August 21, 2004
Our Town - Coming Soon
Our Town will be a new heading and weblog for South Haven Watchdog (coming very soon) that was inspired by Elaine Herbert, the owner of Yelton Manor along with her husband, Robert Kripaitis. Elaine is passionate about preserving the natural beauty of South Haven and I appreciate her taste, so I think her voice is one worth listening to. All who love the town and wish to preserve what makes it special are invited to be authors on this weblog.
To read what Elaine has to say about the town in her very first post, click on the Continue reading "Our Town - Coming Soon" link below.
(added by Denise - 8/22/04)
Tree Tragedy
What happened at Dyckman Park and in the parking lot behind it is horrific.
I agree that the city council has little regard for trees. They have little regard for the natural beauty of town, period. They seem to make decisions based on what profiteers (merchants/builders/real estate/rental agents/builders) want. They also make most of their most blatently stupid decisions based on lack of: information, good sense and/or courage. Fight the real enemy: city council. Good decisions require good minds and the council is full of egos and geezers. Time to vote some sense into that group.
The other tactic I suggest is to choose battles appropriately and fight them as a team. I fought for a year against the commercial advertising banners flapping on city streets and in front of water views without a single word or human body showing up in the editorials or council chambers in support. I was successful in keeping them off residential streets, but it was a tough battle. The council actually *changed the law* to permit them because merchants had already been duped out of $55,000, non-refundable, paid to an out-of-state vendor, unbid by local providers. How ugly are those banners? Where were the voices in opposition?
The destruction of the Great GrandMother tree in Stanley Johnson Park brought many to the battle, but the poor old Dame had already been dead for years since lightning struck it in the mid 90s. The real battle is for the stately parkway trees that are annually butchered and maimed by unprofessional hackers for the electrical utility.
The poor, ugly stumps that remain break my heart. We should continue to speak for them.
In 16 years living in this town I have never seen a tree replaced/planted in any existing park or street parkway. Zero. Where is the will and the budget for this? Shouldn't this be where the good efforts of tree-loving people go?
We should also count our blessings. Our beautiful Marina Park was only planted in 1990 and it's a gorgeous replacement for the junkyard it
covers. Same with the little park at the end of North Shore Drive.
Some progress has been made. More is needed.
Thanks to all who speak up for the small but important issue of our town's natural beauty.
In my opinion, the battle to wage now is against the increasing number of permanent rental signs in residential neighborhoods. These are large, wooden, commercial-type signage that do not belong where we live. The planning commission is holding meetings on this issue NOW. Write to the newspaper and show up in chambers to lend support to ridding our living areas of blatent commercialism. The signs are just the beginning: the next fight is against illegal residential neighborhood rentals and the code/enforcement needed to prevent them.
Thanks to Denise for this forum. Love, Elaine
Posted by Elaine at August 21, 2004 07:44 AM
Comments
Actually, thanks to the tenacity and persevering efforts of Dorothy Appleyard and Julia Ludwig, South Haven now has a tree ordinance, maybe not the strongest and best, but it is a real first step. Trees lost on city property and on the parkways have to be replaced. The city has, I believe, hired an arborist to supervise the trimming of the trees v. the wires. More definitely needs to be done, for example, using tree wire, which will reduce the extreme "pruning" done by companies such as Asplundh whose only concern is about wires, not the life and beauty of trees. Of course, the best option is to put the utilities under ground-preferably under the sidewalks, where they would be more easily accessable for repair and replacement.
Posted by: vikke at September 11, 2004 12:05 AM