Monthly Archive

Two items of interest related to Traverse City Light & Power -

Undergrounding – First, the board voted last night to underground more electric lines along the bayfront. The next stretch will be from the existing lighthouse pole on Bay St west to Division St. The lighthouse pole will move down that way as a result.

TCLP notes that the project will consist of two phases commencing with the installation of underground conduits, manholes and related facilities in May and June of this year. In the fall of 2011, the electric cables will be installed in the conduits followed by the removal of poles and overhead wires. Work will be curtailed during the busy summer tourist season.

This project has been called for in the bayfront plan and the city master plan. We look forward to some additional aesthetic improvement along the waterfront, and thank TCLP for their partnership. 

OurTCLP.com – Also new this spring is a blog and community discussion forum created by TCLP chairperson Mike Coco: http://ourtclp.com/. Topics to date have included baseload generation, energy efficiency planning, and community solar. This is a great resource and I would encourage everyone interested in energy issues and our local electric utility to check it out.

 

Boardman Lake Avenue is back in front of the city commission Monday night, to discuss where we go from here. As reported two posts below, the city intends to let the Copy Central option expire, and take some more time gathering data on the nature of the problem we are attempting to solve (E-W vs. N-S, for example), the question of induced traffic, and the strategy to move some fraction of current traffic from Cass and Union to a proposed new street.  

What now for the Grand Vision? The Record Eagle reported last week that the $1.9 million designated to implement the study – having become jeopardized by the federal budget deal – has now been re-designated by MDOT for a highway project in the Village of Buckley. 

And it reported this weekend that Grand Traverse County tentatively voted to stop paying dues to TC-TALUS, the body charged with overseeing the Grand Vision, which means the largest participant may be out. The second largest principal participant – Leelanau County – voted to abandon the Grand Vision a while ago.

It seems that there is still value in having a regional collaborative seeking funds for transportation projects – partly because those types of efforts are attractive to funders, and partly as a means for local priorities to drive funding of transportation projects in the region.

That is a long way, however, from the mission creep that has transformed the Grand Vision into a nebulous umbrella endeavor concerned not only with transportation but also land use, agriculture, energy, environmental protection, and economic development. An endeavor that re-purposed $3 million in public funds and countless hours of public staff time - so far with no tangible sucesses to show for it.

I will recommend to the city we continue participation up through the point of a candid self-assessment of how TALUS and the Grand Vision can be re-focused into something less grandiose and more pointed at achieving some concrete benefit. Our dues are modest.

On the heels of its rapid shift of the Grand Vision money to another state highway project – and given its lead role in a process that is so far without success – a big question will be whether MDOT is truly committed to the success of the Grand Vision, and how it will demonstrate that commitment. A revamped Grand Vision will only succeed if its lead agency leads it to success.  

Save the Easling Pool. The Easling Pool is in the city but is owned by the county. The county is thinking of shutting it down. Whether for kids swimming lessons, school swim teams, lap swimmers, water exercise, or other purposes, a good community pool is a vital asset. I think it’s worth paying for. Here is my email last week to the County Commissioners -

Dear Commissioners - I am a Grand Traverse County resident and periodic user of the Easling pool. I value the pool and would pay more to use it if that was what it took to keep it open.
 
I believe there are many users out there who feel this way. In part because it is a great asset and in part because it is the only good one available to the public in the region, I think the customer demand for the pool is fairly inelastic – at least to a point – and would not go down with reasonable fee increases.
 
I would urge you to at least attempt fee increases as part of a plan to keep the pool open, before going to the last resort of shutting it down.
 
I would also respectfully suggest you look at whether there is cost benefit to closing the pool in the summer while maintaining in the shoulder and winter seasons.
 
Thank you for considering my comments.

I received one response, from County Commissioner Ross Richardson.  He let me know he is a strong supporter of Easling pool, and intends to work diligently to keep it open. Ross also said the pool is very popular with constituents, and that its financial situation has improved markedly in a very short time.  In 2009, pool expenses exceeded revenues by $158,000.  Last year, the gap narrowed to $70,000.

In a time when we are working to improve parks like the bayfront and create new parks like a TC dog park, it is vital that we not go backwards and shut existing recreational facilities down. If you believe like I do that parks and recreation contribute to quality of life and property values, email the county commissioners in care of Katie Lowran <KLowran@co.grand-traverse.mi.us>

Just received from the Mayor of our sister city - Koka, Japan:

The Honorable Christopher M. Bzdok, Mayor, City of Traverse City, The United States of America

Dear Mayor:

The cherry blossom trees have began to bloom here in Koka City. The arrival of spring usually brings excitement to us, however, my heart will not be lifted this year.

The earthquake which struck us on March 11th has turned into an unprecedented disaster, as Tsunami swept up cities and caused nuclear power plants to experience radiation leakage. Many lives have been lost, and countless numbers of people have lost their valuables and are living in evacuation shelters.

Even though Koka City is located about 700 km (about 436 miles) from the devastated areas, citizens of Koka City and I are very much distressed by this domestic tragedy. Our City has sent support teams and is taking in families from the evacuated areas. Citizens of Koka City are contributing by providing relief supplies and making donations.

Local governments throughout Japan have given their wholehearted support with strong faith in Japan’s recovery, while putting the spirit of mutual assistance into action.

We are truly encouraged by your heartfelt letter. We are further reminded that strong bonds among people, cities, and nations reveal its true strength when in difficult times.

Through sister city exchanges, your honorable city and Koka City have promoted deeper understanding of each other and expanded the circle of friendship. As Japan faces this disaster, I am once again convinced by the importance of our city exchanges and I firmly believe that strengthening our bonds will contribute to the world peace.

I would like to show our greatest sense of gratitude to you and honorable citizens of City of Traverse City for their kind thoughts on us. Please accept our sincere wishes for prosperity of your honorable city.

Sincerely,

Takeshi Nakajima, Mayor, City of Koka

Tonight the city manager informed the commission that he will recommend we allow the option to purchase the Copy Central property expire. This means the May deadline for making a decision on Boardman Lake Avenue goes away, giving us the summer to gather more facts and do more analysis of the parameters of the problem and the best solution.

I have noted on this space that I support new pavement as part of a solution to the Old Town neighborhood’s traffic problem, and I still do.

However, the process has raised important questions and an overarching theme that whatever we do, it has to be driven by facts and not by assumptions. I have mentioned these questions before -

• Induced traffic – If we add this road to our traffic capacity, will it lead to additional traffic that will use up the relief we intended to give on Union and Cass? This is a very real concern. On the other hand, we need to look at whether induced traffic - which is documented in large metropolitan areas – would also occur in such a small region such as ours. And whether a connector between two roads that are at capacity (14th and 8th) could increase loads on those roads.
• What will cause cars to use the avenue instead of Cass and Union? The old plan talked about a diverter on 14th, but both proponents and opponents of BLA agree that traffic calming needs to be done on Cass and Union.
• What will be the effect on traffic in the rest of the city? This is probably more an issue of traffic through some kind of defined sub-area or portion of the city network.
• Can the road be designed in such a way as to minimize impacts to the 8th St entry, adjacent properties, trail users, and natural resources, and if so how?

We can use next Monday’s study session to develop a plan for addressing these questions. Some of the data is already out there, in the form of the Mead and Hunt traffic study conducted as part of the Grand Vision. Additional traffic counts in and around the general project area may be necessary too. I look forward to putting a plan together for more analysis and more discussion.

In other news, the CC approved the traffic calming policy, the dams contract, and the implementation steps for the police analysis I outlined in the last post.

Monday night the CC will vote on implementing several items we have been talking about at the meetings and on this site for a while.

Traffic calming. After a couple weeks of false starts, the traffic calming policy is up for a final vote. The recommended policy now includes the changes to a simple majority of petitioners to start a project, and the 75% city 25% neighborhood funding formula, that were suggested here: http://planfortc.com/2011/03/06/the-traffic-calming-we-deserve/

Brownbridge dam. Also on tap is a large contract with MACTEC for engineering the Brownbridge Dam removal. The contract is phased, and the removal is going to take some extra time, because the MACTEC proposal is over twice the amount of grant funding that can be allocated to the engineering tasks ($770,000 vs. $350,000). The full proposal can be found on the city’s website under city commission agendas (it’s a big download). 

Policing. Finally, the CC will vote on the city manager’s plan to implement the police workload analysis by Dr. Alexander Weiss that was discussed here: http://planfortc.com/2011/03/25/smarter-and-more-cost-effective-policing/. The implementation plan addresses those issues that can be addressed in the short term and does not include a discussion of regional policing (for example through a contract with the Sheriff) or the change to a public safety department. The plan includes:

• a reduction of two officers (not the recommended three) by attrition based on retirements this year, 
• as-yet undefined use of data in patrol decisions based on software upgrades now being put in place, and
• keeping the sector patrol program for at least another year as the new workloads are analyzed.

These changes are about the most minimal response that could be envisioned to the study, and they come on the heels of news that the Act 345 pension millage (discussed before here:  http://planfortc.com/2010/06/06/police-fire-pensions-june-7/) is going to be up about another 0.2 mills on top of the 0.38 mill increase last year. So these modest reductions may do little more than keep pace with the continued rise in costs.

The key may be assurance by the commission and the manager that these steps are the beginning of a process of change, not the endpoint. We look forward to hearing more in the year ahead.

Tomorrow morning the DDA votes on a recommendation to hire SEEDS as the new farmers market manager for the 2011 season.

SEEDS is a local non-profit organization devoted to ecological solutions. http://www.ecoseeds.org/. Their experience includes managing a farmer residency program and youth conservation corps work on entrepreneurial agriculture, both at the historic Grand Traverse Commons barns property.

Historically, the farmers market was managed by an individual with the title of “market master.” Contracting the job to an organization committed to local agriculture is a positive change in strategy. It shows that the city and downtown see the market as an asset we want to help achieve all of its potential, rather than a sideline whose existence is merely allowed. 

The change also comes at a time when consumer interest in local agricultural products is on the upswing, as evidenced by store and restaurant menu labeling and other marketing efforts along these lines. And it sends a signal to local producers who are contemplating investments in additional capacity but need to know that these kinds of venues will be there for them well into the future.

According to SEEDS director Sarna Salzman, in addition to various mechanical and organizational tasks associated with starting the season, SEEDS intends to focus this year on building relationships with producers and downtown businesses. Mike Powers, who will run point on the project, expressed SEEDS’ commitment to maintaining and enhancing the market’s role as an important centerpiece in the local agricultural economy.

Possible changes this year include continuing the market at a downtown location during Cherry Festival (possibly the Old Town parking deck). Other possibilities on tap are “marketing the market” with logo gear, and accepting bridge cards for the first time.

The farmers market starts up May 7, and runs Saturdays from 7 am to noon, with the addition of Wednesdays from 7 am to noon from June-September.

To:          TCLP Interested Organizations

From:    Mike Coco, Jim Carruthers, and John Taylor

Re:         Status and Next Steps on TCLP 2011 Strategic Planning and Budget

This memo is an update on TCLP’s strategic planning process, and highlights significant changes to our goals and annual budget. Upon completion of the objectives that accompany these new strategic goals, we will convene an in-person meeting with you to evaluate the process and plan for next year. This meeting will likely take place in May 2011. Please note these items are not yet formally approved, and will be discussed at the TCLP Board Meeting on Tuesday April 12^th. You are encouraged to share your reaction during public comment.

Our Process

In an effort to gather additional input to inform strategic planning, the TCLP board convened three separate meetings in February with 1) interested organizations, 2) individuals (via an open house), and our 3) largest customers. Meeting notes from the interested parties meeting are attached as Appendix 1. The TCLP Board met on February 24^th and March 30^th to revise our strategic goals. The Board met on April 5^th to revise the capital plan and annual budget.

Pending Changes to Strategic Goals

Several significant changes to the Strategic Goals have been drafted for 2011:

1.       A stand-alone energy efficiency goal that acknowledges the need to provide our customers with the information necessary to efficiently manage their energy use (it’s in TCLP’s strategic interest to offset our need to purchase power).

2.       A new goal to “improve community relations” with an expectation the ensuing objectives will result in a broad mix of communication channels that ensure all groups are aware of major decisions and programs, and that TCLP will have a mechanism to respond to inquiries and questions from the community (arguably our highest priority for improvement in 2011).

3.       A new goal to resolve our long-term baseload requirement deficiencies by working with the community to assess our options (this remains a primary challenge for TCLP; the new goal is less restrictive than before)

4.       A new goal to assess the community’s interest in acquiring “local” generation (while the board and staff believe local generation is in the strategic interest of TCLP’s owners and customers, we recognize our community must decide whether the benefits of acquiring local generation exceed the costs).

5.       A new goal to reduce the TCLP carbon footprint through renewable energy, diversifying our resource portfolio, and other measures (we believe this is a prudent goal for an electric utility in today’s regulated market and reflects our community’s commitment to environmental stewardship).

6.       Elimination of a goal to encourage economic development (falls outside our core mission and confuses the community).

 We expect the ensuing “objectives” will have a timing component, be measurable, and some cases add a quantitative goal.

Pending Changes to 2011/2012 Budget

The following significant changes were made to the 2011/2012 budget to reflect the new strategic goals:

1.       An additional $500,000 for energy efficiency (which includes one additional fulltime professional employee and customer incentives). This change will double TCLP’s investment in energy efficiency, which will total $1.2 million.

2.       An additional $140,000 for education, communications, and public service ($75,000 is transferred from the Community Investment Fund, which will not be funded this year).

3.       A new Community Liaison employee that will lead our engagement with the community and develop a two-way communication strategy for TCLP ($155,000).