No one will debate the need to maintain our parks and make them accessible to residents and tourists.
But is a fee increase really the best way to do it?
We don’t think so.
If you don’t like this optional fee, what’s your solution, Oakland Press?
They have none.
We submitted the following rebuttal last Thursday, which does not appear in their on-line edition:
The recent Oakland Press editorial regarding a state park funding proposal missed the mark.
This proposal does not penalize those who do not use our state parks and state forest recreation sites. Those residents can simply opt-out and not pay the $10 fee.
And there is no reason to hide this fee. Michigan residents have a strong tradition of supporting their state parks and natural resources. This proposal trusts that many residents will opt to pay a $10 fee to ensure this heritage is preserved for this generation as well as those that follow. There’s no reason to hide this support.
And it should be noted that since 2004 none of our taxpayer dollars go towards our state parks.
But beyond funding, this proposal greatly reduces the DNR’s need to staff toll booths. Rather than be cashiers, state park staff can actually accomplish work within the park and provide interpretive programming for park visitors.
And finally, it is imperative that we keep and maintain our state parks and forest recreation areas if we have any hope of growing tourism to help rebuild our state economy. Most states cannot compete with our bountiful natural resources. It’s time we take advantage of that.
To learn more about the optional fee proposal for funding Michigan State Parks, visit the new web site, www.OurMichiganParks.org.
Not much has been posted on m-bike this past week. Believe it or not, that’s a good thing. That means I’ve been spending more time doing bike advocacy and have no free time to blog about it.
So, now that it’s the weekend, there’s time to provide updates on some local non-motorized planning efforts.
Royal Oak Task Force
As we reported earlier, a group of cyclists went before Royal Oak’s City Commission to ask for improved biking and walking facilities. As a result, the Commission formed a Task Force to work with city staff to develop some proposals.
That has happened.
The Task Force has held many meetings and it seemed that near the beginning there was consensus that we needed to develop a non-motorized plan – a prerequisite for receiving construction grant funding for biking and walking facilities. We also concluded that such a plan would need to be developed by a planning firm that is experienced in developing such plans.
Of course means we would need money to pay for that planning. Most of our Task Force discussions revolved around finding money to pay for this planning. In fact, Royal Oak put this planning project on their economic stimulus request list. However, it did not make the final cut.
But, Royal Oak is getting economic stimulus money for road construction which frees up about $300K in road funds.
Our Task Force will be going before the City Commission on April 6th to ask that $40K from that $300K be spent on hiring a planner to develop a non-motorized plan.
Troy Non-Motorized Plan
The city of Troy has hired two top-notch planning consultants, Hamilton-Anderson and The Greenway Collaboration. The city and consultants hosted a kickoff meeting on Wednesday. The proposed schedule promises prompt results, so stay tuned for updates over the next few months.
Two bills critical to the continued operation of our state parks were introduced in the Michigan Senate on Tuesday.
Senate Bill 388 and Senate Bill 389 were both referred to the Natural Resources and Environmental Affairs committee. This committee will hold a hearing on them next Wednesday at 1pm.
[EDIT: The hearing has been postponed.]
These bills are a reflection of years of studying various options by our Citizen’s Committee for Michigan State Parks, but especially under the guidance of committee member Dr. Chuck Nelson from MSU.
These bills would ask every Michigan driver to pay an?optional?$10 fee each year when renewing their Michigan vehicle registration on non-commercial vehicles. While non-residents would still have to purchase a non-resident motor vehicle permit, worker time in entrance booths at most parks would be drastically reduced, resulting in cleaner bathrooms, less litter, better resource stewardship, improved security and increased education and interpretation programs. In addition to providing support for state parks and boating access sites, this would also provide funding for our outstanding and underfunded state forest recreation system including more than 140 rustic campgrounds and almost a thousand miles of non-motorized pathways that serve hikers, mountain bikers, cross country skiers and equestrians. Finally, it would approximately double the amount of grant money annually available to local units of government to renovate or improve recreational facilities in local parks across Michigan.
The Committee is calling on Michigan residents to contact their state senators to voice their support for this legislation. Here’s how you can get your senator’s contact information.
John from Pedestrians.org recently posted a comment about videos from the National Bike Summit. They really deserve a bit more visibility.
And this probably is the next best thing to being there.
Perhaps the best is of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood:
What a striking improvement over the former Transportation Secretary Mary Peters who tried re-defining “transportation” and “infrastructure” to exclude biking and walking.
You’ll also want to check out this video from the Iowa Bicycle Coalition. Blumenauer’s breakfast speech beginning at :40 seconds captures a great moment from this event. Congressman Tom Petri of Wisconsin also provides some interesting commentary.
If you haven’t already contacted your legislator about this, please do so. Reports are coming in about legislators on the west side of the state trying to get this worthy project removed from MDOT’s stimulus funding list. Although nothing is official yet, it may have already been significantly downsized.
The Spinal Column is reporting that local officials are continuing to meet to discuss an eastward extension of the Huron Valley Trail. This extension would connect the trail with a planned extension of the West Bloomfield Trail.
Wixom City Manager J. Michael Dornan said … CW3 officials used last week’s meeting to discuss applying for grants to purchase the former Coe Railroad property in three of the communities.
B. Allen Brown, president and CEO of Railmark Holdings, Inc., who owns the railroad, has entered into negotiations to sell the railroad property. West Bloomfield, Walled Lake, Wixom, and Commerce Township officials are discussing the viability of collectively purchasing the 8.08 miles of rail corridor to complete the Huron Valley Trail and West Bloomfield Trail.
Chuck Montange of Montoff Transportation, LLC, known for buying up railroads and converting them into trail systems, is the acting intermediary in the talks. The transaction must be handled by a transportation company. Montange has paid for an appraisal and made arrangements with both Brown and a bank.
This is great news for a key east-west connector that would also tie into the M-5/I-275 bike path.
The Oakland Press published an editorial last week about Michigan’s state parks and a new funding proposal:
