The Beacon

I have spent virtually the entire day here at the Township Hall.  Today was supposed to be "Print Day" for the Township's newsletter, but I have come up against the harsh reality of a photocopier which plods along at its own leisurely pace, no matter how sternly I speak to it.

Slow Poke on spin cycle.  Yawn.

I suppose I should be more forgiving.  This is a brand new copier, and is supposed to do everything but wash your socks.  Knowing this, I expected a high-speed machine.  But that's not what I found.  When you're trying to crank out 2,220 copies of a 6-page newsletter, printed back-to-back on three sheets, the stately pace of 3-4 sets per minute is frustrating.

This newsletter — The Beacon — is intended, first, to inform Presque Isle residents, taxpayers, and visitors about recent doings of our local government, community groups, and volunteers.  Those who pay the tab have a right to know something about how their tax dollars are spent.  So, in the various stories I have tended to say what the Township Board did and how much its decisions have cost.  Transparency is a good thing, as Martha Stewart would say.

The newsletter's second goal is to counteract the nastiness which has become part of our common life here in God's country.  Small town politics are always personal, but of late things have gotten out of hand.  As so often happens, a small group of nay-sayers is making life miserable for the rest of us.

A major flash point has been the Range Light Park on Presque Isle Harbor.  The handful of families who live closest to the park have loudly objected to improvements made last year — a short access drive and portable toilets — as well as to the barrier-free walkway and picnic pavilion scheduled to be installed this year.  These neighbors have been a royal pain.  At a recent meeting one man got so angry that he ripped up the Township's park plans — for which, of course, the Township had paid their planning consultant a handsome sum.  More recently these same neighbors tried to scuttle the state grant for which the Township applied to finance the upgrade.

This park existed long before these unhappy neighbors bought their lots and built their houses.  They knew the Township owned the land, and they knew that it had been given to us by the U.S. Coast Guard specifically for use as a public park.  However, for years the land just sat there, rarely used — in effect, a side lot which the neighbors didn't have to buy and on which they paid no taxes.  Now that is changing... and they are really ticked off.

The idea of a township newsletter was floated last year by Pat Hart, one of our Township Trustees.  I pushed the idea this summer, with the intention of being not only informative, but relentlessly cheerful!  Nothing irritates a nay-sayer more than someone who is cheerful!  As St. Paul saith, it is like pouring burning coals upon their heads.

The newsletter, printed and ready for distribution.

It remains to be seen how people respond to this effort.  But first I have to get the darn thing run off, and then distributed via the Post Office's new Every Door Direct Mail program.  The investment is modest — less than $300 for postage and copy paper, with copying done on the Township's own machine.  I hope I can finish it this week! •••