lambrecht and Tom Kuber, are largely responsible for Menominee's gem of a preserved downtown with its 19th/early 20th century buildings and turrets.

No they didn't build it, but the Heneses and Lambrecht were tireless promotors of historic preservation. Kuber and his wife, Sandy, purchased many of the old buildings and preserved and maintained them for many years.

The iconic lifeguard stand.

The Heneses and their deep sense of pride in Menominee have contributed greatly to the quality of life there.

Now the park, located on Poplar Point, and given to the city by John Henes' grandfather in or before 1907, will get a new building, a lodge of sorts - not the kind with rooms to rent - with a kitchen and sanitary facilities that can accommodate large gatherings like family and high-school reunions.

What a wonderful idea! Menominee, consider yourselves lucky.

The park was designed by Ossian Cole Simonds, a Michigan native, who followed the landscape design ideals of the arguably more famous Frederick Law Olmsted, perhaps best known as the designer of New York's Central Park.

Both men knew that parks serve a number of audiences, those who seek activity and those in search of quiet contemplation. That idea gets lost all too frequently when misguided individuals - often the more athletically inclined - think parks are meant only for frenetic activity.

The road along the shore.

Just meander the inner trails of Henes Park. Despite whatever is happening at the beach and volleyball court, here you will find the sound of woodpeckers and nuthatches, the rustle of leaves, the crisp crunch of twigs underfoot. The trails are named for philosophers, not athletes.

So it made a lot of sense to me to know that Mayor Jean Stegeman asked if such a building was what the public wanted. To destroy the park's tranquility would be disastrous.

But I don't think that is what John and Jewel Henes had in mind. Quiet, gracious individuals, they surely understood and appreciated the need for silence and pondering at Henes Park. Huge patrons of art and the arts, the Heneses likely wanted to bring more creative and educational opportunities to this verdant semi-peninsula north of town. Their legacy will be well served in the hands of their niece Joanna Lewis.

At any rate, Menominee should consider itself fortunate to have thoughtful donors like the Heneses and the anonymous individual responsible for spiffing up the Menominee lighthouse.

Fortunate indeed.

I’m adding this link because it does a wonderful job describing the public parks movement. A friend told me of an older woman railing against the Henes gift because it would take the park away from kids. Parks are for everyone!

Don't Compare One City Government to the Other

Unless you attend city council meetings regularly, you might assume all cities operate in the same fashion: A balance of power between a mayor and a city council.

But that's not really the way it works.

Charters - the document which prescribes how a city operates - differ from city to city. I won't bore you with the details. You can read more about charters here.

Marinette and Menominee have different organization structures. Marinette's calls for a managing mayor/strong council form of government while Menominee's calls for a city manager/strong council model, with a ceremonial mayor.

(I didn't know this until recently but Madison, where I lived for a decade, once had a city administrator in addition to a mayor. The administrator handled the day-to-day details. That sounds like a good arrangement to me; freed from mundane duties, a mayor could then devote full energies to being a visionary, diplomat, negotiator and all-round mover and shaker.)

Marinette had a city manager when I was a kid, and there's always been talk about having one again. Nothing ever comes to fruition, but this arrangement would have been useful during the Bob Harbick years.

Menominee's charter was last updated 20 years ago. It underwent a major change in early 1996, when the mayor's role was weakened and a city manager was hired.

Today, Menominee's mayor has no administrative duties, according to the charter: "The mayor shall be for all intents and purposes a voting member of the city council and shall preside at meetings of the council, represent the city in intergovernmental relationships, appoint with the advice and consent of the council the members of citizen advisory boards and commissions, present an annual state of the city message and perform other duties specified by the council. The mayor shall be recognized as head of the city government for all ceremonial purposes and by the governor for purposes of military law and shall be the chief executive officer of the city, but shall have no administrative duties."

Marinette operates under an ordinance code which specifies that the mayor is responsible for enforcing that code as well as supervising city management-level employees. He or she serves as chief operating or administrative officer for the city and communicates with the city council, as well as presides over meetings.

(That doesn't mean the mayor can't be a visionary and a doer, with ideas for enhancing the city. The city's current mayor, Steve Genisot, demonstrated his ability to do this when he presented a plan for the now-under-construction community rec center.)

In other words, Marinette's mayor runs the city while Menominee's presides over ceremonies.

In both cases, the mayor's desires can be overridden by the city council. It happens, a lot more than you might think. Which is why you should be attending city council meetings, or if you live in the county, county board meetings. Find out first hand how your city operates.

To the Lighthouse and its Generous Patron!

In 2007.

I think most of us who hang out on line have enjoyed Skip Heckel's photos on Facebook of all the work that's been done on the Menominee Lighthouse, also known as North Pierhead Light, or just plain North Pier Light.

I don't need to remind anyone how lucky we are to have this gem in our community. I'm pretty sure everyone appreciates the solid red and white reminder of our community's maritime roots. The bay was every bit as important to our development as a lumber port as the river was - and the fates of the two bodies of water are intertwined.

My first awareness of the lighthouse was probably forged on foggy nights via the foghorn. I remember falling asleep to its sound, when we lived downtown and later on the near east side of Marinette. It was mournful but somehow comforting.

When I turned 19, my two best friends, knowing my affinity for all things nautical, planned a surprise picnic for me at the lighthouse. The Coast Guard wasn't bothered by us; we witnessed a watch change and stayed out there until it grew dark.

I visited a few more times before leaving the area. In summer I'd long to be back home, but it trips were hurried and never long enough to spend time at the lighthouse.

Upon returning to the area 23 years ago, I'd drive out there every now and then, just to check on it. In recent years, I've taken visiting friends, new to our area, out there for a photographs.

It wasn't until 1300 people either toured the lighthouse or toured the Marinette-made USGC Mackinaw  in October 2008 when the chamber organized a Maritime weekend to coincide with the cutter's visit that I knew just how many of us revere this wonderful and historic structure.

On a recent hot night, my husband and I bought a sandwich downtown and ate it out near the lighthouse. Foot traffic on the pier was heavy; everyone wanted to see the facelift.

Yes, the facelift. An anonymous patron has paid for an extensive renovation job, that appears to include extras that tell the story of the lighthouse and its role in our community's history. There's even a new bike path down there.

I'm not saying, but I've got a pretty good idea who might be behind this magnificent and generous gesture. Many many thanks are due.

Why I Love Farm Markets

Carrots and onions at a recent market.

Usually by August, I've got some small eggplant growing in my garden.

This year, nothing. Not yet. Oh, maybe the suggestion of one puny eggplant.

It's been a challenging year for produce growers. Farm stands, which pop up at about five locations in Marinette and Menominee, appeared about ten days later than usual.

There's such a thing as too much rain, and between June and July, our area hot about 15 inches, when in a normal summer, we might have only five or six. Good for some plants, bad for others (apparently very good for my 12 different kinds of day lilies).

My grower friends at the M&M Farmers Market agree they've had a rough season. I see them weekly, because I rarely miss a summer market day. Even in a tough summer, there's still fresh produce to be found.

I volunteer to assist this group with its social media and news releases. I believe in the value of eating local. The food is fresh and you get to know the farmers who grow it.

But that's not all. Farm markets are an important component of local economic development efforts.

Thanks to a recent survey, one that is being conducted again this year, this is what we know about the market that sets up every Saturday at the M&M Plaza. The market is a project of the Menominee County Farm & Food Exchange, and used to operate out of the VFW Hall on 10th Street on the north side of town.

Even in a rough summer, produce is available.

The market has more than two-dozen vendors who sell produce, eggs, meat, baked goods, honey, jams, coffee, pasta, bedding plants and a variety of locally-made craft items, including soaps, lotions, and fiber items.

In 2016, vendors brought in an estimated $38,105 directly to their businesses, and returned three times more to the local economy than chain retailers, according to survey results.

The average distance food travels from farm to the local market is only 15 miles. Market vendors cultivate more than 252 acres of farmland, which does not include acres cultivated by area growers who do not attend the market but sell produce through other growers who do attend.

Last year, market vendors took in $1,380 in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefit dollars, which supported the market’s commitment to ensuring that fresh produce is available to all families in the local community.

In addition, the study indicated that 48 percent of market shoppers said they planned to shop at neighboring businesses on market days.

The M&M Farmers Market is open every Saturday from 9 to noon at the M&M Plaza. For more information, find the market on Facebook under M&M Farmers Market (https://www.facebook.com/MandMFarmersMarket/)

In addition to the weekly market, Menominee County Farm & Food Exchange members coordinate the annual Menominee Old World Christmas Market, a European-style holiday market to be held Nov. 17-18 in Downtown Menominee.

NOTE: There are also farm markets in Marinette on Fridays, 2- p.m., on Stephenson Island and in Downtown Menominee, starting at 9 a.m. on Saturdays. 

The study was coordinated by the Michigan Farmers Market Association (MIFMA), and supported by a Rural Business Development Grant from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). 

The Future of Waterfront Festival

Another Waterfront Festival has come and gone, this one plagued by several bouts of unpleasant weather.

It was unseasonably chilly. It rained at least three times between Thursday and Sunday. Fortunately, Saturday, a key day for attendance - and of, course, fireworks - was decent.  On Sunday, rain begain almost as soon as the parade wrapped up - probably the worst weather since high winds halted the fireworks in 2008.

So it will be interesting to see how festival finances shake out. We probably won't know that until later this calendar year.

This year, there was no festival director. Instead, Tony Graff, Menominee's city manager - still in his first year on the job - coordinated the festival himself in between all his other duties.

Gotta hand it to Graff. That's no easy feat. But Graff, whom I've met only twice, seems to have a vision for his new city. He sees opportunities for Menominee to shine.

(That's a quality - vision - that every true leader must have. Many previous city managers showed signs of this quality in various degrees - Tony Furton, Michael Cramer, even the ill-fated Richard Goode. Others did not.)

Graff seems to see much potential in Downtown Menominee. Maybe that's why he stepped up to the plate when last year's Waterfront manager, Toni Ihler, declined to continue in the position for a second year. Apparently no one applied for the job when Ihler moved on. (That tells you something.)

After the 2015 festival, former Councilman Leon Felch essentially accused the longtime festival director, Nancy Douglas, of losing money on the event.

The truth is, Waterfront has been losing money for years, if data supplied by the late Tom DeNike is accurate. Douglas took some necessary steps to stop the bleeding; so did Ihler.

I'm betting Graff took it further.

So it will be interesting to see how the event fared this year. (Footage taken by a drone shows parade attendance was less than half of what it was in previous years.)

What will the numbers look like? Who will lead the festival next year?

Hire and Elect Only the Best

Remember former Menominee City Manager Ted Andrzewjewski? You know, the guy who fired a long-time and respected city assessor in 2015 because she was being harassed by a (now former) council member and had the audacity to complain about it?

He left Menominee in the spring of 2016, taking a job in Canandaigua, New York.

As city manager there, it took just over a year to become embroiled in controversy once again. Read more here.

Four months later, he was placed on administrative leave. Not long after that, his deputy manager replaced him.

Now, it seems Andrzejewski is trying to return to Michigan. He's the top runner for a management job in Cass, Mich. He obviously gives good interviews. No word yet on whether or not that appointment has been finalized.

Meanwhile, the person he hired to replace the Menominee city assessor stayed on the job less than a year.

I don't wish Andrzejewski ill. I hope he turns the corner and does a great job in Cass City, and is able to end his career on a high note.

Update: Sadly, the offer was rescinded. See story.

But let his story serve as an example. (And learn to Google, Menominee!)

Not that we need more examples. We are seeing the effects of bad choices on a national level on a daily basis. But locally, there aren't as many checks and balances in place to mute the effects of a bad leader.

Andrzewski wasn't a good leader. He failed to protect the city from legal damage and damage to its reputation.

The jury is still out on whether or not we've elected or hired good leaders on either side of the river in the past two years.

But I'm seeing signs of hope.