(Welcome back LG Cherry! - promoted by wizardkitten)
Pam and I started our day at Thornton's Restaurant in St. Joseph. A friendly, family restaurant, Thornton's breakfast menu features a signature item-Big Bob's Big Bomb. The Big Bomb is an outrageously huge omelet whose consumption will earn you a place on Thornton's Hall of Fame. I passed up the opportunity to leave a historical mark at Thornton's, but we had a great breakfast anyways.
After breakfast we headed to Muskegon. The name "Muskegon" comes from the Ottawa Indian term "Masquigon" which refers to a marshy river or swamp. The area was home to native Americans from the earliest of times. Wikipedia points out that when the Wisconsinian glaciations retreated "nomadic; Paleo-Indian hunters" moved into the area. Subsequently in time, Muskegon became inhabited by the Ottawa and Potawatomi tribes.
Muskegon Lake, our first stop, can be found at the mouth of the Muskegon River. During the lumbering era, the banks of Muskegon Lake, which served as a natural harbor on the Lake Michigan shoreline, became a site for a number of sawmills for logs floated down the Muskegon River. Later as the State industrialized, factories replaced the sawmills. The legacy of the area is a body of water contaminated by toxic sediments, industrial waste, and the filling of shallow water habitat and wetlands.
In 1985 local residents, community groups, and governmental agencies began to work together to restore the Lake, its shoreline, and adjacent wetlands and wildlife habitat. The Great Lakes Commission-which I Chair, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality have joined the partnership to provide financial assistance in the cleanup of this toxic hotspot. In fact, it is one of 31 US Areas of Concern identified by the US-Canada Water Quality Agreement.
At the event, NOAA presented the Great Lakes Commission with a check for $50,000 for engineering work for several habitat restoration sites on Muskegon Lake. Steve Warmington, Mayor of Muskegon, welcomed the crowd of about 80 on lookers. Cynthia Price, Chair of Muskegon Lake Watershed Partnership, recalled the history of the restoration project and the groups that had participated in it. Jennifer Wallace, Manager of NOAA's Great Lakes Restoration Program presented the check to myself and Matt Doss, the Policy Director of the Great Lakes Commission. The event concluded with a ceremonial tree planting on the banks of Lake Muskegon.
In all total, the full cost of the Muskegon Lake Restoration Project will be about $3.4 million. To give you a sense of how short the federal commitment falls, the President requested only $1.5 million for NOAA's Great Lakes Habitat Restoration Program throughout the entire region in Fiscal Year 2009. All the more reason for us to make our collective concern for the Great Lakes heard in 2008.
We ended our day in Traverse City at a picnic the Leelanau County Democratic Party put on for Dan Scripps, a candidate for the Michigan House. Dan came very close to defeating an incumbent House member two years ago. This year the House seat is an open seat, and enthusiasm for Dan's candidacy is running at a fever pitch. Dan is not only a great candidate, but he has a strong sense of the leadership Michigan needs to shape our future. No wonder northwest Lower Peninsula Democrats are excited!
