Oct 29 2007
News Digest: 10/29
The Flint Journal has an interesting article about Lapeer County’s attempt to provide “universal access” to its park system.
The Greenville Daily News has an article about an historic West Michigan outhouse. BTW, if you keep your eyes open in Monroe, Lenawee and Hillsdale Counties, you can see many, many outhouses and hitching posts that are still in existence:
http://www.thedailynews.cc/Main.asp?SectionID=2&ArticleID=17029
The Detroit News has updates on two local park sagas. The first involves the section of the proposed Tricentennial State Park that is currently owned by the City of Detroit. The city council will vote on the proposal on Tuesday evening.
The second is from Trenton. The city has refused to accept 1.5 acres of land from DTE on the Detroit River until toxicity tests can be completed:
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071029/METRO01/710290321/1006/rss01
The Toledo Blade reports that residents of Middle Bass Island are pressing the State of Ohio to help develop additional tourism facilities on Middle Bass Island. The state is currently developing a 340 boat marina. My gut reaction: Do we really need another Put-in-Bay?:
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071029/NEWS17/710290368/-1/RSS08
Eric Sharp has a column in the Detroit Free Press about the state funding shortfall. One of his interesting ideas is this:
We need to get away from the present system of funding the parks. In Montana, for example, people pay an additional $4 each year for their vehicle registrations and get into the state parks for free.
The plan is voluntary and people can opt out. Charles Van Genderen, assistant administrator of the Montana parks division, says, “If a farmer has three pickups and he only uses two of them for hauling hay, why should he pay (a parks fee) for them? But most people like the system. They get into the parks for a year for what amounts to the price of a fancy cup of coffee at Starbucks.”
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071028/SPORTS10/710280660/1058
The Grand Rapids Press has an article about Kent County’s farmland development-rights-purchase program:
http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-38/1193552470245560.xml&coll=6