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Ironwood - February 3, 2010
Monday night the Parks and
Recreation Committee met to discuss among other things the location of
the Non-Motorized and Motorized trails through the Caves area.
For decades the Ironwood Caves have been used for the enjoyment of
Snowmobile and ATV enthusiasts. Today there’s an effort under way to
displace the motorized sportsman and replace them with hiking trails.
While the Gogebic Range Trail Authority has bent over backwards to
accommodate the hiker-bikers, however compromise has been thwarted by
the Granola Bar People, alias “silent sport enthusiast.” Last year the
city attempted to get both sides to sit down and come up with a
compromise. That effort failed when Tom Bergman (silent sportster)
boycotted the meetings. Bergman and other south-of-bridge immigrants are
unyielding in their efforts to steal the trails away from those who
created the trails in the first place.
The silent sports people
have taken over the Ironwood Planning Commission and its spinoff the
Parks and Recreation Committee.
The Parks Committee is headed up by
Davey Motel owner Sam Davey, who has acted as front man for the Tree
Huggers for over a year now. Monday night Sam once again was arrogant
and unyielding. The GRTA members came prepared to discuss future trails
through the city. They presented a list of benefits for the trail 2a-17
connection route. Davey merely stared at a map he made up months
ago and had all ready given to Ironwood Mayor Bobby.
Annette
Burchell is also on the Parks Committee. Last year this writer asked her
twice if she felt that the 500 acre recreational area could be shared by
both motorized and non-motorized sports. Both times she refused to
answer the question. Her husband Mayor Bobby also failed to answer the
question when I asked it of him! Last night at the meeting Mrs.
Burchell, wife of Mayor Bobby, stated that she did not want motorized
sports near where she was hiking. The exhaust fumes make it hard to
breathe. With that kind of thinking (or lack thereof) we should remove
all cars and trucks from the city streets.
Sam Davey should be
representing all trail users, but he is not!
He is supporting silent
sports even at the cost of economic loss to the city.
Last
weekend he hosted a “hyped up” snowshoe trek through the new cemetery
trail. We say hyped up because less than 50 hikers actually showed up
for the over publicized event. Sam points to the 100+ people who
signed up for the hike as cause for celebration. We think the lack of
actual attendance speaks much more profoundly!
The same group of
hiker-bikers who pretend to want a Miner’s Memorial Park could only
gather 25 hard souls to hike to the Pabst Mine on the anniversary of the
mine disaster. HMMMMM!
The Parks and Rec gang have a wish list a
mile long. They speak of getting grants. You would think that grants are
free money. They’re not. The city (that’s you and me) must put up a
match. They (we) can’t. Not that it matters this group has a zero
batting average when it comes to obtaining grant money. Short on
money, short on intelligent ideas and short on manners HMMMMM!
The economic impact of this committee’s decision is significant.
Right now, at this very moment Snowmobile and ATV riders are blogging
all over the internet about the negativity of Mayor Bobby and Sam Davey.
Many motorized sportsmen are already avoiding Ironwood, and yet those
that do come to Ironwood are aiding our ailing economy.
Snowmobilers
are adding thousands of dollars to our economy each week, unlike the
Sisu skiers that came to Ironwood with a twenty dollar bill and two
pairs of shorts and in the end they changed neither.
If we’re doing
all this for the Over Taxed Ironwood Citizen let’s stop now and find
better leadership before we become even more over taxed with little or
nothing to show for it.
If we’re doing all this to attract more
south of the bridge immigrants then we should stop now and save
ourselves the pain.
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