Three Candidates Vie for Two Open City Council Seats, Treasurer

By Ryan Schlehuber

Dale “Mikie” Gallagher Jr.

Mackinac Island voters will have to choose from among three candidates vying for two seats on city council and one of three for city treasurer during elections to be held May 3. City elections will be held the same time and day as school board elections now, under a new state elections consolidations law that allows only four dates a year for municipal elections. Trustees Leanne Brodeur and Jason St. Onge are seeking reelection to their four-year term seats on the school board and are unopposed. In addition, a five-year millage proposal for Mackinac Straits Hospital and Health Center, which operates the Mackinac Island Medical Center, is also on the ballot. Residents will be asked to approve a 1.2 mill operations levy. (See separate story.)

Candidates for the two city council positions are Armin Porter, incumbent Jason St. Onge, seeking his second three-year term on Council, and Joseph "Mikie" Dale Gallagher Jr.

Alderperson Ellen Putnam has chosen not to run for a fourth term. City Treasurer Dorothy Dehring has also declined to run again for her position. She has been the city treasurer since 1992.

Candidates for the one city treasurer position include Carrie Kaminen, Richard Linn, and Ryan Fox, though he has respectfully withdrawn from the race.

Richard Linn

CITY COUNCIL CANDIDATES Armin Porter, 53, originally from Grosse Pointe Woods, has been an Island resident since 1976. He is general manager for Nephew Enterprises, an Island firefighter, and serves on the city’s Mackinac Island Planning Commission. He and his wife, Nancy, have two children, Sarah, 18, and Anne, 15.

Dale "Mikie" Gallagher Jr., 49, has lived on the Island his entire life. He owns his own companies, Quality Care Painting and Mackinac Doll Company. He attended Mackinac Island Public School until the 12th grade. He has a wife, Paula.

Jason St. Onge, 31, has also lived on the Island all his life. He is a 1992 graduate of Mackinac Island Public School and a 1998 University of Michigan graduate, majoring in general studies. He owns St. Onge Latex and Groove. Mr. St. Onge is also a member of the Island school board and a sergeant on the Island Fire Department. He is engaged to be married to Jennie Shanku.

CITY TREASURER CANDIDATES Ryan Fox petitioned for city treasurer seat, but is no longer seeking election to the post. He was hired as a full-time marketing coordinator for Bart Huthwaite’s architectural design consulting company, Institute for Lean Design, in February after he filed for the election, however, by then, it was too late to remove his name from the ballot, he said. Mr. Fox is also the athletic director and boys basketball coach for Mackinac Island Public School.

Jason St. Onge

Mr. Linn, 48, was hired as the city’s deputy treasurer in February. Originally from St.

Louis, Michigan, Mr. Linn has been a year-around Island resident since 1993 and worked summers on the Island since 1976. He’s been a Medical Center employee and emergency medical technician since 1992.

Mr. Linn’s qualifications include earning a bachelor’s degree in business administration, majoring in accounting, at Central Michigan University. He also has accounting experience working under Harry Ryba in the accounts receivable department at Lake View Hotel and the Island House.

Mrs. Kaminen, 36, moved to the Island from St. Clair last year after marrying Cory Kaminen, an Island police officer. She is an employee at Mackinac Island Tourism Bureau.

Carrie Kaminen

Mrs. Kaminen has a bachelor’s degree in accounting with a minor in computers from Oakland University in Rochester Hills.

Her other qualifications for the city treasurer position include having two years of experience as executive assistant with the City of Auburn Hills and five years of experience in accounting with various businesses.

Margaret Doud will run unopposed for mayor, Karen Lennard will run unopposed for city clerk, and C. Ronald Dufina will run unopposed for supervisor. Incumbent Bob Benser Sr. has filed as a write-in candidate for the assessor’s position. Mrs. Lennard said write-in candidates may register until Friday, April 29.

Council Candidate Interviews

Armin Porter

Each of the three city council candidates were interviewed individually by Mackinac Island Town Crier. They were asked these same questions regarding issues facing the city and the community of Mackinac Island: How do you think the city should control traffic on Main Street?

Mr. Porter: There are a whole host of things to be done. One, there needs to be better traffic control from the police. I want to be able to step out onto Main Street and always be able to spot a police or traffic officer, at least during peak summer hours. It is important to have them available as much as possible for traffic control and onthe-street tourist information.

Two, we need to find a more efficient way to use our bicycle parking space. One idea would be to move Island employee bicycles elsewhere, other than the main streets, where tourists have to park their bikes.

Three, there needs to be better control over the use of carts in general. I think luggage carts should be allowed to be (hand-pushed) by businesses downtown because it’s a more efficient way to get luggage and freight delivered. I would encourage the use of garden carts more, but I think hand-pushing freight on luggage carts should be made available, especially if there is a lot of freight that just has to go across the street.

Four, we need to look at a more efficient way for horse traffic, just common sense issues. We definitely want horses on the street because that is what Mackinac is about. But, as much as possible, we need to get these horse-drawn vehicles to face the right way. We cannot have horse-drawn vehicles making U-turns downtown or parking next to each other blocking the streets and sidewalks. There are just some small, commonsense adjustments I think we can make with horse-drawn vehicles that could improve traffic easily.

Mr. Gallagher: I am determined to look for the best solution that we can find. As far as the luggage carts debate, I think both sides have good arguments. Aside from that, every city employee must take the responsibility to make tourists aware of the city street regulations. I do it even now, as a citizen, whenever I can.

Other ideas to improve traffic could be to explore the idea of making more streets one-way for horse-drawn vehicles like the city did for French Lane. One way for Main Street would never work, but perhaps we can experiment one-way traffic directions on streets in other problem areas.

Mr. St. Onge: I am not sure there is any one solution. We have to continue to explore ideas and seek input from the public. There’s certainly been a lot of discussion about this in the past six months. I think what would help most is to adhere to temporary ideas to see if they work. Some established rules sometimes get ignored.

With the luggage cart issue, we, as a city, are making progress toward a solution. There’s no quick fix. Generally speaking, Mackinac Island’s Main Street is a busy street. If there was an easy solution, we definitely would have done it by now.

What are some issues the city’s Master Plan should cover?

Mr. Porter: Most obvious is a better infrastructure for our water and sewer systems. Residential development is a big issue on the Island now. I think, business-wise, we are maxed out. We need to focus more on completing the affordable housing project in Harrisonville. We don’t want to price any family out from being able to afford to live on the Island. We also need to preserve our green space, as well. We don’t want every available green space taken up by condominium development.

Mr. Gallagher: Development has to stop at some point. There is only so much property for development. I think we have to get a better handle on condominium development, as many people have already spoken out about that. But I want to be as fair as I can for everybody. One of the biggest problems the city faces right now is figuring out how to keep their people (year-around residents). Affordable housing, I believe, is one of the city’s biggest priorities right now. Seasonal worker housing seems to be doing pretty well. There hasn’t been many complaints of parties as much as before. We also must protect our green space on Mackinac Island. It is our view of the water that is part of the reason people enjoy coming here. We have to protect that.

Mr. St. Onge: It is evident that people are tired of what has been construed as over-development, in regards to multiple dwellings and condominiums. If the master plan is to be effective and if we are going to embrace it, we need to stick to what it says. Too many building variances negate the use of the master plan.

I think the city needs to continue to go the extra mile for single family development but, as far as multiple dwellings and condominiums, it is hard on the master plan if we continue to variance out everything. If curbing development is the angle we want to portray, then we need to specify that in our master plan. Something I believe we can relate to this issue, and any issue with Mackinac Island, is that it is not always about doing what’s popular but rather doing what is right.

Where can the city make improvements to provide a safe and enjoyable experience for tourists?

Mr. Porter:

The city basically does a good job of providing for tourists. Obviously, traffic can always be improved. Other than that, perhaps improvement to informing tourists about our city regulations and services, inform them about our fire department, our medical facility, where our public bathrooms are, services like that.

Mr. Gallagher: I think the city should advertise Great Turtle Park more to tourists. Downtown is in decent shape. If you look at photos from even the 1920s, there is not much difference. The awnings on the front of businesses’ buildings, for example, there is not much difference. I think Mayor Margaret Doud is doing a fine job in that department.

Mr. St. Onge: I believe you should never be content with what you have established; you always want to make it safer and better. Some of this comes back to the issue of traffic control. We can improve traffic safety by informing our visitors better about street regulations. Using signs or fliers, for example, may help teach people how to maneuver downtown. Our new Chief of Police has worked very diligently to work his traffic officers around the high points of traffic congestion during the busy summer days.

Tourist advisory could be improved with the city working more closely with the Mackinac Island Tourism Bureau, for example.

As far as tourist enjoyment, the city could work with Island businesses to find ideas to offer more to tourists. The city always tries to keep taxes as low as possible while also keeping its public services running efficiently. We’ve done well by keeping the public bathrooms open longer as businesses stay open longer, as well.

What other issues would you like to address on the city council?

Mr. Porter: Basically, my goal is to keep the city running as efficiently as possible, like it is now.

Mr. Gallagher:

I would like to see the marina kept the way it is. As far as the use of luggage carts on the streets by people hand-pushing them, I think renting them out wouldn’t be a bad idea. I’m not for getting rid of using carts, they are a part of Mackinac, although I do agree somewhat with Jim Pettit’s argument that horse-drawn vehicles are what tourists like to see, not hand-pushed carts. The idea of using one-horse-hitched vehicles to deliver freight faster, I think, would help tremendously.

Another idea that could help the city’s sewer capacity issue would be to have the city develop its own septic system. Install tanks that can be emptied in the fall. They’d have no problem at all. There would be no smell and it would be cheaper to bury them in the ground than to rebuild or add on to the existing facility.

To any city issue, I want to knock them down one at a time if I am elected. I am making no promises to anyone, only that I am going to do the best job I can. I want to be part of the solution.

Mr. St. Onge: My highest priority is preserving our year-around community. I hope improvements to the master plan helps. We need to encourage developers to build more single family housing.

I believe all parties involved can agree that we need to work on making Mackinac Island more competitive in the tourism market. Mackinaw City is growing leaps and bounds and yet the Island is down in percentages in a business sense. Tourism is our number one and only economic industry. We need to find that fine line, that balance between distinguishing and providing year-around, single family development and continuing to improve and expand our tourist trade.

Armin Porter

Carrie Kaminen