More than 50,000 sign petition calling on the Governor to keep the Michigan State Fairgrounds open.

The Michigan State Fair is Again Threatened by Secret Deals Made at the Highest Level with Little Consideration for the Taxpayer!

People  we trust are now telling us that the Governor's office is pushing hard to shut down not only the Michigan State Fair but also the Fairgrounds itself. Her latest plans call for auctioning off Fairgrounds items, at fire sale prices, as quickly as possible to interested private parties. We are told this auction was original slated for October but has been put of hold for some time this Winter or next Spring.

Her argument is  that State is has money trouble (which is true) and it can't provide for the State Fair as it has been doing for the last 160 years through wars and depression, good times and bad (which is not true).

The Fairgrounds is largely a break-even proposition. The State Fair itself sometimes runs a deficit that the State has made up, but it is a tiny piece of the State budget.

Some have estimated that it will cost the state as much or more to mothball the Fair Grounds as it would to continue operations. The Governor's actions only make sense if there is some kind of secret deal in place from which the Governor's friends will benefit at the expense of  Michigan taxpayers.

The Michigan State Fair is Again Threatened by Secret Deals Made at the Highest Level with Little Consideration for the Taxpayer!

The last time the State made a land deal involving the Fairgrounds involved a property that was not part of the Fairgrounds but adjacent to it on the Northwest side. This land was collect by eminent domain for the propose of  creating an urban camp ground. People were evicted from their homes to achieve this lofty purpose. But no camp grounds appeared, and the State sold the land to developers who, a year or so later, made a deal to sell it to the Detroit school system for a lot more than they paid for it. In fact the deal smelled so bad that public protest and a lawsuit convinced the State to renegotiate the sale.

Why must we suffer unimaginative, inept, and uncaring State Government through Democratic and Republican administrations when there are so many good ideas waiting to be adopted and implemented? Check the right hand column for two of them.

Representative George Cushingberry, the House Appropriations Committee Chairman is pro Fairgrounds and has requested that we try to obtain as many letters of support as possible to save the Fair and keep the Fairgrounds open. 

If you want to help the State Fair, download the Word template for a letter supporting the Fair and the Fairgrounds. The letters should be an original letter, no faxes or e-mails.  Each person provide their contact information as shown in the template.  You don't have to live in Cushingberry's district, letters can come from anyone who is interested in keeping the Fair and the Fair Grounds.

Send the letter directly to Rep. Cushingberry's office or you can send it to ICARE. Or download and circulate a copy of the petition that ICARE II has prepared for distribution and return it to ICARE at the address on the petition or at PO Box 201053, Ferndale MI 48220.

Picketing at CVS in Hazel Park:

Hotel Patrons and ICARE II Picket CVS to Save Hotel

Hotel patrons and some ICARE II members picketed the CVS drugstore on John R. in Hazel Park on Saturday, December 20th and again on January 3, 2009.  What's the issue? See below.

Proposed Hazel Park Day Hotel demolition (revised)

ICARE has unanimously passed a resolution calling on CVS to abandon plans to demolish the Days Hotel at the corner of John R. and Nine Mile Rd. to build yet another drug store. We have learned that CVS plans to close their two existing stores in Hazel Park if the this plan goes through.

The hotel was originally a Holiday Inn, then became La Casa and fell into bankruptcy as a consequence of questionable management. In October of 2005, Joe Keyes, a Chicago civil engineer with long term ties to Hazel Park and a vision, purchased the hotel on a land contract. Keys has since invested approximately 1.5 million dollars in the vision and has re-energized this vital area-wide part of Michigan ’s tourist and hotel industry.

Keys was unable to get financing to cover the balloon payment in the land contract  but continued to run the hotel profitably...renting it month to month.

The landowner evicted Keyes to clear the way for CVS.

CVS has reportedly backed out of their deal with the landlord. The hotel sits empty with no current plans to re-open or otherwise develop the property.

ICARE takes no position on the ownership questions but, as a matter of public policy, is strongly in support of retaining the hotel and against replacing it with a drugstore. The area, including Hazel Park , has many drugstores but only one strategically located  hotel. The City of Ferndale has joined with ICARE in issuing its own resolution supporting the idea of keeping a hotel at that location.

ICARE II Watches Developments at the Fairgrounds and Surrounding Area

In 1996, John Hertel, the manager of the Michigan State Fairgrounds, announced a proposal to make the Fairgrounds a paying proposition. A developer would build an auto racetrack. Hertel didn't consult his neighbors, who were appalled by the idea. They formed I.C.A.R.E.(Inter-county Citizens Achieving Regional Excellence), an organization of concerned citizens. They opposed the track idea in the media, before governmental bodies, and threatened legal action. They were concerned about noise, traffic, and parking overflow. The developer backed out in the face of this opposition. ICARE won this battle and a battle against a subsequent race track proposal. (See history page.)

Now we are trying to save the Michigan State Fairgrounds, a  historic treasure, from the dumbest "cost cutting" idea we have ever seen a government put forward and asking the Governor's office what's going on? 

Some Old Issues:

There are some issues that have been resolved or are not active at present:

Metro Park Proposal

We have proposed to the Huron Clinton Metro Park Authority that they create an urban park using the part of  the Fairgrounds that was slated for the race track. We still strongly support this idea. We feel that a park "close in" to our area would be a welcome addition to the more bucolic settings that make up the Metro Parks. There is not the political will on the part of those who control the Metro Parks to take any creative steps at this time

Intermodal Facility Expansion.

The State Highway Department wants to expand intermodal facilities in the Detroit area and one of their plans envisioned expanding facilities at the rail yards in Ferndale and possibly at the Fairgrounds. Ferndale city officials vowed to sue to stop expansion in their city. The State has now taken the Ferndale yard off the table and has assured us that State Fairgrounds is not currently under consideration for this site. This project is awaiting further studies and funding. ICARE has OPPOSED  this project...especially as it related to Ferndale and the Fairgrounds. This project may come alive again as Michigan gets stimulus money from the Federal Government.  

The fate of the Woodward/Eight Mile Rd. Bridge

The city of Ferndale wanted the center bridge that carries two lanes of traffic over both Eight Mile and the interchange lanes between Eight Mile and Woodward torn down at the expense of Michigan taxpayers.

After spending nearly half a million tax dollars to come to a decision, the State rejected Ferndale's idea and has now renovated the existing bridge..

The configuration of the bridge remains as it has been; ICARE supports this as the safest design.    

The Last Michigan State Fair after 160 years? In a largely spontaneous out-pouring, Fair goers and others signed over FIFTY THOUSAND petitions urging Governor Grandholm  to keep the State Fair alive and to preserve the Fairgrounds for future generations. See the video below to hear what some Fair attendees had to say.

ICARE has crafted a unique and creative proposal to Help fund the Fairgrounds and improve South Eastern Michigan's quality of life. Here it is outlined below:

PROPOSAL

We propose – for the benefit of tri-county youth, the Fairgrounds and the State of Michigan – opening an off-campus agriculture based public education facility, to be called, Agriculture Industries’ Science Institute, hereafter, AISI at the Michigan State Fairgrounds. The land and much of the infrastructure for AISI is in place now. Its implementation cost at the Fairgrounds will be a fraction of what it would be, if AISI was placed elsewhere.

Joseph L. Hudson’s donation of his farm for a home in perpetuity for Michigan’s State Fair has always been agriculture related, as is AISI’s use.

AISI will open doors of opportunity in various settings for motivated, selected, tri-county public high school juniors and seniors as they explore agriculture and associated industries in its course of study in Agriculture Industries’ Science.

The location is all but at the intersection of Macomb, Oakland and Wayne Counties. It is within reasonable driving distances of those counties’ rural, suburban and urban public high schools, and in the center of one the countries’ major industrial production and shipping centers.

AISI will open and operate a high tech farm where its students will study as they experience crop and livestock cycles and the perils of profit or loss.

Services of:

• Michigan’s Departments of Agriculture and Education,    

• Michigan State University’s Colleges of Agriculture and Education,  

• Macomb, Oakland and Wayne Counties’ intermediate school districts and

• The said counties’ 140 plus public high schools and their respective school districts                  

will intertwine with AISI ‘s program as it links its diverse mix of tri-county youth with the study of agriculture and associated industries. The two year program will help the students understand how individuals in a free market system achieve economic benefit through their individual and joint efforts as they study a matrix of existing and evolving opportunities and systems.

During the Fall through Spring Term of AISI’s twelve month half day program, its students will study part of the day at the Fairgrounds and the other part of the day at their home high schools, while completing their respective graduation requirements. During the Summer Term, its students will study only at AISI.

Each high school will have two seats, per grade, per year. AISI will strive to achieve a balance between sexes in the student body.

AISI shall model/mimic/survey the inter-workings of Michigan’s heavy agricultural and supplier base of associated industries. These industries help maintain and stabilize Michigan’s high standard of living,

Teachers, with relevant agriculture backgrounds and demonstrated management expertise, will guide/place AISI students in hands-on real world environments using field, classroom, lab, discussion, study, research and seminar situations.

Funding AISI

Operating Expenses: Existing per student State Aid follows the student and will fund AISI. Two 11th grade students, enrolled half time at AISI in the first year, shall cost each high school State Aid for one student. Thereafter, two 11th and two 12th grade students or four students shall cost State Aid for two students per high school. AISI funding will be provided by shifting existing local funding. This will not require any new funding.

Transportation Expenses: An 80/20 split between the intermediate school districts and their respective school districts will fund bus transportation. This will require new funding.

AISI Benefits

With a two student State Aid shift for four students and a 20% school district transportation charge, the cost per high school should not be a severe burden for even the smallest school district.

Skills associated with Michigan’s agriculture and associated industries include at least:

            agri-fuels, biology, chemistry, computers, construction, education, engineering,

                  equipment repair, medicine, meteorology, pharmacology, public safety, robotics,

                  transportation veterinary, welding, world crops, zoology, etc.

These job-skills are commensurate with education/training and vary from highly technical, which pay substantially above minimum wage, to those with less training and lower salaries. Early on, our youth must learn the skills necessary to financially survive and remain competitive as adults in the world economy that now confronts us. We must communicate to our youth that knowledge 7-is power and acquired through real education and life experiences.

Formal, structured, targeted education should be the most serious factor in the equation of appropriate uses for the Fairgrounds. Michigan, its citizens and economy will benefit from having an on-site year-round agriculture-based educational use at the Fairgrounds. AISI will both re-invigorate the State Fair and help fund the Fairgrounds. Its hundreds of students will double after the first year and further stimulate attendance, particularly from the tri-county area for future State Fairs as parents, relatives, friends, neighbors and residents visit the Fair and AISI farm to see what their hometowns’ teens have been doing at the Fairgrounds.

AISI will be a win for everyone! As the students graduate, the skills they have acquired at AISI will make them more employable and stronger academically as they pursue post high school studies. In AISI’s second year of operations, 560 11th and 12th grade students will attend AISI. It will double the first year’s $994,000 of Gross Income to $1,988,000 or nearly two million dollars for the second year. A percentage of its income stream will help pay the Fairgrounds’ costs of maintaining its unique facilities.

This infusion of revenue through AISI annually, in addition to what the Fairgrounds and State Fair generate, will allow them to stay open and avert future deficits. This specialized education use will be an asset to Michigan and its youth in AISI’s course of study in

Agriculture Industries’ Science!

ICARE II offers this proposal as part of its members’ commitment to fulfill Hudson’s mandate for the land he donated to the people of the State of Michigan for a State Fair. He continues to both challenge and inspire us, as we strive to make his gift work for all of us!

Proposed Plan for Part of Michigan State Fairgrounds

This proposed plan for the Michigan State Fairgrounds would create a new park in the Huron Clinton Metro Park system. It would not prevent the Michigan State Fair from taking place but would use the land slated for the race track and formerly used by Softball City. If you have a fast connection or a lot of time, click on image above or here to see enlarged picture. If you want to help make this a reality,  download our petition in PDF format or as a Word file or see it as a Webpage.

Picketers endure a cold December day to let CVS know its plans to demolish the Days Hotel are wrong for Hazel Park.

Last Updated Thursday, September 17, 2009