Beaver Island Michigan

A Special Meeting of the Peaine Township Board will be held at the Peaine Township Hall at 11:00 am on Thursday, January 21, 2016.

The purpose of the meeting is to consider and approve a transaction whereby the Township will transfer ownership of the East Side Tower to Central Michigan University.

The regular meeting of the Beaver Island Emergency Services Authority to be held at 2:00 pm on Thursday, December 3, 2015 has been cancelled.

A SPECIAL MEETING OF THE BEAVER ISLAND EMERGENCY SERVICES AUTHORITY will be held at the Peaine Township Hall at 1:00 pm on Tuesday, November 24, 2015, for the purpose of adopting various organization resolutions and approving related correspondence.

Full-time position available at the Beaver Island Waste Transfer Station for Manager. In making its recommendation to the Township Boards, the Committee will consider the applicantâ??s relevant work experience; a CDL and hazmat certification(s) are greatly preferred. Interested parties should send t...

Thanks to everyone who took the time to complete the Peaine Township road survey. The results of the survey are available at http://www.charlevoixcounty.org/downloa ... ummary.pdf

Just a reminder that Peaine Township will accept survey responses through June 15th. Please take the time to review the March 28th memorandum and complete the survey. See my initial post for details.

Thanks for your consideration!

Bill Kohls

To date, we have received 63 responses to the survey. Please take a few minutes to complete the survey and share your thoughts with the Peaine Township board. Note that we will continue to accept your responses through June 15th.

On March 28th I distributed a memorandum to Peaine Township board which discussed the cost of paving approximately 7 miles of roads. That memorandum is available at http://www.charlevoixcounty.org/peainetwp.asp The township board would appreciate your input on road paving and asks that you complete ...

In my experience, an elected official will do a good job of representing the Beaver Island community when he/she is a good listener, understands what the boardâ??s role is (and isnâ??t), cares about openness in decision-making processes, communicates well, and avoids being a mouthpiece for any special or personal interests. These are the qualities our community needs on the Board of the Beaver Island Community School.

This is why I am pleased that my wife, Angela â??Andyâ?￾ Kohls, is a write-in candidate to serve a partial term on the school board. I admire her objectivity and willingness to set aside her personal interests in pursuit of common goals. Sheâ??s a bridge builder and served on several boards in the Ionia area. Sheâ??s president of Friends of Beaver Island Animals (the Animal Fund) and has been active in Hospice and Helping Hands since we became full-time Islanders. She is well qualified to serve on the BICS Board.

Andy is an independent thinker (believe me, I know!) and maintains high standards for integrity and candor. Sheâ??s a no-nonsense business owner who is used to providing high-quality service to customers. Sheâ??s a great supporter of our school and community, with a strong sense of whatâ??s right and whatâ??s wrong.

I fully expect that Andy will consistently and fairly pursue the best interests of the Beaver Island Community School while carefully balancing the interests of the schoolâ??s various constituencies.

I hope youâ??ll join me in writing in "Angela Kohls" to serve a partial term on your ballot.

Thanks to all for sharing your thoughts. I am pleased that we can have this open discussion without assumed names and without giving Richie a reason to â??pull the plugâ?￾ on this thread.

A couple of general thoughts for your consideration before I respond directly to a couple of the posts.
â?¢ Itâ??s interesting to note that the only responses to my post have come from St. James residents (although Jeff Powers does own property in Peaine Township.)
â?¢ No one has attempted to defend Jack Gallagherâ??s letter to the DNR as â??transparentâ?￾ (which is why I provided the definition of "obfuscate" in a prior letter.)


Ken:

You assert that I â??did not speak out strongly for the NREC.â?￾ I did, however, take the time to review the last two drafts of the CAMP document as well as the Commissionâ??s minutes. I also took the time to draft the following summary of the key issues which I believed would help the two sides find common ground.

To build meaningful support, I believe that the NREC must fully respond to the questions set forth below . . . .
â?¢ Why do we need the NREC?
o I think there is general agreement that we must conserve/preserve our natural resources.
o To justify the NREC, however, there must be an implicit assumption that existing laws/regulations are inadequate or somehow less than desirable.
â?¢ What are the economic benefits that the NREC can deliver to the Island?
o Noticeably absent from the minutes and the CAMP is any meaningful discussion of eco-tourism.
o If the proponents of the NREC are going to cite economic benefits of eco-tourism, well . . . they ought to provide an economic analysis of their plan, including the underlying assumptions as well as the costs and the tangible benefits.
o The premise of the eco-tourism seems to be build it and they will come. There is little or no consideration of marketing, infrastructure, etc.
â?¢ Why does the NREC need to be commissioned by the township boards?
o The NREC needs to provide a coherent explanation of why it cannot operate as a private entity pursuant 501(c)3.
o At least three tax-exempt organizations were represented on the NREC, yet weâ??re told that for some reason the NREC cannot be a 501(c)3.
o Our property is already subject to myriad laws and regulations limiting our use on the property and subjecting us to bureaucratic permitting processes.
o The minutes and the CAMP provide little, if any, comfort that the NREC will not pursue/promote additional restrictions to achieve their goals if/when their voluntary measures prove to be inadequate.
o Allegedly, the trail guide may violate copyrights and further shows public easements where none exist. This suggests that the NREC has little respect for private property.

I shared this summary with Krys Lyle, Father Dan Connaghan and others.

Sandy Birdsall subsequently spoke to me one evening at the Lodge. She acknowledged my valuable contribution o the "new" NRESC and thanked me for my support. I have no reason to believe that she was not sincere.

Accordingly, I reject your inference that I did not adequately support the NREC. (Would I have been more effective if I had joined the shouting match?) Note, too, that I strongly suspect that the objective analysis that I provided may represent the type of clear-headed thinking that Peaine Township residents want and deserve from their elected officials.


Bob:

Each of my letters/posts have been in response to letters published in the Beacon/Islander or the posts in this thread. (I also understand that Pamâ??s letter now appears on Joe Mooreâ??s News on the Net.) Accordingly, I am not the one beating dead horses.

Clearly, there appears to some misunderstanding as to what I did or did not say and I am sure that you will defend my right "to correct the record" with the same vigor that you defend Jack Gallagher.

I did not state - implicitly or explicitly - that Mr. Gallagher lacked the requisite authority to send his letter to the DNR without his board's approval. I questioned whether it was consistent with his pledge to be transparent. As a result, it's somewhat silly for you to suggest that I am endorsing a "mother may I" policy with respect to the township and official correspondence.

Please note that I would be pleased to copy my board on any and all communications, if they so desired. Note, too, that I would not attempt to blind side my board at public meetings.

Thanks, again, for the opportunity to share my thoughts. See you at the polls on November 6th!

Respectfully,

William Kohls

Hey, Ken Thanks for your inquiry. I did not speak against the NREC; nor did I want it disbanded. Instead, I suggested that the two sides should be able to find common ground (since they both claimed to want what is best for the Island.) After the meeting, Sandy Birdsall thanked me for my comments an...

Pam

Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts and provide me with this valuable opportunity to clarify my recent letters. The relevant points from my letters are:
â?¢ Mr. Gallagher sent a controversial letter to the DNR without the knowledge of his board;
â?¢ He nonetheless vows to be transparent; and
â?¢ He sees no inconsistency.

My letters did not suggest that Mr. Gallagher needed his Boardâ??s approval; nor did I suggest that his letter was inaccurate. Instead, my letters merely stated that Mr. Gallagherâ??s letter appeared to be inconsistent with his pledge of transparency.

In my most recent letter, I stated that â??Peaine Township residents are entitled to a reasoned explanation of why Mr. Gallagherâ??s perceived rights and responsibilities as supervisor prevented him from sharing his letter with the Peaine Township board. In the absence of such an explanation, the Peaine Township voters are rightfully entitled to assume that Mr. Gallagher and his co-authors will discard any or all of their pledges if and when it suits them.â?￾

Since you want to move forward, I assume that you will encourage Mr. Gallagher to provide a complete reconciliation of his past actions with his pledge to be transparent.

Respectfully,

William Kohls

A black â??Golden-doodleâ?￾ has been reported missing by its owners. The dog was last seen near at or near 37480 Allenâ??s Lakeview. If found, please call the owners at 448.2076.

A cat showed up at our house on Barneyâ??s Lake Road. He/she is predominately grey with a lot of white on his/her face and neck. According to Andy (the authority) itâ??s a tortoiseshell cat. It doesnâ??t look as though he/she has missed too many meals, so weâ??re guessing that he/she has not been lo...