Monday, May 12, 2014

Snyder's favorite gift.



...But Snyder (click here) may keep a welded sculpture of a brown trout that was made by high school students in the Traverse City area because it represents job training, one of his priorities, Wurfel said.

“He is taking pride in that fish, showing to people the talented students that we have,” said Michael Hill, superintendent of the Traverse Bay Area Intermediate School District....

This is amazing. I am more than thrilled Michigan has incredible artists. But, the treasured gift is uniquely interesting. See, in October of 2012 Snyder's Michigan Department of Natural Resources looked the other way while the drunk Traverse City mayor pushed through a deconstruction of "Brown Bridge Dam" destroying the pond at this natural park.

It not only destroyed the pond, but, the incompetence of the engineering firm, AMEC (a global company) caused a complete collapse of the temporary coffer dam. The incident was predicted by local conservationists, but, that never mattered. The corruption is incredible. 

Recently, there was flooding in the same exact place as in October of 2012 which has now resulted in a $8.5 million lawsuit. The residents that experienced the first assault by an incompetent mayor and administration had began to rebuild and recover their property only to have it happen all over again. And yes, the mayor and his administration were warned about the continued flooding once the dam was removed.

Today, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources states it will take at least two generations for people to even see a consistent population of flies. Why flies? Because that is the food source of fish. What fish? The fish that used to be abundant at Brown Bridge Pond. Trout, walleye and other game fish. Boardman River was once considered a Blue Ribbon Trout Stream and it is that which the young artist was relating to. The people along the Boardman River have been there for generations. One generation after another treasure their river property.

Today, there is no pond and there are no fish and the toxic sludge behind the deconstructed dam is washed down stream to the next dam and quite possibly into Lake Michigan with each rainfall.

All the people along the Boardman River both upstream and downstream of the deconstructed dam are effected by the wayward project. The upstream folks have lost the 'back water' from the former pond and the people down stream have lost water levels due to water draw downs at the two remaining dams.  These folks have lost their riparian rights. They have been told they no longer own the land to the center of the river.

The corruption Synder is overseeing is incredible. All this occurred because the Grand Traverse County wanted a new bridge at Cass Road. Amazing. Both the city and county are lucky no one has died to date.

It might be Snyder's sculpture will be the only trout the people of Traverse City will see for generations. 

Snyder's bold economy? Oh, it was bold alright.