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July 18, 2002
WILDERNESS, DUNES RESTRICTED IN PARK’S PREFERRED ALTERNATIVE
By Jacob Wheeler
Sun Editor
No, the National Park Service will not close the dune climb.
But the areas of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore open to the public will likely undergo major changes in late 2003, when the final version of the NPS General Management Plan is published. The National Park recently held three public meetings in Northern Michigan to discuss the GMP after issuing its fourth public newsletter. In it, the Park throws weight behind what it calls the “preliminary preferred”, the fourth alternative in a group whose other choices ranged from “no action” to restricting virtually all visitor access, and even closing the beloved dune climb.
The Preliminary Preferred is nowhere near as radical a plan as the second alternative, which would to an extreme “focus on the maintenance, restoration and protection of the components and processes of the Lakeshore’s pre-European settlement ecosystem”. Yet the Preliminary Preferred would still close off large tracts of dunes around the dune climb proper, as well as around Pyramid Point, North Bar Lake and the Manitou Islands. It would also lead to road closures, such as Esch Road south of Empire and the dirt roads branching off of County Road 669 in the Good Harbor Picnic Area, because the NP would deem these areas wilderness.
“We looked at the purposes of the park, and examined the legislation in coming to the conclusion that we have a dual mission -- preserving, and educating the visitors,” said Mike Duwe, an NPS environmental specialist in charge of presenting the General Management Plan to the public. “People love scenic views and vistas. At the same time, in order for native species to sustain themselves, they need rather large tracts of undisturbed land.”
The four alternatives -- the first of which considers “no action” necessary and the third of which would “recognize the evolution of the landscape and its human settlement over the passage of time” -- form the bulk of the fourth GMP newsletter, a massive document of text and maps that seems vague to the reader, and nearly requires a microscope and an expert at one’s side to make sense of it.
The Park held three open houses, from July 9-11, in Empire, Traverse City and Benzonia, at which the public rejected the Preliminary Preferred almost unanimously. More than 150 concerned citizens showed up at the Empire meeting and forced the Park to change a planned written-comment-only format into a sometimes raucous question-and-answer session. The determined crowd even convinced National Park Superintendent Dusty Schultz to extend the deadline for public comments until Labor Day, a far cry from the original July 26 cutoff. Comments can be e-mailed to slbe_gmp@nps.gov.
Complaints in Empire (the only meeting held before Glen Arbor Sun press time) were loud and forceful. “Do I have to carry my grandchild three miles from M-22 to see the sunset and then carry him back again in the dark because of road closures?” one asked. “Limiting access to local beaches would have a disastrous impact on Empire. Our beach would become overwhelmed. It’s already at a breaking point,” voiced another.
At every opportunity the Park reassured an angry public that the GMP is still only in a preliminary phase, and that their comments will be considered. “We are not married to any proposals,” Schultz said. “I can promise you that already our thinking is changing.”
Wilderness areas
The public is not able to influence the definition of the wilderness proposal that will spell road closures, however. And that’s a major democratic deficit, believes Park employee Bill Herd. Areas like Esch Road and Good Harbor may be closed based on the National Park’s definition of wilderness, spelled out in a 21 year old proposal that should have gone to Congress for approval in 1983. The wilderness proposal was not even accepted by the Department of the Interior, the governing body of the National Park.
“It is obsolete because the Environmental Impact Statement, on which it is based, is outdated,” writes a former National Park employee in an editorial piece submitted to the Glen Arbor Sun. (see page 7). “New alternatives and public hearings are required before it can be reintroduced.”
A wilderness verdict on County Road 669, off of M-22 north of Glen Arbor, would leave the road itself open but close off Good Harbor Picnic Area roads on both sides, to “maintain rustic character,” Duwe says. The Park would eventually install barrier posts or landscape timbers to thwart trespassers. Similarly, Esch Road would be closed and converted into a hiking trail to Otter Creek Beach.
Duwe adds, however, that the Preliminary Preferred would not close off any Lake Michigan beaches. Getting there just might be a little tougher.
Dunes
Mike Duwe is busy quelling rumors that the National Park will close the dune climb. That was only in alternative 2, not in the one the Park is backing.
“The preliminary preferred includes upgrading the parking area and keeping the dune climb, but somehow restricting use on the sides and at the top. Of the hundreds of thousands that climb the dunes, the numbers that continue towards the lake are very small.”
But the amount of usage, and whether or not the public will miss the dunes as a result, is the subject of strife within the local Park service.
“We don’t have any idea how many people use those dunes because in 30 years we haven’t collected any numbers,” says Bill Herd, who is concerned that closing off what he estimates as 98 percent of the dunes in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore will violate one of the park’s dual missions: educating visitors by giving them access.
Much of North Manitou Island, the dunes beyond Pyramid Point, the inland side of North Bar Lake, the Empire Bluffs and the vast rolling deserts beyond the dune climb are at stake.
Worse, the move to close the dunes is based on assumptions, and not concrete scientific evidence, suggests Herd.
“No one has ever researched the human impact on the dunes here,” he said. “All this is simply based on the idea that more people cause more erosion. But the native plants we’re trying to encourage live in an actively eroding environment. Furthermore, the amount of vegetation on the dunes has actually been increasing.”
Herd added that park rangers have traditionally avoided taking visitors on interpretive hikes where they might contribute to erosion or hurt the natural environment, but that the sand dunes are not among them.
Also unknown is the amount of money the Park would lose from fee revenues as a result of these proposed access restrictions. Entrance fees cost $7 per week, $15 per year or $50 for access to national parks anywhere in the United States. The Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore currently rakes in around one million dollars annually in entrance fees.
Neither the amount of lost fees nor the environmental impact of the preliminary preferred have been examined yet because, as Schultz said, “we wanted to first solicit comments from the public.”
Posted by editor at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Dawn Provides Pets with Tender Care
by Norm Wheeler
Sun editor
“I’m writing a book called the Personal Adventures of a Pet Sitter,” announces Dawn Fitch, owner and CEO of Dawn’s Tender Care Pet Sitting. You see Dawn all the time, walking a pooch along M-22 or making the rounds in her red truck. It’s hard at first to get the details about her business out of Dawn, because every mention of a type of animal leads to another amazing story. She has big blond hair and she marches those dogs along the roadside energetically because she’s so busy. “I care for 25 - 30 animals each day, more around holidays,” Dawn says. Dawn has as many as 146 clients in the course of a year with pets that must be fed, walked, given shots, or at least visited from 1 - 3 times per day. “I put 70,000 miles per year on my truck,” Dawn says with a smile and a shake of her head, “and last Christmas I put 695 miles on in one day!”
Being busy and covering a lot of ground is the price Dawn pays to guarantee that you get “Tender Care.” She has been trained at Pet Sitting International in North Carolina, and Dawn has also been trained in CPR-for-pets and knows how to “do medications, like for diabetic animals.” She has cared for 42 horses at once, as well as dogs, cats, bulls, a group of 12 donkeys, birds, lizards, tarantulas, chickens, and a snake. “I was watching over 12 pheasants once,” Dawn recalls, “and when the owner came back they were all dead! The first day one was dead, and I expected a cat had done it. When another was dead the second day I called the owner, who said not to worry. After the fourth was dead I stayed up, sitting in the garage, and at 3 a.m. a great horned owl appeared and slipped under the netting. When I went to attack it with a shovel, my friend who had stopped to check on me said ‘You can’t kill an owl, they’re endangered!’
Sometimes Dawn has been asked to sit for pets who are dying. During one half hour interview she conducts with all prospective clients (to go over paper work, to check that rabies and distemper shots are all up-to-date, and to discuss any special needs and sign a contract), the owner of a 16 year old poodle said “If it dies, put it in the freezer, I’ll take care of it when I get home.” Dawn reports that “many people with older dogs say that, or they instruct me to have the pet cremated in Traverse City at the veterinarian’s there. They charge about $125 per dog depending on the urn or box and the size of the dog.”
Dawn’s motivation is to see that the pets are happy and thriving. “I always wanted to be a vet, but couldn’t afford school,” Dawn explains. “I was a pet sitter for my neighbors as a kid. By the time I was 9 or 10 I was feeding my breakfast to the neighbor’s bulldog. I had dogs, a horse, and a pet raccoon.” When Dawn’s father insisted they get rid of the raccoon, they dropped it off over 30 miles from home despite Dawn’s tearful protests on their way to a family gathering in Indiana. “Seven days later I was cleaning the kennel for the black labs and explaining to them that Sally the raccoon was gone forever, when I heard a chittering and here came Sally running down the hill! When she hit 60 pounds we donated her to the Clinch Park Zoo in Traverse City.”
As a way of practicing the telling of the stories that will be in her new book, Dawn goes on to tell me more adventures of a pet sitter. There was Elliott the cockatoo, who would repeat “Here, kitty kitty!” when the cats were around to drive them nuts, or bark just like the two poodles in the house to keep them entertained. “Elliott got coffee in the morning with bird nuggets in it right on the table,” Dawn laughs, “and he could dance and poop on command. He was amazing.”
Or there’s the story about the day Dawn went to attend to two “expensive cats”. The TV was on and she hadn’t left it on the night before. “On the couch slept a long-haired, goateed man. I screamed “Who are you? How’d you get in? and Where are the cats?!’ Then I called the cops and said “He lost the $500 cat!” It turns out the man was returning home inebriated the night before and walked into the wrong house. The cleaning lady had forgotten to lock the sliding glass door. The deputies arrived and it all ended peacefully. “He wrote apologies to everyone,” Dawn says, “and went into a treatment program. The police told me I take my job way too seriously!”
Dawn’s Tender Care Pet Sitting covers a large area including Empire, Glen Arbor, Maple City, Lake Ann, Cedar, and a few cats in Traverse City. Extra distance costs more. Dawn likes to spend about half an hour with the clients and the pets to draw up a contract and to make sure the arrangement will work. She ends up going way beyond the calls of pet nature. “When people are gonna be gone for a few days I end up checking the mail, filling humidifiers, watering plants, taking out the garbage, you name it. When elderly people can no longer walk their dogs, they call me. It’s a 365 days a year job, and there’s never a dull moment. When someone must leave suddenly and a pet needs to be taken care of, call me.” It takes devotion as well as pet skill, and Dawn has plenty of both.
Got pets that need food, a walk, a shot, some fresh air, or some friendly conversation to help them get through their solitary day? Call Dawn Fitch at Dawn’s Tender Care Pet Sitting: 231-633-5217 (mobile).
Posted by editor at 10:02 PM | Comments (0)
SAYING GOODBYE TO JACK SHARRY
June 5, 1929-July 1, 2002
By Mary Sharry
Loving wife
We do not let go of the person, but only the body, and so it is with our farewell to Jack Sharry. What remains is a presence within each of us who felt loved by him and love for him, and who shared in the joys of being together. We were charmed by his playing - his mandolin and his fiddle.
The sway of his music, the pleasure of food, the warmth of laughter - all of these elements were part of our varied associations with Jack. From time to time we may feel a tug at our heartstrings, and know that his joy in living continues through us.
(A celebration of Jack’s life will be held in Empire at Johnson Park - or in case of rain at the Empire Township Hall - on Sunday, July 28, at 2 p.m.)
This article about the late Jack Sharry and the Cabin Fever band, written by Norm Wheeler, ran in the Sun on June 29, 2000. Here’s an excerpt:
The chord progression falls ominously as the bass, mandolin, guitar, and banjo warn of danger. But the players are smirking. Three kids watch and wait in front of the band as one of them blows bubbles. Suddenly, five grizzled performers and the kids start high-stepping in place like a football squad running a drill through old tires. “He’s creepy crawly creepy crawly creepcreep crawlycrawly creepcreep crawly crawly.......” It’s just another Friday night on the deck at Boone Dock’s, and the local legendary Cabin Fever Band is teaching the kids how to avoid “Boris, the Spider.” The question is, are the hairy legs of the imaginary spider scarier than the band’s?
There is an overwhelming sense of fun that infects everyone present as Cabin Fever moves into “Whiskey Before Breakfast.” Comprised of Jim Curtis on bass and vocals, Tom Keen on guitar and vocals, Jack Sharry on mandolin and fiddle, Tom Fordyce on vocals and harp, and Paul Kirchner on banjo (this night Mark McManus is filling in for Paul), the Cabin Fever Band plays what Keen calls “optimistic music”, an eclectic mix of country swing, bluegrass, rock & roll, pop, and maritime folk. It’s the perfect mix for the crowd of locals and tourists who gather to watch the light fade on a balmy June evening. The band has evolved its repertoire and its precision over the last 15 years, and their menu of tunes is as varied and interesting as the characters who play it.
Smokin’ Jack Sharry, fiddle and mandolin, moved to Empire in 1990 after a 30-year career at GM. Jack was an accomplished high school musician, playing trumpet and euphonium in the band and violin in the orchestra. He played in the Marine Corps band before he was sent to Korea where he received two purple hearts. Then, amazingly, Jack played almost no music for the 30 years of his GM career. “My kids never heard me play much,” Jack admits, “they didn’t really think of me as a musician. I was just the guy bringin’ home the bacon.” But music was always a big part of Jack’s soul. His father played guitar and entertained, and that love re-hatched when Jack retired and moved here. Jack recalls, “I heard the two Toms and Billy Judd playing at the Village Inn in Empire in ‘88 or ‘89, introduced myself, and we’ve been making music ever since.” Jack also played in the pit band for the musical “Big River” at Glen Lake High School a couple of years ago, and his playing is always crisp, precise, and exacting. Jack’s mandolin is pointed and punctuating on a Jimmy Buffet Caribbean calypso tune, for example, while his fiddle on the swing tune “A Long Way From St. Louie” is chuckling, commenting on the action, sort of snickering from the doorway before the expert fall and a sweet closure. He captures the lively mood of the dance hall or the brokenhearted syrup of love with equal aplomb. Jack can go from mountain front porch blue grass foot-stompin’ knee-slappin’ licks to French cafe tunes that are as sweet as a grandma’s kiss. Jack Sharry is a local virtuoso and the musical conscience of the Cabin Fever Band.
Now the four-year-old boy who was blowing bubbles and is wearing a t-shirt with a picture of his dog on the front gives Tom Fordyce a crayon drawing he just made during “Sittin’ on top of the world.” Talkative and ebullient, Tom Fordyce works the crowd, passing out more bubbles and taking requests. This set spins through songs by Michael Martin Murphy (“Geronimo’s Cadillac”), The Grateful Dead, John Prine. Then they shift into a poignant Civil War tune, “Soldiers Joy,” and romp through a round of polkas, including the politically correct “She’s Too Smart For Me.” Duke Ellington’s “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore” eases the crowd back down as the pink and orange sky colors up with the sunset. The Cabin Fever Band’s versatility and artistry are astonishing and polished from years of playing together and entertaining just this kind of local crowd. It’s too easy for those of us who have been listening to these guys play over the years to take their excellence for granted, and that’s a mistake. They rock into their own choreographed version of “Great Balls of Fire,” grin through “I’m My Own Grandpa,” and then swing on Bill Monroe’s fiddle tune “Uncle Penn,” (“You can hear it talk, you can hear it sing!”). Bringing it back home to the Great Lakes, they finish with Bill Staines' “Loggin’ Song”: “Way, hey, another brand new day --- on the wild and windy shores of Supeer-I-Aaye!”
The tip jar is full on a good night. They may look like a pack of grizzled old field hands (on this night they sport four beards and a broom mustache), but the girls sure love ‘em.. Every Friday night the Cabin Fever Band creates a scene filled with youthful energy and earthy exuberance that delights this crowd of deck diners and hand clappers at Boone Dock’s. They are available for private parties, weddings, bar mitzvahs. Just call Tom Fordyce, or his brother Tom Keen. They’re in the phone book, just local guys with day jobs who happen to be extremely gifted musicians and who put on a great show consistently right here in our town. Make sure to check ‘em out this summer, and throw a few bills in the tip jar! Let's celebrate our musicians!!
Posted by editor at 09:04 PM | Comments (0)
Jane Bulliss: A Glen Arbor Township Treasure(r)
By Janis Duwe
Sun contributor
Did you know Jane? You did if you were: a property owner in Glen Arbor since 1998 (Township Treasurer), belonged to the Glen Arbor Women’s Club (Treasurer), worked on the Glen Arbor Smorgasbord (Co-chair), shopped at Tiny Treasures in the 90’s, a member of the Citizen Advisory Council for the Sleeping Bear Dunes Area (Secretary), had children in the Glen Arbor nursery in the late 80’s (Educator), or been part of any committee with Jane, observing her quiet demeanor of getting the job done. It’s easy to see that Jane touched all in our community. And so, we are all saddened by Jane’s death.
Mrs. George Bulliss, known to most as Jane, died June 29th after a brief illness. Jane became a Glen Arbor resident in 1984 after moving from Grand Rapids with her family. She is survived by her husband, George, her children Katie (Brad) Oleson, George (Lauren) Bulliss, grandchildren Samantha Oleson and Owen Bulliss, and brother Jim Livingston of Williamsburg, VA.
The Glen Arbor Women’s Club is in the process of developing a scholarship in her name for students of Glen Lake Community Schools. Jane worked closely with the school promoting the Club’s scholarships for Blue Lake, Girl’s State, Lois Vander Noot and a host of other opportunities for the students. If you would like to contribute to this scholarship, please send your gift to The Glen Arbor Women’s Club, P.O. Box 412, Glen Arbor, Michigan 49636. Jane will go on touching our community.
Posted by editor at 08:06 PM | Comments (0)
CONSERVANCY BUYS CRYSTAL RIVER “OXBOW” PROPERTY
Press release from the Leelanau Conservancy
July 1, 2002
The Leelanau Conservancy has purchased a 7.22 acre tract, with over 1,000 feet of frontage along the Crystal River, from the Leelanau School. The property, known to locals as the tip of the “Oxbow”, was put up for sale by the school last October. The 1,000 plus feet of river frontage is directly across M-22 from the school’s entrance, and is one of the most scenic and accessible areas along the river.
In purchasing the property, the Conservancy is following through on a project which started last October, which the Friends of the Crystal River agreed to buy the property soon after the Leelanau School listed it for sale. “We have always been interested in protecting as much of the river as possible,” said Friends President Barbara Weber, “but the “Oxbow” property has always been considered absolutely critical due to the quality of the wetlands and wildlife habitat, and its position in relation to Glen Arbor.”
After the Friends secured the property, the Leelanau Conservancy stepped in to help the Glen Arbor Township apply for federal funds to acquire the land. An Application was submitted through the Coastal Zone Management program in Michigan, for funds available in 2002. While no final word has come through on the availability of the grant, Conservancy officials remain optimistic. “We will need to raise about 2/3 of the purchase price locally, and that translates to $115,000. We’ll be calling in the pledges made to the Friends and to the Conservancy over the next few weeks, and we expect to have to raise about $20,000 over and above our existing pledges,” said Dick Ristine, Chairman of the Conservancy Board.
Brian Price, Executive Director of the Conservancy noted the cooperation received not only from the Friends, but Glen Arbor Township as well. “We’ve had greet cooperation from the Township, and we are both entirely committed to the protection of the land over any other uses. We expect to transfer the property to the Township, hopefully in the fall, but will retain a conservation easement and management authority. This is something that virtually everyone in Glen Arbor agrees upon.”
In addition to the principal partners in the transaction the project has received support from The Homestead and Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Both encouraged the Township to work to preserve the land, and supported in writing the grant request. “I particularly want to thank Dusty Schultz” superintendent of the Lakeshore “who wrote a very persuasive and compelling letter in support of the grant” added Price. Also, under a new Great Lakes Revolving Loan Fund operated by the Conservation Fund, with money provided by the Mott Foundation, the Conservancy was able to obtain the bridge loan pending final transfer to the Township. “We’re very fortunate here as well. The Conservation Fund staff has remarked that this property is exactly the kind of project that Mott was hoping to facilitate when they created the revolving loan fund. Coastal areas and aquatic sites of great conservation value have highest priority, and when Conservation Fund officials reviewed the Crystal River project they got the loan put together in less than a week,” commented Price.
The “Oxbow Property” and the Crystal River and its associated wetlands are considered a globally rare habitat, as identified by the federal Fish and Wildlife Service. While several Federal and State threatened species exist on or near the property, the “wooded dune and swale” habitat itself is considered most threatened in the state. A relic feature associated with the lowering of water levels along the Lake Michigan shoreline over the past 10,000 years the “dune and swale” areas are noted for alternating ridges and linear marshes which run parallel to the receding shoreline. the unique thing about the Crystal River area is that this is the only dune and swale complex which is associated with a river. “This small area really has it all” noted Price, “including rare habitat, incredible scenic quality, and it forms the gateway into Glen Arbor.”
Posted by editor at 07:07 PM | Comments (0)
UP NORTH IN MICHIGAN
By Chari Binstadt
Sun contributor
It was the arrival of our first grandchild that started the process of my writing a children’s book about the joys of northern Michigan. I was looking ahead to all of the fun times we would be sharing with little Ellie and all of our future grandchildren when they would come for visits to our cottage on Little Glen Lake. I thought it would be nice for our children and grandchildren to be able to look up a book about this area, even when they weren’t up here with us. So ... Up North in Michigan, a photo and memory book for children, went from an idea to reality and was first published in June, 2000.
Getting the ideas was easy, since there are so many things we love about being up north -- going to the beach, looking for Petoskey stones, climbing the dunes, watching sunsets, having campfires, looking for dear, riding bikes, seeing the leaves turn brilliant colors in the fall ... the list got longer and longer as I went through the seasons. I knew how much children enjoy looking at photo albums, so I decided to use photos for the book. I immediately thought of Ken Scott, since my husband and I have such a high regard for the way he captures the natural beauty of the area. I had never met Ken, but took a chance and sent off an e-mail asking if he wold be interested in talking with me about doing a children’s book together. He was very receptive, and when I showed him my idea, he was genuinely interested in doing the project. In Ken’s words, “I liked the idea of the book, as it was about getting out and playing in this wondrous playground we are so fortunate to live in.”
Ken and I have been very happy with the response to Up North in Michigan. This summer is the beginning of its third year since publication, and the book is already into its second printing. It’s gratifying to see that parents, grandparents and teachers have given the book a strong endorsement. The best endorsements of all, however, are the happy faces of children as they read about and look at pictures of their favorite things up north ... in Michigan.
A Chicago native, Chari Yost Binstadt was introduced to this area by her husband David, with whom she shares a cottage on Little Glen Lake.
Up North in Michigan is available in Glen Arbor at The Cottage Book Shop, Hepburn-Holt Gallery, Tiny Treasures and The Totem Shop.
Posted by editor at 06:09 PM | Comments (0)
FOLK ART IS ALIVE AND WELL
By Ashlea Turner
Sun Staff Writer
One doesn’t need to search hard to spot the colorful and daring wooden folk art on Lake Street in Empire. Walk south on Lake Street from downtown Empire’s Front Street and slowly the creatures begin to appear on the right side of the road. Brightly painted birds from another planet mingle with award-winning rhododendron. Flying mermaids headed back to Lake Michigan keep watch over praying mantis, giraffe and a unique breed of leggy aliens. Day and night, the popular “sunmoons” brighten the spot. Dozens of species of ceramic and plastic frogs lounge together and create a patchwork of green tones that make a carefully groomed lawn appear downright trite. This is truly a sight one must not only behold, but rather, experience by taking time to wander the jaw-dropping rhododendron gardens juxtaposed with tirelessly created wooden creatures.
So who are the masterminds behind the beautiful sculpture gardens? Enter Gerald and Evelyn Gorte of Gorte’s Woods ‘n Things, who work together year-round to create and exhibit one-of-a-kind wooden sculptures and birdhouses. Gerry’s creative process, “she doesn’t tell me what to carve and I don’t tell her what to paint,” seems to work extremely well for their thought-provoking breed of Northern Michigan folk art. Winters are often long and quiet in Empire and make for lots of TV watching and sleeping, or instead, for Gerry and Evelyn, much time for creating and thinking about their collective art work.
The eclectic creations don’t stop in the yard however. For a real sense of their unique and fun-loving style, just ask to see what they’ve got on display inside the house or in the garage. The house is a mini folk art museum with fantastical fish, figurines and other strange-looking creatures or “caricatures”, as Gerry calls them. According to Gerry and Evelyn, “the uglier they are, the better they sell.” Not ugly in the least, however, are some beautifully stylized women and birds carved out of cherry and then finished with a light wax. A hidden treasure right here in Empire!
The Gortes also like to take special orders for sculptures. Many people have brought the Gortes a photograph of their favorite dog or loved ones and Gerry dives right in to begin carving the intricate likenesses and then hands them off to Evelyn to begin painting. The Gortes’ passion and enthusiasm for what they create just about bubbles over.
But wait, there’s more! Inside the garage, one will also find a wide selection of wood and stone birdhouses, perfect homes for the male wrens to show off to their female spouses. (A steal for about $25 and up!) Adorning the outside of the garage slither carved snakes of various colors and patterns. One could literally spend hours perusing the wonders. And then reluctantly leave because there is always more to see and there are always more stories to hear from Gerald and Evelyn, ebullient and fun-loving people.
Although the colorful folk art is the most eye-popping sign of the Gortes’ many passions, the rhododendron garden in the backyard is closest to Gerry’s heart. He has been growing award-winning rhododendron since 1990 and expands his gardens every year.
Make sure to stop by and witness the showy rhododendron flowers with your own eyes. The Gortes’ love of life is infectious and one’ll want to come back, with friends and family, again and again. Guaranteed.
The Gortes are around most days, except Tuesdays, and if no one answers the front door, just check out back in the garage. Either Gerry or Evelyn will be busy working hard, keeping folk art alive and well in Empire.
Posted by editor at 05:10 PM | Comments (0)
REJECT ALL FOUR NPS ALTERNATIVES
By Daniel Herd
The following piece is an editorial contribution, and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Glen Arbor Sun. --Ed
Like most people who have lived in Northern Michigan, I have many fond memories of the Sleeping Bear Dunes. Most of these are not centered on the Dune Climb. More prominent are memories of long hikes through the dunes exploring this rare environment. I was stunned when I learned that the National Park Service (N.P.S.) is planning to close all of the dunes in the National Lakeshore except part of the Dune Climb and to eliminate shoreline access to most of the Lake Michigan beaches. Although now in Ohio, I still consistently meet people who frequent the natural escapes and historic sites of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore (SBDNL). I felt that because it had been instrumental in my childhood and had affected so many others, I had the obligation to find out why this was happening to our park.
My research was quickly stymied. Park service employees are not permitted to talk about the new management plan. Those people most knowledgeable about the dune ecology are gagged when citizens need their expertise to understand the impact of the new proposal. If it makes sense, there would be no need for a restriction on information. If we are to make informed decision about the future of our park, we must insist that there be a fair and open discussion. N.P.S. educators should be leading the information exchange not barred from it. Fortunately, through persistence and alternative methods – speaking with other area naturalists, friends and past N.P.S. employees; and thoroughly reading the plan – I was able to amalgamate insight I will share with you.
The most important thing to know is that we are not allowed to be involved in the key decisions that will dramatically change our future use of the Lakeshore. Someone in the N.P.S. has kept the broader, more impacting decisions from being exposed to public opinion. The closing of all dune areas is not just in the “preferred alternative”; it is in ALL of the action alternatives. It will happen, unless we, the public take dramatic action. The N.P.S. is not considering any alternative protection for the dunes other then keeping you OUT. No boardwalks or ranger guided tours or any of the other effective methods used by other parks to protect fragile areas while still permitting public access will be considered. The closing of the roads is also in every alternative – we get no voice.
As citizens, we must reject all four alternatives and insist that we be permitted to help formulate the new management plan for our Lakeshore. The fact that some bureaucrats in Omaha decided that they’d rather not bother involving local residents and park visitors should be a red flag that this general mismanagement plan has been hijacked from the people it impacts.
You would hope that such a monumental decision like closing the (non dune-climb areas of the --Ed) dunes would have been preceded by careful analysis. Yet, no study of the impact of hikers on the local dune ecosystem has EVER been conducted. The decision to close the dunes is based only on personal opinion. There is no factual data. Even the number of people who hike on the dunes is unknown. Park staff routinely facilitate educational programming on those dune trails scheduled for closing and they are confident that use of these trails by schools and families does NO SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE. No one has asked for the expert advise of these staff persons. Even the affect on dune vegetation in areas where visitors are concentrated is not considered a major problem to the dune system as a whole. Vegetation on the dunes has been steadily INCREASING over the last fifty years. As everyone who has worked in or around the park knows, the major threat to our dunes is non-native plants, yet the N.P.S. would rather weed out people.
The closing of many park access roads is based on a 21-year-old proposal regarding potential wilderness areas. The proposal was never sent to Congress because it has NEVER BEEN APPROVED by the Department of Interior. It is obsolete because the Environmental Impact Statement, on which it is based, is outdated. New alternatives and public hearings are required before it can be reintroduced. The reconsideration of this proposal should have been a logical part of the new management plan. Some proposed wilderness areas are now recognized as significant historic landscapes that must be preserved, while other areas no longer meet the required definition of wilderness. I hope some wilderness areas will remain, but it is only fair that the public has the opportunity to influence how much wilderness should be proposed. A doctor advocating a 21-year-old cure would be sued for malpractice, yet we are about to be given a 21st century bloodletting by the N.P.S.
How did this plan so erroneously miss its purpose? Last year every N.P.S. staff person received a card to remind them of their overarching mission. It says: “The National Park Service preserves unimpaired the natural and cultural resources of the national park system for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration of this and future generations”. The NPS planning team eliminated preservation of cultural resources and public enjoyment from their purpose. With the mission limited to just protecting natural resources, it becomes obvious why they are closing much of the park.
This situation will not correct itself. Without public and private intervention, two years from now we will have 68,000 acres of dead space and a million disappointed visitors. The financial impact on the area will be decimating as the millions of visitor dollars we depend on (like it or not) evaporate. We must take back the planning for our park. The wilderness issue must be reopened, alternatives for preservation and use of the dune areas must be considered and the purpose for the park must accurately reflect Congress’s intent for the National Park System. We must insist that everyone, including Lakeshore employees, be permitted to participate in an open, fair and honest discussion of the issues. Our grandchildren will thank us for the effort.
Posted by editor at 04:14 PM | Comments (0)
Manitou Music Festival kicks into gear
Nationally Acclaimed Musicians Join Local Favorites
The first chamber concert of the season will be held at The Leelanau School in Glen Arbor on Thursday, July 18 at 7:30 pm.
Local musicians, Crispin Campbell, cello and Hal Grossman, violin will be joined by nationally renowned artists, Michael Heald, viola and Ann Arbor’s Michelle Cooker, piano for an evening of classic and romantic chamber music by Mozart and Fauré. The pieces to be performed will be Mozart’s Piano Quartet in G Minor K468 and Fauré’s Piano Quartet in C Minor Opus 15.
“This concert promises to be the musical equivalent of a French impressionist painting, since the audience will be totally bathed in the colors and senses”, states Crispin Campbell, Artistic Director of the Manitou Music Festival and Cellist for the chamber concert. “Mozart represents the ultimate balance of form and content with a highly dramatic operatic quality, while Fauré, who was deeply inspired by Mozart, symbolizes the same balance of form and content with an absolutely ravishing sense of French color”.
Nationally Recognized Singer and Songwriter, Claudia Schmidt to Perform
The Manitou Music Festival presents an evening of outdoor jazz on Sunday, July 21 outside on The Green at The Leelanau School in Glen Arbor.
Claudia Schmidt, a nationally recognized singer songwriter who has toured across the USA and in Europe will headline the event. Ms. Schmidt is a resident of Leelanau County. Although her roots are as a folk musician, her repertoire is a kaleidoscope of sounds from blues to ballads to classical. Ms. Schmidt will perform with the Mr. Natural Quartet, comprised of some of Michigan’s top jazz musicians: Ron Getz, guitar, Don Julin, mandolin, Randy Marsh, drums, and Dave Hay, bass.
“Claudia’s style is a mix of her own unique compositions coupled with jazz standards”, according to Crispin Campbell, Artistic Director of the Manitou Music Festival. “Claudia is a hugely talented, improvising singer, who uses her voice as if it were a music instrument. She also has a gift of language, so her original songs make for a witty and moving performance”.
Chicago Singers to Perform Chamber Opera in English
The Manitou Music Festival has scheduled its annual Opera Night with a “Comic Intermezzo”, a Chamber Opera in English. The concert will be held on Thursday, July 25 at The Leelanau School.
Chicago Singers, Peter Van de Graaf, baritone and Kathleen Van De Graaf, soprano will perform the piece, “Miride e Damari”, by Johann Adolphe Hasse with the Manitou Festival Opera Ensemble. The lighthearted farce is guaranteed to fill the audience with laughter.
“As far as we can determine, we're the first people to perform the work since the early 18th century”, boasts Peter Van de Graaf. “Even though we have been performing Baroque chamber operas (called "intermezzi") for the last 16 years, this one has become very special to us, since we've presented it more than any other, and the reason we've done it more than any other is because it's such a wonderful, funny piece”.
Acclaimed Jazz Musician, Harry Goldson to Perform
Leelanau county’s own Harry Goldson will perform jazz favorites outside on The Green at The Leelanau School in Glen Arbor.
A resident of Suttons Bay, jazz clarinetist Harry Goldson has thrilled sold-out audiences with his high-energy concert performances from Northern Michigan to Chicago to Los Angeles. For his July 28 show, he will perform classic jazz pieces ranging from music of Benny Goodman, to Miles Davis to Dave Brubeck.
“This is the first time I have performed for the Manitou Music Festival”, states Harry Goldson. “I consider this a unique opportunity to share my music with this audience and to present several new arrangements to the Glen Lake community”.
Tickets are $15 and can be purchased in advance at the Glen Arbor Art Association Office or at the door. Admission for Students and Children is free. For more information, contact the Glen Arbor Art Association at 334-6112, or visit www.glenarborart.org.
Posted by editor at 04:11 PM | Comments (0)
LOCAL WOMAN RE-INVENTS HERSELF THE GLEN ARBOR WAY
By Jane Greiner
Sun contributor
“There’s something about being here…it’s in the air,” Joanne Rettke says in trying to put into words how life in Glen Arbor has encouraged her to “open new doors and keep on opening them. I’m just another one of those Glen Arbor people who walked out on a limb,” she said. “Glen Arbor gives you permission to re-invent yourself”. Joanne has wandered over the last year into an exciting new business of creating web pages for various local businesses. It’s been an interesting journey for this retired Dean from New York.
Joanne moved to Glen Arbor in 1989 after making many visits with her partner Marge Ives. Ives had an even longer association with Glen Arbor through her friendship with her longtime friend, Mary Sutherland. In fact Marge and Joanne ended up buying Sutherland’s house in 1987, with the plan to retire here in the future.
Finally they “couldn’t wait.” They took early retirement, packed up their belongings, sold their house in upstate New York, and “following their dreams,” according to Marge.
In Glen Arbor Joanne continued doing motivational presentations on business and self development for Northwest Michigan College -- similar to her work in Utica where as Dr. Rettke, Dean of Continuing Education at Mohawk Valley Community College, she was actually “selling education.”
“All of a sudden, I decided I didn’t want to do that sort of thing anymore and I started doing folk art instead.” She has a woodshop set up in her garage where she experimented with cutting out wooden fish and birds with band saw and jig saw. She
carried on into wood sign sales made with her router.
“That was a switch from left brain to right brain and I began to develop more and more artistic endeavors. Each day I found I could do some things I never thought I could do.”
“It awakened the artist in me for the first time in years, maybe since I was a kid.” She loved woodworking, “and people even paid me for it!” Her small successes and the validation she received from local sales “encourage me to keep on trying the next door”.
Meanwhile, another early interest was reasserting itself from Marge’s days as a Systems Analyst at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, where Joanne had visited her at work and discovered an interest in computers. “A whole new world opened up to me that day,” Joanne said.
Classes to learn word processing followed. She was “scared to death of computers,” according to Marge. “She was so sure she could survive on her old IBM electric typewriter. Now she’s better at word processing than I ever was.”
“That computer opened up all kinds of new doors,” Joanne says. “I used to write all my speeches and presentations on it.”
In the past four or five years that early interest in computers has resurfaced with a vengeance. Joanne is on her fourth computer, she has high speed digital access to the web, she constructed her own website, and she has recently purchased a new digital camera to facilitate her graphics work on her computer.
“I got started on web page design because I wanted a web page for my business,” she said (She and Marge own Duneswood). “My daughter kept encouraging me to do it myself so I bought the software and learned it.” It was a steep learning curve, but she stuck with it, and now has a facility with all aspects of web page construction.
“It combined the artist and the communicator in me,” she said.“
Joanne found that she loved the challenge of web page construction and began to help others with their web pages, such as The Narrows Marina and Suzanne Wilson, whose artwork she documented by photographing pieces and putting them onto a CD.
Other businesses began to contact her to build web sights for them: first the Yarn Shop, and then The Black Swan and Leelanau Interiors.
Joanne’s first goal is to personalize her web sites so they reflect the spirit of the business and create customer interest.
“Especially out here in Glen Arbor, we have some very unique individualized kinds of businesses and I’m trying to show that our Glen Arbor businesses are special.
“I enjoy the different personalities of the owners, I like talking and working with them. One of the big plusses of my web page activity has been the people that I get to know, the business owners.”
She listens to the clients and tries to get a picture of the personality of their business. Sometimes she has ideas or suggestions for the owners based on her merchandising background or web experience.
For example she has learned about what photographs do and don’t work well for the web. But her whole effort is to make the web site reflect the business instead of fitting into some convenient mold or format.
To deal with technicalities, Joanne has a new high-quality digital camera and computer software which allow her to take tailor-made pictures for her web sites and manipulate the images for the best possible effect.
Before they moved up here, Marge and Joanne used to take photographs of the area , and sell them though local businesses including the Totem Shop. This old interest in photography and the skills learned then is another skill that the new web site business has tapped into.
“The web site is using the artist and the logical communicator in me,” Joanne said. “It also requires me to be highly organized. “ That combination of creativeness and meticulous organization fits Joanne to a “T.”
Posted by editor at 03:15 PM | Comments (0)
July 04, 2002
MELTING POT: LOCALS DESPITE THEIR ACCENTS
By Jacob Wheeler
Sun Staff Writer
To honor the 226th birthday of this great nation, a nation of immigrants and vagabonds, the Glen Arbor Sun has decided to profile a few of the foreign-born locals living among us. In talking to Lou Batory, Ruth Gilmer and Rob Turney, who were born in Hungary, Mexico and England, respectively, we were interested to note that all three call themselves Americans or don’t think of their native soil as “home” any longer. All three have made happy, fruitful lives for themselves here in Northern Michigan, and don’t plan on moving back anytime soon. Nice to know that America can open its arms after a year in which our nation’s identity and soul were tested so greatly.
Lou Batory: Hungary -- “I’m as American as anyone, maybe moreso, because I was born in another country and understand what it means to be naturalized,” says Lou, a Hungarian by birth, a well-dressed and classy gentleman by reputation, and an energizer battery by longevity standards. This man never stops!
Mr. Batory is a 92 year-young Glen Arborite who you probably wouldn’t expect to see on the ski hill, or biking the tough hills around Glen Lake, or trekking across the country on a motorcycle, though he does look 30 years younger. He speaks in a soft voice and believes in the age-old tradition of using surnames with people he does not know well. But Batory lives every bit in the present.
Watch the “90+ Ski Club” patch on his suit zoom by on the slopes, four hours a day, five days a week every winter. He is ranked sixth nationally in the Over-80 Nastar competition, but may be the best skier in his 90s. Batory first learned to ski as a 10 year old in Hungary, when everyone used strap-on bindings and had no edges on their skis. “We used to say ‘Bend ze knees and swing ze shoulders.’ Now the only function the upper body has is to hold the poles,” Batory told one of the many local publications which have written stories about him over the years.
Watch him cycle the 18 miles around both Glen Lakes early every morning, up the tough ones too, regardless of wind conditions. His secret? “To live a long, active life you need three things. You need a good woman for a companion, you may only drink quality liquor, and you must pick your parents carefully,” sounds another one of Batory’s one-liners.
Watch he and his wife Judith cruise across the United States in their motorcycle and sidecar all the way to Taos, New Mexico if their curiosity leads them so far. As retired folks, the Batorys like to take it slow and stop for a few days in towns they find interesting. “On a motorcycle is the only way to see this country, how vast it is, “Mr. Batory told the Glen Arbor Sun. “You reflect, and see what the pioneers had to do. If they made 10 miles, that was a good day, trudging slowly across the country.”
Maybe this observation, these experiences are what cement Lou Batory’s claim to be an American, though he was born into the Austro-Hungarian empire even before the First World War and still speaks with a very slight Eastern European accent though he has lived in the United States since 1932, when he enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology as an aerospace engineer.
“When you adopt a new country you should assimilate yourself and make it your new country. I didn’t try to recreate Hungary in America.” Batory expresses a near regret that he wasn’t able to serve in the United States army during the Second World War, held back because his aeronautics work for the Serry Corporation was deemed too valuable to the war effort.
Batory spent most of his adult life in New York City as most New Yorkers do, always on the go. He says the most difficult thing about retiring to quiet, boring Northern Michigan in 1981 was not getting up and going to work at 8 in the morning ... and feeling guilty about it. Since then he has grown to like Glen Arbor’s pace, and its neighborly friendliness. “We look forward to coming home to Glen Arbor after a long motorcycle trip. That’s good criteria for a home, though it gets a little crazy between now and Labor Day.
Hungary is a far-off place for Mr. Batory, and the trauma it suffered since he moved to America is unimaginable. The last time he visited, in the 1960s, communism’s gray veil still hung over Budapest like a cloud. With that as a backdrop perhaps, Batory doesn’t consider himself a Hungarian at all. He is a naturalized American. He discusses the wonders of freedom, but warns of the burden to recognize the responsibility it places on people who are free.
One thing he does miss, however, is the Strauss brothers Viennese Waltz, or any waltz for that matter. It’s impossible to find an orchestra that plays the waltz around these parts. Lament for old-world Europe. “When I ski I dance a Strauss waltz down the mountain,” Batory jokes. “My wife recognizes my skiing by the musical style.”
Ruth Gilmer: Mexico -- “I’ll never stop being Mexican, but I’m happy to call myself American now, one of the best places in the world to be a woman,” says Ruth, who met her husband Ted 13 1/2 years ago when he was on a business trip south of the U.S. border. The Gilmers run Leelanau Trading Co. on M-72, on the big left bend in the road heading towards Traverse City, that is only open for a couple months in the summer. There they sell everything from fine leather-bound journals to Scuppers (super comfortable huaraches with boat-deck soles), all authentic Mexican products. Ruth also works as a certified interpreter for courts in various districts. She was born in Sahuaro, in west central Mexico. She and Ted have one daughter, Nadine.
What Ruth really misses from her home country are the foods, and not just what we white bread-drunken Yankees think of as Mexican food. “There are no real Mexican restaurants here. They are all pretty much Tex-Mex,” she says. “People think ‘if it’s Mexican, it’s got to be hot’. But I’m used to home cooking; wonderful sweet bread made fresh every day, and hot chocolate in the morning.”
Rob and Peg Turney: England -- “The old ties are gone. You only exchange Christmas cards with the friends you had 30 years ago,” says Rob, who calls Northern Michigan home despite a charming English accent that was born in North Hamptonshire and bread in Coventry before the Turneys moved to the Detroit area in 1970. Having studied mechanical engineering at Loughborough University, Rob served Ford Motor Company for a total of 25 years before retiring to Northern Michigan in 1990. He and Peg bought an old barn in 1993 and set about properly turning it into a house.
In truth, Rob doesn’t find the area where he was born all that different from here. “An unhurried rolling countryside where most of my friends were involved in farming businesses,” Turney describes the North Hamptonshire of his youth. “Obviously we have much longer winters here than in England.”
Other than family events like christenings, weddings and funerals, Rob doesn’t admit to missing too much from home all that terribly. “You come here for reasons relating to material benefits when you are younger, and after awhile you realize that it’s friends and colleagues who are most important to you in life. Where you live is irrelevant.”
Ah, but tea, maybe the last great holdover from the British Empire, is important, and it is about the only product the Turneys truly miss from home. Peg imports Marck’s and Spencer’s Strong Tea. They prefer it over any blend around these parts. The secret to making good tea is not tough though, Rob says. “The pot has to be warm, the water boiling, then it has to steep for 2 or 3 minutes before you pour.”
Posted by editor at 11:20 PM | Comments (0)
Turning 50, and escaping the bear
by M. Leth-Soerensen
Sun contributor
“Turning 50 is nothing to worry about” my elder cousin of 10 years told me recently in a phone conversation. “It’s when you are my age that having birthdays becomes a nuisance. I reminded her that she had said the same thing 10 years ago, and that I expected the same evaluation from her a decade from now. My cousin Kirsten, by the way, is beautiful, tall, slender, and one of the most talented, creative and energetic people I know.
Set in my shorter stature, and usually fighting to lose 10 pounds, I become more comfortable with myself as decades go by. The daredevil in me emerges more and more as I age and find I have less to lose. When I turned 49 I decided to conquer my fear of diving into a lake, at our little Canadian retreat just north of Sault St. Marie. Now, after a number of belly flops, I am no longer afraid when I leave the hot sauna and plunge into the cool lake. My senses are on full alert when I throw that towel aside and swim among the rock bass that surround the dock.
A few days before turning half-a-century old I asked my favorite hairdresser, Diane in Empire, to cut my hair very short, so I could throw away my comb! I celebrated the new look with a few days spent solo in the northern wilderness, surrounded by frisky mosquitos, an occasional hummingbird, a loon couple, a variety of birds, and my nearest neighbors - busy beavers who I watched every evening, dragging branches across the lake in front of our dock. I began each day with old-fashioned coffee made in a percolator, and ended it with a glass of chilled white Bordeaux from the local wine store.
On Monday I survived my first bear encounter. It was a drizzly morning, and my family had left to go home the previous afternoon. With no heat in the log cabin the temperature barely reached 50 degrees. So I put on some Goretex layers after my ritual coffee and hiked around 50 yards to the rushing waterfall near our cabin. Standing on the bridge, enticed by the sounds and beauties of the magnificent water below me, I suddenly sensed I was not alone. I looked further up the road and saw what I initially took to be a big brown dog, until I realized with a start, BEAR!
A beautiful 350-pound beast and I locked eyes for a second before I took off. The bear was only 50 yards away from me, and naturally could have overtaken me within seconds if it so intended. “Safe” in my cabin, I regretted my hasty departure and realized how uninterested the bear must have been in me. I had missed the gift of watching this incredible creature sharing the space that I have been blessed to help steward.
Sharing becomes more sacred to me as I grow older. We share the place we live with wonderful people who have become close friends. When I arrive home from work every day, my neighbor steps out her door and asks me how my day was, sometimes offering a taste of oyster mushroom stew that she has prepared from fungi foraged from the woods around us. We sit at her dining room window, or try to seduce the Baltimore Orioles by cutting oranges in half and sticking them on the sumac branches growing between our houses.
Turning 50, my friends seem closer to me. We openly share both our joys and vulnerabilities. Some of us have elderly parents who struggle with their health. My brother and I, on the other hand, are the oldest generation of our immediate family still around. Having undergone recent family changes, he and his son will travel 5,000 miles to celebrate my upcoming birthday with me. And my adult children are home for the summer. Watching them grow into autonomous, beautiful and creative adults has been my greatest joy. My marriage is not only intact, but rock-solid, and we will celebrated 25 years of commitment and cooperation this fall. Never once have I seriously considered that this relationship would not last. I know that I am fortunate, and what I love I hold sacred to me.
Posted by editor at 10:23 PM | Comments (0)
Axe in hand, firefighters hit the books
By Michael Buhler
Sun Editor
This past December, 19 Leelanau County residents returned to school. Wedged into a Glen Lake classroom that also doubles as a storage room for textbooks, chairs and stage props, these eager students, ranging in age from their teens to their 50s, embarked on a grueling, five-month adventure.
But in that first class, as the syllabus, assignments, workbooks and 700 page texts were distributed, the instructor mentioned that the State of Michigan required all firefighters to take this 250 hour course.
Two-hundred and fifty hours. The room grew still. Inside, I began to panic. “I must be insane,” I thought, wondering how I’d survive a class that took four hours every Monday and Wednesday night, and eight hours about every other Saturday. Granted, I have 200 credit hours of college coursework on my transcripts, but those were earned full-time, not as an intense night course. Nevertheless, I decided to stick it out, as did 13 others.
Camaraderie became our keyword, as students from the Northport, Leland, Cedar, Elmwood, Grand Traverse Band and Glen Arbor fire departments came together. With five students (and no drop-outs), Glen Arbor boasted the largest presence, possibly because Chief John DePuy organized the class.
We quickly learned that there was more to firefighting than axes and hoses. It was about tools, of course, but also theory, procedure, prevention and lots of acronyms... And fighting fires is just one aspect of the public safety role that fire departments are asked to handle. “It was eye-opening,” says Brian Clark. “I see things in a different light now, and I am always noticing extinguishers, sprinklers and potential fire hazards.”
Brian is typical of the volunteers in our class: a local resident with a sense of commitment and duty to our community. His father-in-law is a retired fireman, and had sparked Brian’s interest. “I heard that Glen Arbor was looking for volunteers, so I came in and spoke with John DePuy, and now I’m here,” he recalled in front of the fire station on a recent evening.
Oh, those acronyms! SCBA (self-contained breathing apparatus), K-12 (a ventilation saw), PASS (personal alert safety system), OS&Y (outside screw & yoke valve)—these joined scores of other terms to give us all an entirely new and sometimes arcane vocabulary.
Tim Butts became our local expert with the axe, being the fastest to rip through a metal roof using one, and humorously making it his tool of choice. During a more serious moment, Tim revealed that he always wanted to be a fireman “and now I finally got the time and opportunity. I want to help people, and contribute to our town.”
Tom Hollenbeck, one of our youngest students, just graduated from Glen Lake, and is heading off to the Army with some great training under his belt. He volunteered at the fire station for over a year, and when the opportunity arose, he added this nighttime class to his day schedule.
Steve Hooper was recruited by neighbor and firefighter Pete Stern, and also while shingling John DePuy’s roof. “I thought it would be something I’d be good at,” he says, adding that “it was a lot of work. Still, it was great to meet the folks from the other departments.”
One department that wasn’t represented in class was Empire, but new Chief Ryan Deering looks forward to turning that around. “People just don’t know how to go about joining,” says Ryan. “But they just need to talk to me anytime.” Ryan, who heads a small but dedicated department, can be found at Deering’s Market or the fire hall (326-5250), and will begin anyone’s training now, until the next class forms.
Yes, the class was long, but after the written exam and practical exam—and learning that we’d passed both—we have been able to participate as full members of the Glen Arbor Fire & Rescue squad. Fortunately, I haven’t been busy, but I know that some night this summer, or in the years to come, I’ll get to serve someone in need, knowledgeable and versed in what needs to be done, and able to rely on any of the women and men in our department and the others.
To serve. That seemed to be the theme in all 14 of our stories, as we chatted on our class breaks about why we’re doing this. Still, I had another reason. I wanted to drive the BRT (big red truck).
Posted by editor at 09:25 PM | Comments (0)
NARROWS DELI LIVES ON, UNDER NEW CARE
By Jacob Wheeler
Sun Staff Writer
Ice cream cones and children on vacation form a happy marriage, once again, at the Narrows Deli on the Glen Lake narrows. Their smiles and busy tongues lapping a summer treat before it melts all over their hands are nothing new to this quaint business located across M-22 from the bridge that divides the Big and Little Glen Lakes. But new proprietors Dave and Shirley Miller are new.
The Millers, who also own the Mobil Mart convenience store and gas station in nearby Maple City, have saved the Narrows Deli from sitting closed and collecting cobwebs, as it did last summer after Bayberry Properties Inc. - affiliated with The Homestead resort - purchased it from former owner Greg Nicolaou and put the business up for sale. Dave and Shirley are currently leasing the ice cream hot spot until summer’s end, after which ownership may change hands again.
“I think the Narrows is an ideal location,” says Dave. “It needs some decorations, maybe some signs so that you don’t just turn left (towards Glen Arbor) and miss it. But we can’t put a whole bunch of money into it when we know we’re leaving in eight weeks.”
Dave says that the Deli’s highlight product will be Pleva Lean hot dogs, made over in Cedar, and ice cream. The Millers will stock light food, submarine sandwiches and picnic items for folks heading out to the sand dunes. “Greg did great big food, but I’m not into that,” says Dave. To Glen Arbor, though, seeing the Narrows Deli open again is great enough.
And the Open for Business sign makes the establishment’s lineup of past owners sleep easier at night, not to mention hungry kids who crave two scoops of Chocolate Chip cookie dough ice cream after a dip in the Glen Lakes. Nicolaou, who ran an award-winning deli featuring Greek food good enough to make patrons climb onto tables and dance like Zorba, says he gets a melancholy feeling whenever he drives by the establishment he owned for two years.
“Running the Narrows Deli was probably the nicest experience I’ve had in my career” as a chef and culinary expert. “I could cook, talk to customers and meet lots of awfully nice people. They must like my food, because I see some of the same customers come in to Cavanaughs (at The Homestead, where Greg now heads the Food and Beverage department) to get spinach pie and lambshanks.”
Nicolaou says he enjoyed the freedom of having “his own sandbox” when he ran the Narrows Deli, but that he sleeps better at night making a stable income at The Homestead now, where his customers are greater in number and where he doesn’t have to run the show. According to Greg, Homestead owner Bob Kuras made it possible for the master Greek chef to run food and beverage at the mega resort just north of Glen Arbor. Bayberry, in turn, purchased the Narrows Deli, and intends to sell it as early as the fall.
“Though I enjoyed running the Deli, we weren’t cutting the fat hog, as they say,” says Nicolaou. “It was a lot of work, with little return on investment. But I think if I had stuck with it for a few more years we could have made it a lucrative business.”
Seeing his cherished sandbox all locked up last summer prompted Greg to inform his good friend Dave Miller, the current proprietor, about what a promising summer venture the business could be.
“I told Dave, ‘if you lease it for just a few months you can make money, whereas keeping it open all winter is tougher.’ The Deli sits in an absolutely prime location. It is the only spot where you can get a view of both Glen Lakes while you eat your ice cream.”
Dottie and Bill Thompson, who owned the business, then called the Dairy Bar, from 1993 to 1998, also hold fond memories of their spot on the Narrows. The Thompsons, natives of Chicago, recall festivities that unfolded during their reign, when the Dairy Bar resembled a diner from the 1950s. Elvis and Bears football memorabilia kept watch over the restaurant while a classic jukebox churned out oldies on warm summer afternoons.
The Thompsons held parking lot dances, hoola-hoop competitions and open membership to the “coffee club”, a cult of graceful old timers in the Narrows area who frequented the Dairy Bar daily and worked at solving the world’s problems while drinking out of Coffee Club mugs with their own names etched on them. The Thompsons, who now own T ‘n’T Video in Glen Arbor along with the White Gull Inn next door, also pioneered the Labor Day Bridge Walk in 1994, a well-known event in which Michigan’s former lieutenant governor, and local resident, Connie Binsfeld sometimes ambulates.
“The Dairy Bar was really fun. It grew so successful that we couldn’t handle it anymore. Yet when it sat empty all last summer, Bill jokingly suggested to me that we buy it back from The Homestead,” says Dottie, shaking her head as if negating the proposition all over again.
Posted by editor at 08:30 PM | Comments (0)