Feature
Marquette's Wish
List for the 21st Century - Larry Chabot
As we anxiously contemplate
the bundle of a new month, year, decade, century and millennium, several
community leaders allowed us a peek at their wish lists for the early
2000s.
More Voters, More Advisors
Marquette's Frank Sciotto, a former firefighter with nearly thirty-eight
years of service before his 1985 retirement, has switched to fighting
political fires. He's in his twelfth and final year on the city commission
and his second term as mayor.
"I definitely want to see development of the lower
rail yards along the lake. This is part of our plan to purchase and
develop valuable properties to provide lots of green space, public
access and private development so that the property serves the public
well." This strip encompasses most of the area between Baraga
and Hampton Streets, from the lake to South Front. Total land within
the boundaries is twenty-seven acres.
Sciotto thinks the lower rail yards would fit in nicely
with the planned linear park, which will run from the lake to Fifth
Street after the old ore dock approaches have been removed. The linear
park will actually be a pathway and associated landscaping in a strip
about 50 feet wide
The mayor would also like to see continued improvement
of the city's infrastructure. "By that I mean water and sewer
lines, street work, curbs and gutters, sidewalks and parking,"
he said. "This is an on-going project. The recent South Front
rebuilding was part of this plan but there is lots to be done yet.
For instance, we have sewer lines over 100 years old which need replacing."
He also cited extending McClellan Avenue to Wright Street
as a north-south artery, plus completion of the missing pieces in
the bike-walk path. But the issue which really gets his attention
is citizen involvement at all levels of city government.
"We have several support committees for the city
commission," he said. "We need people to serve on these
boards. There are lots of vacancies right now, including some especially
critical ones. We need good people with good input. Don't wait for
the mayor to fill them! Come on forward—help us out!"
His pet peeve? "Low turnouts at city elections. Lately,
we've gotten really low turnouts—the last one was only ten percent.
When there's an election, come out and vote. It's your business that
we're conducting. My wish is for big turnouts at the polls!"
Arts and Parks
Talking with Phyllis Reynolds is a rich experience: she can define
a problem quickly, weigh the options, select the best one, and present
it for your consideration, all sprinkled with humor and frequent pleas
of "don't say I said that!". A long-time arts supporter
and philanthropist, Reynolds is a member of the First Nighters Club
(which supports Northern Michigan University's Forest Roberts Theatre)
and Friends of the Arts, among others.
"I wish we had better places for the arts. There's
one under study for NMU right now. There is so much good stuff stored
away for lack of exhibit space. The NMU Art Department is very good,
and we have lots of accomplished local artists, but the exhibit spaces
are small and scattered throughout the area."
She laments the lack of a performance hall for groups
like the Detroit Symphony, which sends only part of its orchestra
to the U.P. because there is no concert hall large enough to house
the entire group. She mentioned the recent Choral Society performances
at St. Peter's Cathedral. "Both shows were packed; it was fabulous,
which shows there is an audience for quality performances. How often
would such a venue be used? Increased arts appreciation and attendance
has to be another wish!
"Maybe there's an empty building which could serve
art, theater, dance recitals and so on. We're working on a smaller
room of 350 seats at Hedgcock Fieldhouse, and the new rehearsal hall
at Peter White Library will help. We need a place to show all of the
talent we have. It would be fun to have it on the lakeshore; there
are some big buildings going to waste down there."
She's passionate about heritage, too. "We throw too
much stuff out," she said. "I do it myself. I've been working
on family genealogies. It would be wonderful if the local genealogical
society could be housed in a place where members could help each other
and give guidance to people tracing their roots."
Another interest is Presque Isle Park, on whose advisory
committee she plays a role. "We are continually striving to preserve
the park as it was intended to be while making sure that the public
has access. We don't want it ruined. My husband Max was a great-grandson
of Peter White, who donated the park to the city and paid for the
access road. One hundred years later, we're still fighting the battle
to preserve the park."
Anxious Librarians
Heather Steltenpohl of the Peter White Public Library has a simple
wish on behalf of the patrons and staff: "We can hardly wait
to move into our new quarters!"
Now scheduled for move-in late next summer, the renovated
and expanded facility at North Front and Ridge streets will boast
63,000 square feet, more than double the size of the old library.
"We'll have three floors instead of two," said Steltenpohl,
"increased parking, a beautiful restoration of the original 1904
building, and a wonderful new addition to replace the 1958 annex,
which has been eliminated."
The library's service area has 36,000 people—half
of the county's population. Since the move to the north side of NMU's
campus during the renovation, patronage has fallen slightly because,
frankly, the temporary space is smaller, has fewer materials available
to the public, and is harder to find.
"We'll have a new community arts center, rehearsal
studio, a room with a stage, and a crafts studio for artisans. There
will be more computers, computer classes, computer services, and study
sky boxes with more natural lighting. New equipment will help us keep
current with technology. Youth and young adult service areas will
increase. Handicapped access includes an elevator. The art gallery
in the 1904 building will display collections on loan or from library
stock."
The library staff of thirty full- and part-timers probably
will be increased. Half of the $9 million renovation cost is being
paid through a bond issue and the other half through donations—which
are $330,000 short of the goal.
Paul Marin, library board president and a Marquette attorney,
has a unique vision of the library as it moves into year 2000. "I
see it as a living room for the city," he said, "where people
gather to talk and exchange ideas. There's comfortable seating, pictures
on walls, books in the shelves, music, computers in corners to tap
the Internet. If you ask ten people about the library, you'll get
ten different answers: One uses it to get videos, another for CDs,
another to read newspapers, still another for research, or to enter
the Internet, meet friends for story hour, browse the racks for new
books. It's an information repository for the community."
Time To Be Civil
Glenda Robinson, a Menominee native and NMU graduate with a degree
in English, has taught in Michigan, Maine and Canada. She's married
to Marquette native Bill Robinson, retired professor emeritus in biology
at NMU. She served in two different decades on the city planning commission
(for five years in the Seventies and for three-and-a-half in the Nineties),
three years on the Marquette city commission with a year as mayor,
and on numerous other boards and committees until health problems
arose. She served also on the Michigan Air Pollution Control Commission
by appointment from former Gov. William Milliken and the consent of
the Michigan Senate.
With a strong public service resume, her expectations
are both pertinent and piquant: "My wish is for more civility,
starting with older people setting the tone as an example for the
young. I think all of us must make more of an effort to avoid rudeness
and practice civility. If you are subject to rudeness as you grow
up, you may very well turn out to be rude yourself! Without civility,
fewer good people will enter public life. Continual name-calling and
questioning of the motives of honorable people will drive the talented
away from public service."
She has another wish: "I hope that individuals will
offer encouragement to those who strive to serve the public well,
by letting them know in various ways that one appreciates their efforts.
People should be encouraged to serve at all levels of government.
A word of support when you are serving on a public body is really
helpful—especially if we haven't voted your way but you recognize
an honest effort."
Robinson mentioned the sacrifices made by officeholders.
"You have to be civic-minded to do this, because it means more
work, more time away from home, being always open to public scrutiny.
So many of these positions are unpaid, low-paid, expenses-only or
volunteer. This may help account for the numerous vacancies. Men have
always considered it a responsibility to serve, but women are still
learning how necessary it is for them to come forward, and they need
encouragement to continue. You can help by setting up a campaign committee,
serving on an advisory group or offering to circulate petitions, for
a start."
These are all very important assignments. "Somebody
has to do it," said Robinson. "Somebody has to make the
rules and regulations to cover garbage pickup and traffic and zoning
and so on. If neutral citizens do not do it, the special interests
will. True, a lot of the work is mundane, everyday-type work, but
it's vitally important to bring both improvement and order to our
city."
Will Your Bank Still Be Here?
Ellwood Mattson thinks so. The retired but very busy ex-president
of both Michigan Financial Corporation and First National Bank of
Marquette now raises funds for NMU, is still on the school's Board
of Control (appointed by the Governor), and has a lakeshore park named
after him for his endless public service. Before discussing the future
of banking and finance, he smiled and cautioned that "I'm just
a depositor now—and a borrower. I'm no longer an officer or board
member of a bank.
"When banking started," he said, "you deposited
your money and drew a little interest; the bank lent your money to
others at higher interest, and made its living on the spread between
the two. But now people want their money to start growing right away
instead of slowly through interest, so they look for higher paying
instruments, and banking has changed accordingly.
"We will probably see less personal banking down
the road, with more automatic and electronic banking," he predicted.
"Customers will handle transactions through home computers. Banks
will pay more of your bills. Employers will deposit your pay directly
to your account, as Social Security and many employers already do.
Fewer checks will be written, meaning less paper and physical handling
of paper. Funds will move electronically from one place to another.
You will be more likely to have a personal banker assigned to you
for your banking needs. This will require highly-trained employees
who can meet these needs."
He noted that banks are moving into the insurance and
investment business, that trust services will grow as people search
for ways to protect their assets. "We will see more bank mergers.
This allows local banks to join other banks in funding larger projects.
That's one advantage of mergers. Another, with respect to the pending
takeover by Wells Fargo, will put MFC in the forefront of electronic
banking."
He feels that there will still be people there for personal
help and contact. "I think we'll have good banking in the U.P.
so people have nothing to fear there. Banks are still customer-driven."
The Job Market
Dr. Howard Swain has been a leader in both education and politics,
as head of NMU's Economics Department for 20 years and as a Marquette
mayor and city commissioner. An Iowa native and graduate of the University
of Iowa followed by a Ph.D. from UCLA, he still teaches at Northern
and keeps a sharp eye on economic trends.
"My general wish is for our current students at NMU
to get a good education, develop good job skills and a good work ethic,
and above all, be flexible! If they are ethical, educated and flexible,
they'll do alright, because employers still need good help.
"As we reach higher scales of income, we spend more
on travel, medical, legal and other non-manufactured items. The personal
service economy is growing while the production side is shrinking.
There's more Internet buying. Everybody expects Internet sales to
replace traditional buying, but I think we'll still shop locally because
you can handle the goods and it's a big social occasion.
"My next wish is for steady employment growth, but
we have to be reasonable in our expectations. Don't expect great bursts
of activity or revolutionary changes. Every town has its industrial
park to attract business. We may spend lots of money to move jobs
around with no net gain to the state or region because we're raiding
the neighbors. Many places have abandoned air bases and closed factories,
and we're competing with them.
"What can we offer? Lower wage scales, because many
people accept lower paying jobs in order to stay in such a desirable
area. This may give us an advantage, but a diversified economy needs
$16-an-hour jobs as well as the $6 ones.
"Should we give tax breaks to lure businesses? Someone
else has to make up the missing tax revenues. We have high fuel costs,
and are further from markets in both time and cost. The sad fact is
that our best export is labor; our people go elsewhere to find good
jobs. The good-paying natural resource jobs we relied on so long are
going elsewhere."
Tourism is big, and getting bigger. "With continued
prosperity, people are spending more on travel, on longer vacations.
But we must remember three things about a tourism-based economy: (1)
it generally pays low wages, (2) it's generally seasonal, and (3)
it's subject to downturns. This year's 'in' place could be next year's
'nowhere.' That's why we need products and services which enjoy a
steady demand."
Pitching In
Volunteering has become a wonderful pastime, and Marquette is in it
with gusto. Amy Poirier, who directs the Marquette County Volunteer
Center, is an Ishpeming native with a background in family and early
childhood education. She enjoyed a study-year in Finland while pursuing
a degree at NMU.
"We work with over 200 organizations and agencies
to provide volunteers for hospitals, senior centers special events,
and a wide variety of other groups. For instance, we provide car-parkers
and booth-sitters for Art on the Rocks. On Make a Difference Day—a
nationwide program held in late October—we send out over 1,000
volunteers."
Where do the requests come from? "People tell us
how many helpers they need and the skills they should have. We fill
their needs from our volunteer lists and our weekly notices in The
Mining Journal. We can only run a few ads each week because of space
limitations; if the need is critical, we'll repeat a request. Lately,
we've gotten good response to the ads right after they appear."
The agency usually can't respond to requests from individuals
but may help them if the request comes through an agency. The center
is a private, non-profit group living on grants and donations, including
an endowment through the Marquette Community Foundation and as a United
Way agency.
What's on Amy Poirier's wish list? "Definitely a
new computer," she says. "We have old ones with older software.
We also need a computer printer and paper, fax paper, ink for both,
any office items. We could use more volunteers in all categories,
including volunteers for our office. Anyone who loves to work with
children is welcome to help on the Dr. King Service Initiative in
January, where we promote literacy, cultural understanding and youth
service."
Do you have anything you'd like to donate, including time?
The center's in the Non-Profit Commons at 129 Baraga Street, e-mail
connectMQT@aol.com
Wishes For N.M.U.
Dr. Judith Bailey has an undergraduate de-gree from Coker College,
South Caro-lina,. and a Masters and E.D.D. from Virginia Tech. She
arrived from the University of Maine in 1997 to become Northern Mich-igan
University's first woman president.
Her wish list is tied to her goals for the school, but
she admits that change is hard to predict. "If I had a crystal
ball," she told Marquette Monthly, "people would be lined
up at my door! Changes are coming so fast —far faster than ever
before."
Wish One involves student access to learning and information.
"The greatest revolution in higher education involves the Internet
and telecommunications," she said. "Students arrive computer-literate
so they expect their campus to be wired. They expect the facilities
to be technologically sophisticated. A wired campus is a strong recruiting
tool."
But it takes more than that to produce what she calls
independent learners. Schools have to give students access to the
information they need, she says, but also train them to continue learning.
"Even if they remain in one job, that job will change, and they
won't be able to keep pace without continued learning."
How can people cope with the endless flood of information
washing over them? Bailey says we must learn to distinguish between
what's important to us and what isn't. "We have to continue to
learn, both on-campus and off-campus, through the web or mixed media
or person-to-person. Our job is to provide the opportunity and appropriate
media for people to learn. The teacher is like a coach: guiding people
in how to learn and designing the right courses.
"There must be more service-learning— those
projects which build character while helping others. We mustn't keep
so busy networking and telecommunicating that we ignore community
service. After all, volunteerism is an important part of learning
and living."
Wish Two is for student success, both in school and out.
"An independent learner is a lifelong learner," she said.
"Master your subjects, and those new subjects you will need.
The school's job is to enable lifelong independent learning. We have
to evaluate our teaching practices and validate the old while investigating
the new, tailored to the audience. The big questions are: how do we
accurately measure student success, and how well are we doing?"
She predicted that more and more students will graduate
without setting foot on campus. "About 1,100 of our 8,100 students
are not on campus," Dr. Bailey said, "and this number will
grow. We want to work with every major employer in the U.P., so that
you don't have to quit your job to 'go to Northern.' We already have
partnerships with Mead and Sara Lee."
She neatly summarized NMU's mission for the coming decades:
"We are committed to student access to our learning centers:
anytime, anyplace."
And In Conclusion....
Over 100 years ago, the U.S. Patent Office director lamented that
everything worthwhile had already been invented; his comments were
soon followed by the invention of the automobile, airplane, and motion
picture. IBM computer mogul Thomas J. Watson, who might have known
better, guessed that computer sales would eventually total "about
five." At the time, few challenged either prediction, because
the human mind has difficulty imagining fundamental changes in the
way things are.
The local leaders who share their wish lists in this issue
weren't thinking of inventions. Every one, without exception, wished
for improvements in the human condition. MM
