Marina dredgings for dike

Look, I don’t mean to be mean, but the forces of economics force lead me to be forceful. I wanted to take the town’s liability, (the missing dike) off the property tax payer’s minds by building a better dike than the Army Corps of Engineers says is good enough. It requires me to prove the benefits of my better design. Remember this: The Army Corps of Engineers destroyed the once great salmon runs that could be caught from the docks of town.

Past town patriarch Milo Moore pointed out the failed fish passage in the breakwater between McGlinn and Goat Islands, eighty years ago! This failure of design and execution caused the loss of a fishing industry. Milo was a visionary fisheries expert, who was the head of the department of fisheries during the forties. He got fish hatcheries funded and created the fish food that fed those fish. He even started the commercial venture of rearing coho salmon in Lake Michigan. He demanded compensation from the Army Corps of Engineers for the loss of income to many natives and white fishermen also.

I’m his reincarnated soul, screaming from his grave! I’m a learned man also, so I scream from my own soul too. Too much stupid bureaucracy is keeping sensible plans from being implemented. I implore the townsfolk to walk on the west side of North Third Street and observe the bulge of silty clay in the south basin of the marina.

At low tide, this huge amount of soil could be captured and used to build the much needed dike, this could happen easily and cheaply, but somehow we think that money grows on trees, so we silently scratch our heads and question the motives of the man trying to do good. Rather than rallying to the cause of reasonableness, we’d rather rest our weary heads and lead a life of quiet desperation. It’s not too late to do the right thing; we just have to realize that the coach has no players on the court. Call the town planner and demand a sensible response.

Sincerely,

Glen S. Johnson