Students are beautifully for the holidays. So if you've not been there you might want to find an opportunity to get there and enjoy one of the things that really makes Belisle very special. And as I was waiting for today's meeting to start and scrolling through the attendees, it I was reminded of yet another mission moment and I've got to call this person out because he's part of what makes Bill owl what it is today too. And that is Mr. Joe Aiken. He is part of the arborist professional association and has done so much for the island over the years, whether it's a programming through the tree climbing event net that happens, or perhaps more significantly, his impact on the sawmill and the partnership that has really ensured that it it become a viable asset once again and I know he's worked very closely with our Amanda Treadwell and making that happen. So Joe, our hats are off to you and what better time of year to have an opportunity to thank you and really recognize how it's you and the many people like you that ensure that the mission of protecting, preserving and restoring enhancing everything that makes Belle Isle Incredibles continues. So let me check here to see if we're up to a quorum yet when we can officially call the meeting to order
books I don't think we're quite there yet. But with that said I will ask those of my colleagues who are present present to introduce themselves as required by the Open Meetings Act when meeting virtually we do need to introduce ourselves and also note where we are hailing from in this virtual setting. So I will start with that and then Mr. Dyk I'll move on to you. My name is Michelle Hodges. As I've already noted, and I today I'm in Grosse Pointe Park, Brad.
Brad Ditka city of Detroit and I'm in the city of Detroit mi opposite Erskine. Yay.
Good to see you bread and a Mr. Curtis.
Morning Michelle on bread. Mike Curtis calling in from wonderfully wet Detroit, Michigan and we can't wait till next month and we can actually meet in person again.
Well, that'd be great. And thank you for being an ally of that Mr. Curtis and all things good. I did hear from Miss woods. She's running just a few minutes late. So I expect that we'll have her on board soon. But for now, we will hold off on our action item which is Approval of the minutes as well as adoption of the 2023 meeting dates and move on to our presentations and I hope that Mr. Haas PACCAR one I hope I'm saying his name properly and also doesn't mind accelerating in the agenda here and is ready for us. Mr. Haas Bakker is with the Sierra Club of Southeast Michigan and he will be presenting to us today on the urban night sky place proposal. Does the DNR want to kick this off at all or should we go directly to Mr. Haas Bakker?
can just say a few things. Michelle, that's okay. Yes. Good morning. Good morning, everyone. We had we were approached by the security Sierra Club of wanting to make bill I wanted to first urban on night sky parks. With our Michigan state park system, we have a few in the state park system right now. The bow of course will become the first urban park and so they laid out a beautiful proposal to us. And so we just wanted to bring it to the BiPAC panel. So that you guys could hear we know we sent you out a earlier memo. And we wanted to let you guys hear what they were proposing. And then we'll move on from there. So Gerald with that I'll introduce Gerald and his team. I see Sally's on the call as well. So take it away, Gerald.
Thank you very much. Hello, everyone. I am Jerry house patcher. I'm the co chair of the Sierra Club Southeast Michigan group position I've held since 2015. In late 2019, the Detroit Audubon and Southeast Michigan group started an initiative does designate Belle Isle as an urban night sky place one of the six potential dark sky park designations under the International Dark Sky Association. Since that time, we've been joined by other groups namely, the Belle Isle Nature Center for the Zoological Society, Michigan dark skies, Michigan science Senator Warren Astronomical Society, and the Wayne State University fittest physics and astronomy department. Our first contact was with the DNR was made in May of 2020. And our presentation today of the initiative will be made by Ed CallKit, the interim chair of the Wayne State University Physics and Astronomy Department. You got it.
Here all if I could stop you for one moment one. Thank you educated me on how to say your name has patcher and I would just like to officially call our meeting to order. Mr. Denker. Would you like to introduce yourself, please?
Yeah, but Denker Sorry, I'm tardy this morning. President of Penske Corporation and located here in Bloomfield Hills.
You are absolutely fine, but thank you. Good to see you. Okay, back to our team. Go ahead. We look forward to hearing your presentation.
It looks like Ed may be frozen here. Sorry. I'm
back again. Apologies. Can you can you guys hear me? Okay. Thank you. Let me just share I want to just share my screen here so you can see the presentation.
Can you see the videos locked in it is Can you can you see my screen? No. No. Okay. Let me try
not sure if this will work or not, but sometimes when we're all streaming on our videos, we might have to just on video ourselves and let him try to take control
this might that might help.
And we're not getting any video or audio.
I'm sorry. Sorry about that. I'm back again. Okay, can you hear me?
Yes, we can hear you. We just were just your video is locked. Maybe go ahead without the slides.
Okay, yeah, I can do that.
Do you want to log out and log back in? We could go back to you.
Okay, that sounds good. That's perfect. Thank you. Sorry about that. I'll try. I'll try and restarting it and see if that will that will
help technologies
to recover and perhaps log in and out. And if our Concours d'Elegance team is prepared. The next agenda agenda item is brief our briefing on the proposed Concours d'Elegance and I believe we have Tara knops with us today to speak Tara Are you there?
All right, we will hold off on Tara as well. We can go back to our action item which is approval of the November 17 2022 meeting minutes I hope you all have had an I had an opportunity to review those. I would like to thank the team for preparing them. I know that's a tedious task and we appreciate your efforts. Is there a motion to approve? Move to approve? Moved by Curtis is there a second? Second? Seconded by Denker is there any discussion on the minutes
all right. All in favor? Aye. Aye. All right.
Is there an opponent here in opposition? No. Okay. Apologies. All right. We have approved meeting minutes from November 17 of 2022. We also have before us members of BiPAC proposed dates for 2023. You will note in there we do our regular monthly cycle. I believe there's one month that's out of the rotation just to provide for some conflicting meetings. And then of course we've also provided for an evening meeting so as to make certain we are engaged and in touch with our community and giving our community every opportunity to connect and to influence the future of Belle Isle Park. Are there any questions on the dates that are in front of you or potential conflicts? Hearing none, and motion would be in order to approve those.
Motion to approve the dates. The board
gankers seconded by Curtis. Any further discussion?
All in favor? Aye. Opposed okay. We
have our work. cut out for us next year with our slate of meeting dates look forward to accomplishing good things in that timeframe. We will now go back to presentations. Are either of our presenters ready to proceed or should we jump ahead in the agenda? Oh, that looks like a good sign. Okay, the floor is yours. Thank you
can muted
Okay, can you guys hear me now? Yes, yes. Okay. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you guys today. Apologies for technical issues. My name is Professor Ed CallKit. I'm Interim Chair in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Wayne State University. I'm an astronomer so I am interested in dark skies and being able to see that the beauty of the night sky and I'm part of this group that Jerry was talking about that who wants to get Belle Isle designated as an urban Nice Guy place. So I hope today is to introduce this idea to you and seek your support and his effort. So I want to spend a few minutes that say what the benefits of dark skies are, what an urban night sky place is. And then what we would need to do to be able to make to get bail out all this debt designation. If you have questions you are welcome to email me. I'm happy to share these slides afterwards with anyone who's interested. We will also have a short Frequently Asked Questions sheet that we can also share as well. I think Joe has already already described who we are. This was initially led by the Sierra Club of southeastern Michigan, Detroit Audubon. And there are a whole bunch of others of us who have been involved in the last few years. So you've probably heard the term the cost of light pollution. So what is light pollution and why is it a problem? Light pollution is simply wasted light that performs no functional tasks. So lights that are pointed up towards the sky and are not not lighting the ground. And as you can see from this, this view from above the Midwest region, Detroit really sticks out and as to all major urban areas is having a significant amount of light during the nighttime and this this is a problem that's going to be a problem for wildlife. So it's a threat to birds and insects. It's an issue for health and safety. More light is not necessarily safer, as I'll talk about. And of course, it's simply just a waste of energy. Michigan has actually been a leader, particularly DNR has been a leader in promoting dark skies and there are already a number of dark sky reserves across Michigan. As I'll talk a bit bit about later. This is an example of why one of the things that like light pollution can do and why it's a problem. It can significantly affect birds. Birds migrate at night. And light pollution means that there are significant numbers of collisions of birds with buildings and up to a billion birds a year are killed annually. Here's just an example of the birds from one building in one night during migration season in southeastern Michigan. So it can be a big problem. And there are a number of societies and groups in the region that promote lights, light pollution awareness to try and improve the health of birds. It's also issues for bats for insects, for even for fish spawning, so there's a big wildlife impact from from light pollution. Light pollution is also a safety issue. So more light is not necessarily more safe. Here's an example of bad lighting is actually particularly bright and glaring lighting that tenant is actually lighting up this tree here rather than lighting the sidewalk very well so it's creating a large shadows across the ground. So when this person is in the well lit area, you can clearly see them. In the next slide. This person is now standing in the shadows as hard as I see, in case you've not spotted them. They are standing right by the light lamppost, so more light doesn't necessarily make an area more safe. We're also all familiar with the fact that glare reduces visibility. I'm sure we've all driven down the road with that person who has the headlamps on full beam. And you know, it prevents you from seeing seeing the road clearly. Right. So lights that are poorly have poor directionality. And the glare prevents us from seeing things clearly. It's just an example of when you pluck out that glare you can then more clearly see people or things in the background. So the goal is not to necessarily remove lighting, but to improve lighting so that it's safe and functional and reduces light pollution as well. So there is an association called the International Dark Sky Association that promotes dark skies across the globe. They have a series of education and conservation programs and a range of things called the International Dark Sky places where you can get a place designated as being beneficial to dark skies. In Michigan already we have three Ida approved International Dark Sky parks. And we're looking to get her Sal IO, this new designation of urban night sky place and this will be the first urban night sky place in Michigan. So what is an urban night sky place? This is for a urban area and metro area where this place has a geographical situation that mitigates outdoor lighting. From neighborhood properties. It must allow public access for some time at night. And there has to be some public education program. So we think that Belle Isle is absolutely perfect to be designated as an urban landscape place. Of course, it's already an existing urban park and its natural location in the middle of the river. Means that is separated from the rest of the bright lights of the city. So it is already for an urban location. It has rapidly dark skies. There's already significant education programs on the island including a course Bella nature center that has programming at night and about nature. So Belisle is ideal to be designated as an urban light sky place, and this would have the benefit of attracting even more people to the park and raising awareness of dark skies.
So of course there are some
requirements to be able to get this designation that the main one is looking at the lighting and coming up with a plan to make the lighting compliant with the International Dark Sky Association requirements. So that really means having lights that are shielded and not glaring up into the sky having warmer color light bulbs, so red bulbs rather ready orangeade colored bulbs rather than the sort of bluer bulbs and will involve taking a venturi of all the lights that are under the jurisdiction of the DNR Bioparc and coming up with a plan to make them compliant with the ADA requirements. So other things that are needed. We have to do an education program on dark skies and this is something we're already doing. Our group has been working with the Balau Nature Center with Amy and Ryan there and between the Michigan between the Michigan Science Center Wednesday planetarium and the Balau Nature Center. We've already done several astronomy at night programs that have been hugely successful. We're planning more in the future. So that's something we're already doing and will perfectly fits into the plan. And there's some other things we have to have some signage which should be relatively easy to do, and submit annual reports. So what would good lighting on Belisle look like? Here's a nice example here at the indoor sports complex the lighting is shielded and warmer colors here's the bottom an example of something that we would need to fix is the green house building. And the solid glaring lights would need to have some shielding added to that make it more directional and make it compliant. So we have to go through come up with an event tree and figure out which lights need to be changed out
or updated.
Michigan DNR has is extremely supportive of this and have been supportive didn't really a leader across the country of promoting dark skies. It was the first DNR in the country to designate dark sky reserves. Michigan already has a number of state parks that are designated as dark sky reserves, as well as three parks have been designated as International Dark Sky places by the ADA. Dark Skies has bipartisan support in Michigan, Michigan Senate passed a resolution to make July 2021 at dark sky Awareness Month Governor Whitmer last year signed a bill to make designate April 22 30th 2022, dark sky week so there's Michigan has support dark skies. So that was really what I wanted to say lunch. Just want to thank you guys for for this opportunity to tell you about its effort to try and make Belle Island urban nightscape place thanks to the team at DNR, Mr. Floyd Mr. Pratt and Terrell, who we've been adding productive conversations with doing this should say that the International Dark Sky Association is very supportive of this. They actually think Carlisle is exactly the sort of place that they would like to be an urban night sky place. Group has an implementation plan to do this and really, we're here to raise awareness of this to you know, that we wanted to try and move ahead with this. Let stakeholders on Balau know about it, and we're seeking your support. So thank you.
Thank you very much. Well done. It's it's nice to hear more about this and to meet somebody and astronomers. That's pretty cool. So we're glad to have you here today. Other questions from members of the committee that you would like to ask?
Yeah, by doing by Danker here today my question I have is the by designating Belle Isle as you would like. Does that mean that visitors then will come and visit the park then as a result of being designated dark sky and that, that taps on to a second question the park closes at a certain hour during the evening. For a lot of reasons, obviously including resource requirements that the DNR has or does not have. Do you are you going to look for extending the hours the park opening based upon people coming during the night especially during the summertime when the doesn't get dark out until what 930 10 o'clock? So what do you what are your thoughts about those things? Those all affect obviously, the rules and engagement and also park resources?
Yes, so that it doesn't require that you that pocket simply open every night of the year. It can just be several several nights for specific events for instance. So you know, we've already done astronomy nights on Balaiah we typically we've been doing them in April and September October, which is a good time of the year. It's not too it's not too dark early enough that you can see things and so you can we can be over and done by 10pm When the park closes. So that so that's I don't think that's an issue. I think we can work within the way that the park operates already. In that sense, in terms of attracting people to the park. Yeah, absolutely. I think I think it will do but our dark there is dark sky tourism right people do go and try and find these dark sky locations. I think really the hope with being an urban Nice Guy places that it gets local people to come and appreciate the night sky and learn about the night sky Belisle.
Then my final question would be Thank you, by the way, would be you mentioned implementation plan. Does that plan mean that the DNR has to adjust those lighting requirements on the island for instance, you
mentioned you showed an example of the athletic field there. Do they have to make those changes? In advance of this thing being designated as a as a dark sky facility for is that part of the process? So by the time that we we submit the request to the IDI, two thirds of the lighting in the park has to be in compliance. So a number of the lights that we believe are already in compliance. And then there has to be a plan for the final third, to become in compliance. So we have to have an idea of how they're going to change them out and on what timescale they will be changed. So it would require some changing of lights on the island.
And then I asked the question to DNR is that is that something that's in your your bandwidth and in your scope of facilitation as well? I guess that's a question I'll ask to the Scotland team maybe now or respond afterwards.
Just so you know, but we have actually like the athletic complex has all LED lighting now. And as you know, the lighting on the island, it's all solar solar system that's in place, which actually meets a lot of the requirements for urban night sky within the park. So we've actually already started even before the presentation, looking at our lighting situation on the island, too,
but I think that was one of the huge selling points for us when they did come and present this early on. And I can't 2020 or something like that. It kind of fit into what we were moving towards in general on the island. So it was something that it thought it fit within our scope. And we felt like we could potentially get to where we needed to with some of the requirements. So
you're hitting all the right questions. Michael, I'm going to assume you had similar questions. Do you have something more to add?
Yeah, I just have a couple of other questions. You know, obviously, from the onset, it sounds like you know, a nice idea. But But I think we have to really look into this because there's going to be many, many different groups and different categories that are going to want to mold and change the island to how they would like to see it and we have to make sure that that it's the way that you know we need to satisfy the island user who's who's coming every day. I don't know if DNR has checked into the cost of doing this and checked into the the time it would take to do this. How does it affect the lighting on the island? Is it gonna is it gonna affect the users? More importantly, my question is, does it have to be the whole island? What if it was just the undeveloped half of the island to the to the east? Does that work?
I believe it just has to be the part the part that is under DNR jurisdiction. So things that are not on the DNR jurisdiction do not have to have compliant lights.
It's the whole island is under the banner.
But well,
the greenhouses are but otherwise it is I think
those are my only questions Michelle.
Thank you. Any other questions from BiPAC members?
I did.
Yes, sorry. Yes.
As far as like lighting with the greenhouses, those are under the city's total. I have no problem with changing those if that's the direction the DNR wants to go to. Personally, I love the idea. I am a nice guy fan. I've been to several nice guy parks in fact, I'm traveling to Namibia next September for the night sky parks in Namibia. So I'm a huge fan of lover. But as Michael said, I have to consider all all folks that attend to go to Belle Isle. If this is something that DNR feels they can work into their schedule and handle in their budget. I am a huge fan. So
thank you, Brad. I certainly support all the questions that have been asked and thoughts today I think we all agree this could be a wonderful thing. With that said there's the practical side so DNR not sure what the processes are what you're expecting from this body today but it sounds like before we could take any action to support it. We would need to understand the implications of that decision from a budget and priority standpoint and staff capacity. So just is DNR prepared to make a recommendation to this body as to what direction it thinks we should go today. And should that decision be made today? Are we or should we wait until January and we've had time to vet these questions?
Should Ron here just so you know, we set you bar we'll send you a clip from our website but which mentions a lot of things that were mentioned regarding other kind of state parks. But there is a state statute that allows that a dark sky preserve to be designated and so that's another layer that we would have to go through because just because it gets designated by some other body, it would have to be you know, fall under the existing statute which are like wilderness State Park and some of the others are already covered under that. But the point that you get out here and I think Karis mentioned there's some compliant areas, but one of the issues is going to come as the lights on the bridge coming across that quite vibrant now would change. But I think getting to Michael's point, I think it has to be really thought through and vetted to make sure that everyone understands the impact, and then what it costs to diminish the lighting or that kind of stuff. So we're not I don't think we're in a position to react. I think conceptually, it's a cool idea. I mean, we've done this before, it's no question, but we just need to know all the different dynamics to it so that that we have the whole you know, plan that connects with a concept. So it's something that I think might take a couple of months to kind of get it organized and then come back and go through it. And so everybody understands what, what this might be. And the other thing of course, is that you know, people you know, will have to figure out if we, you know, pub higher engaged the public users to to Michael's point, you know, how do we get thoughts from the public on that? You know, so that's, that's another piece of the puzzle, but, but anyway, generally I think conceptually it's good, but like any concept, there's always work that has to be done and impacts and that kind of stuff. So and then we'll the statute isn't anything to be afraid of. It's just, we just want to make sure everybody understands what that's about to so anyhow.
So generally, to summarize, what I'm hearing is this is one step in the review process. We're not prepared to take action today, although we're headed in the right direction. And so we should essentially table it for future consideration once the DNR has an opportunity to come back to us with additional information is that a fair direction? Ron?
Yes, absolutely.
Okay. How are my colleagues feeling about that? Is that a reasonable approach? Are there other thoughts we should get on the table?
Yeah, I think I think it's prudent for the to the DNR to lead us in the in the direction here I press Braddock. I support the the opportunity as well. But I think the DNR has been amended that this for us, we're not the experts here. It's the DNR relative to resources relative to requirements in terms of the process to be approved.
All right, because this wasn't necessarily noted as an action item, just a presentation I don't think we need a motion to table but we'll put it in the DNRs hands to bring it back to us when it's ready. Is that advice? I'll assume that's advisable unless I hear otherwise. I would like to thank Gerald and Edie and Sally for being with us today. Hopefully you feel that sense of support. We appreciate all of your efforts and look forward to hearing more and thank you for your leadership.
Thank you for taking the time to help us. Yes, thank you. Thank you.
Okay, moving on on the agenda. Here. Do we have our Concours d'Elegance team ready to go
I don't see them on the invitee list at all. That's being here.
Okay, so we will move Oh, I see. We've had Miss Woods join us summer. Would you like to introduce yourself? Good morning. Welcome.
Good morning, summer
Woods colleague from to Detroit, Wayne. Glad to be here.
Glad to have you. Okay, well Karis, based on that I'll leave it up to you to monitor the attendees list. And if at such time they do arrive, please interrupt us and we'll be sure to get that item on the moving forward and until that time, we will continue on with our updates which brings us to parks and recreation. Update with Mr. Olsen. Good morning, Ron.
Yeah, hello.
I really don't have any things mentioned. I mean, Michael mentioned the fact that next month, the plan is to is to reserve the in person activity.
park staff now at least and I feel like I've got it in a couple other areas. Now. You could turn my attention on the operation staff.
Right, you got your mic on. Right.
Well, I am. What notice what am I
I got it.
He got it. I got him I was but anyhow, yeah to resume the in person activity that are meetings I should say and we'll get have that in place. But other than that, I there's really nothing new to report. There's nothing that happened in the latter part of the lame duck period of the legislature. There was nothing that would impact what we do at all particularly Belisle. And so, and I already informed you about the changes in the I think you saw the the changes, temporary changes with some of the IT director I think are going over to Eagle for a while and, and temporary arrangements, but as far as operation and what goes on here, you'll things will go on as they as normal, there shouldn't be any, any big changes to expect one way or the other. So that's all I have, and I'm sure the staff have a variety of updates, but I'll leave it there.
Randy, did you make it sound like director I congers. It's a temporary appointment to Eagle or is gone. You
know, it's a temporary it's, it's just a it just happened one time before about six years ago, where the that at that time, the current DNR director went over and worked for about eight months and then DQ because it was an ego van and then came back so yes is a temporary situation. Pending whatever the governor chooses to do with the department but it's coined as temporary.
Okay, and in this place serving in the interim is Shannon lat. I believe she was a deputy prime. Now, we certainly would welcome an opportunity to connect with her and warmly welcome her and introduce her at a future meeting of BiPAC so please be sure to extend that. Congratulations to her and also that invitation to her. Let me run before we move on. Okay, Scott, Tom Karis. Joel Kira.
Staff can jump on this they're ready to go. Go ahead. Okay.
So I'll start with Tom didn't want to see that supplement say? If not, I'll just go into my presentation. Nope, go ahead. Okay. I just wanted to bring up some updates for you. First, as a reminder, the were all of our restaurants are closed for the season now, and will reopen in the month of April, weather dependent and so the bus stops seven restaurants open in the casino outside restaurants are open for use during the wintertime. I wanted to bring up an update on the lighting on the island. We are working with public lighting and also DTE and also electrician to try to see what can what we can do to get the lights back on. As you know what public lighting some of the all of the lighting was actually replaced with solar lighting. And so now those systems are no longer working. And so we're trying to come up with some solutions. We are one of the in RSI, we're looking at purchasing some updated solar lighting systems to have them installed so that we can at least have lighting around the island. And then if we can do half of that, then we'll look at the other half of trying to get the lighting going. So but the first step is to make sure that we're communicating with DTE and public lighting. Because under the island agreement, the lighting portion is their responsibility but we're also trying to work on our end to see what other solutions we can come up with to make sure that we can delight in going for the aquarium parking lot we are we are actually going to just install some type of flood lighting that will be attached to the bus stop southern shelter which will provide lighting for those that are parking in the aquarium lot at night. So my arranger Sean has been tasked with that to get that project completed for you. I like to take the minute to introduce our new accounting assistant Erica Compton as you all know, Terry moved on to him that and so Erica has been hired to replace Terry's position. And she's been with us a few weeks now and hopefully she's online so she can introduce herself.
Erica, you're out there today. Yes, I am. Good morning.
Okay, and then adduce yourself and tell them who you are and a little bit about yourself and
well, as you say, My name is Erica Compton and I'm the new accounting assistant. For Bell out and Milliken. I actually came from my background is in accounting and I worked as an accounting specialist for like the last six and a half years and so I've been here like three weeks and I am enjoying it and I'm happy to be a part of
the team. Excellent, welcome.
Thank you. I also wanted to touch a little bit on the traffic mobility plan. Amanda is going to give you a great presentation on it. But we've been having I think we had 17 Total meetings that were scheduled. And I just wanted to update that the beatings to discussions have been going really well. We're coming up with ideas on how to address some of the backups and and some of the other issues that are occurring as you come off the bridge and aren't to bail out for us. So these meetings are extremely important. If you haven't had an opportunity to join us for one of the meetings we do encourage you to do so. Because your opinion matters. And if you've got ideas that you want the group to consider, you know, now's the time to make that happen. So we still have several scheduled meetings for the rest of this month. And so we encourage you to try to link into one of those meetings to see what's going on and also be able to offer your opinion and also we met with MSU which I'm pretty sure Amanda will update you there as well. But we've met with the MSU students we've been working with them on coming up with solutions for the paddock area for future use. And you know, we were pretty pleased with a lot of the presentations that were presented to us for use of that paddock area. And the students were really focused and came up with some really good ideas that you'll get to see in Amanda's presentation. So you know again, if you have any opinions, you know this, you know, email us and let us know what you think about the presentations and in the future use that location. So with that, I'll turn it over to Joel and he'll give you the up to date information on what's going on in the park. Joel. Hey, good morning,
everybody. See some notes from the ground level here we got. We are still within our seasonal reduction. So Rangers are going into their layoffs and we're closing in on our smallest staffing of the year of course right centered on New Year's folks that are here are you know keeping up with keeping the park clean and safe. We're focusing a lot on our building maintenance and building picnic tables, things of that nature to get ready for the spring and summer. I'll just put a public service announcement out there remember to pack it in and pack it out. Seems like we still spend a lot of time picking up litter and moving trash so spread the word, keep it clean, help us do our jobs. That's much appreciated. We are trying to fill a few vacant positions that we have as a lead Ranger position that we're trying to fill another office assistant and a janitor that would hope to have all those filled by spring
and that's all I got. Thank you very much
anything else cares from your area or Joel or, if not other questions from our BiPAC members for the team before we move on to the law update
what did I say? You're all good. I'll
go I just want to say thank you to the to the team there. Thank you guys.
Yes Did oh thank you as well. I'm the transportation mobility study and engagement sessions. They have been extremely productive. Io Thomas and I have participated in most if not all of their 17 sessions. So very robust discussion. And I think good data is coming to the table both subjectively and objectively and quantitatively and qualitatively cares This is Amanda going to get further into that. And so the public knows where though when and where those remaining sessions are going to occur or is there somewhere on the website where that schedule is being contained and presented or what how do you recommend that folks on this call and elsewhere? gain that information?
She's going to talk about it but we will also send the links to the BiPAC panel so that so they know when the rest of the meetings are occurring.
And what about the public to will it will it be on the DNR social media or on the website the bow park.org Where can people go?
Yes, we will put that out so that the general public when we get to past all of the all of our island tenants and so forth, we'll put the public out the public announcement out so that the public can dial in to one of the meetings.
Okay, great. Thank you. And then you did mention the paddock and the fact that a team of MSU students is addressing that has Patrick Livingston been engaged in that many of you on the call probably remember Patrick in fact maybe he's even on the call but he's been passionate about a concept that he has thought through for the paddock and is presented it to us on multiple times are in has he been engaged in contacted?
Not to my knowledge? No, so I'm gonna say no to that right now. Well, we have talked we have spoken with Patrick. And so as you know, we've met with him and we do have this concept down what he would like to send out. And I do believe that Tom responded back to him with one of the emails as well.
Great. Thank you. Okay, um, thank you team. How about our law update is Lieutenant Becker available.
Morning. Good morning.
So, as we all know, we are on our reduced winter hours so we have not just one shift of officers out there per day. So, we are impacted a little bit lighter this time that time of year, just because there's less activity on the island. But everything's going normal and no major incidents report.
Good dudes. Great. Thank you, Lieutenant Becker. And is Lieutenant couturier on board Okay, um, I assume that means all as well from the Michigan State Police standpoint, then thank you to our law enforcement team. Any questions from BiPAC members? Okay, moving on to infrastructure updates. Amanda, good morning and welcome.
Hey, good morning everyone. This is Amanda Treadwell, the urban area field planner with DNR and just give me a minute to get this presentation up for you. Yes, and I will go through all the items that Kara has mentioned. We've gotten a lot of projects we're working through and many partners between our consultants and student efforts. So there's certainly a lot going on.
Or it's
like I might be having some of those connection issues Scott was talking about
before. Yeah, and
I will start with the AMA Scripps Whitcomb conservatory, ARPA project that's underway now. So if you've gone by there and all you can see all of the scaffolding up that's going around the exterior and interior now of the project. Alright, can you all see this? Okay. Oh, yep, we're good. Okay, thank you, Scott. Appreciate that.
Same thing, get this in. Presentation Mode for y'all. Okay. All right.
So, and also, I just wanted to share as well that there is a ARPA Project Tracker on the DNR website and if you're curious to see how these projects are progressing around the 103, state parks, Upper and Lower Peninsula, you can always check on there. And then we will be uploading photos regularly for the Scripps Whitcomb conservatory work. We're getting daily logs from the contractor there and I have some great photos to share with you a little bit further on about the progress there. And here we go are working their way around the dome up to the top. And once the scaffolding is completely enclosed on the exterior, they will wrap that up and then as I mentioned before, they are also working on the interior scaffolding. And here's a show you a couple photos of that. This is an elevation on the left showing this dance floor that will be constructed over the plants to protect them, insulate them and provide working service for the contractors moving forward. So this was a submittal we were reviewing this week. You can see here they're actually building this dance floor around some of the taller palms in the farmhouse and then that will be an enclosed as well to protect the plants there. So because we have this dance floor covering the top of the plants they are also installing lighting so there will be a system of LED lights that will be installed on the bottom of the dance floor and then on the underside of the boxes that will contain the plant materials that break through the dance floor. That's to supplement the daylight that won't be coming through the conservatory with the work going on. And so they will continue this work through January and then they will start the next phase which will be getting into glass removals and that will take up most of January with some abatement as well. So here's a few more exterior photos showing progress. You can see in the back this is how the staff will be accessed accessing the upper portions of the dome. And then here's a few interior pictures showing how intricate the scaffolding system is on the interior. The contractors are working closely with Jeremy camp our li horticulturist at the conservatory to work around the plans besides working around the plants, they have to construct the scaffolding so that it is working around the plant or walls that line the pathways throughout the conservatory. So there's a lot of detailed, careful work taking place in there to protect the plants and interior pieces of the Conservatory. Here's a like a broader picture of that dance floor that they're building at the top of the vertical portion of the dome and then you can see here they're working their way up to the top of the conservatory dome here. So and these are the two systems between the interior and exterior scaffolding, they are connected for stability. So it's the scaffolding itself is freestanding from the dome structure. So there are some glass pieces that obviously have to be removed as they make the connections for the structural piece being implemented now. So a lot of exciting work going on there. We have to thank the conservatory for their support as well. Pablo, the cat is big now. I hear really enjoying the aquarium since he's been kicked out of the Conservatory. He's got a wider range to explore. So although good safely enough, he's not so interested in the fish, so that's good. All right, moving on. So the casino roof project is wrapping up the DNR team we'll be reviewing those bid documents January 6 And then we will amortize that and get that project underway. Again, that's our second Arbor project $4.75 million budget to repair the roof that encompasses some structural repairs on the underside of the ceramic tiles where there's been deterioration and then new skylight for the beautiful stained glass ceiling and the second floor and then a new roof on the flat portion of the casino as well. There'll be some utility work we'll be removing the equipment that's located on top of what were formerly open. Terraces here. That HVAC handling equipment will be moved to the ground level and a screen wall will be built. So still an addition to structural repairs we'll also be improving the sight lines of the casino as we move forward with this project and as well that'll allow for better maintenance and easier access to those handling units. So concurrently with Christina roof design, we are also working with orbs on elevator modernization. And so that will be a new non proprietary system that we can bid out to different contractors won't be beholden to one specific management company to maintain the elevator. And then we will be connecting that system with the fire suppression system that was installed back in like 2018 there and then in addition, we'll be upgrading the finishes in the interior of that elevator. And they're chosen to be neutral and durable. So the cost for the elevator modernization is about $1.1 million. That's engineering and construction. And so that will be the majority of our fiscal 23 budget to get that done. But it's great that we'll be able to align these two projects and you know, minimize the amount of time that the facility is not open for public reservations. Let's do our probably longest project that we've got going on today does the handball court stabilization so because of additional funding required to address the failed roof support structure that we were not aware with initially issue and then having to work wait through annual budget to come through and fund those additional works. It's been a multi year project and then you know COVID delayed it by a bit but we are wrapping it up now. So RAM is the ICANN subcontractor working with WCI they have finished the masonry work you can see here in this field report where the masonry has been reappointed, where it's been replaced, and this deterioration was caused by the failed roof and drainage system in the building. So to ensure sustainability going forward. We've removed the drainage system we've removed the roofs we've shored up these walls here, this steel beam that's going across here when we removed the roof the contractor found that it wasn't even like tied in to the wall. It was just sitting there on top. So I think it's been a long way to get here but we'll have a much more stable structure moving forward that will not require long term maintenance in the future. So it's a little cold now to wrap this up. We'll have to finish the painting next spring and then as well the contractor will have some cables that were supposed to be in by summer those have not arrived yet. So when they are available the contractor will put in the cable stays and we will paint it next spring and then work with park staff and hype to clean this up. So hopefully we'll get folks laying in there again next summer when the weather warms up. I mentioned last month that we have some various hazardous material testing and abatement projects going on now. DNR is working with D TMB to secure proposals for an island wide testing project. We see we have 42 structures that we will be completing hazardous materials for this is just ensure that we have a full report the status of all buildings so some of these had not been tested before because they weren't open to the public or used by staff. But we will ensure that we have a full report for all buildings going forward as well. The casino recently had some abatement done was took place in the basement around some
fire sealants up around pipe fittings between walls in the basement that was removed and then there was some asbestos tile in the upper rooms that I was actually putting those out early. Those are the rooms under the HVAC handling equipment that will be moved. So that that was removed and then we are waiting for that testing report to come back to show that all is clear and then the will work with DNR staff to replace some of the floor tiles that were removed and do some interior work in there. And then staff will be able to get back in there and regularly maintain that building well was closed to the public. And then the boathouse did have a hazardous material report that was done. Maybe 20 years ago, we updated that and so Atlas who has state contract finished retesting that structure and we expect their final report by the end of the month. All right, moving along. Our park headquarters parking lot is done and paved and the lawn areas around the berm and perimeter of the building have been restored. So we're looking forward to working with Jeremy next spring to do some landscape planting around the building in the front and we'll look forward to welcoming guests next year with a new you know new front door all done and tidied up and just a few final items. The contractor is waiting for gates to come in. We'll have a gate installed at the entrance service gate into the back of the facility for staff and then some miscellaneous fencing. So we're glad to have this wrapped up for the park staff finally the dragger trail bid documents are complete and we will have our walkthrough for contractors who would like to bid on this project right the first of the year, so January 3, and then we anticipate that the resurfacing of this trail will be like a two week project. So we anticipate that probably taking place, February or March be before it warms up again. And then this week I walked through with our engineering consultant the phase two alignment for the phase two of the Wilson trail. So it hasn't changed a whole lot from the initial alignment. Just some tweaks here and there. And we'll be looking to bid that out. Early next year. All right, so just wanted to share also an update on the Belle Isle multi mobility study. As I mentioned previously, this kicked off in July and the park team has been working to process about a week's worth of intense data that was collected in July that include traffic hubs at 60. intersections. We had aerial photography for flights over the park for about five days. Hourly and they've stitched those pictures together to be able to get counts on where people were parking and what the traffic looks like coming onto the island. So there was a lot of information collected during that week in July that they are going through and analyzing and we'll continue to look at that data through the beginning of the year. So as Karis and Michelle mentioned, we've been holding stakeholder meetings through December. So we're reaching out to city agencies, our partners like the Detroit River Conservancy, and then cog and m dot staff l I'll conservancy stab DNR staff, the law enforcement folks and talking with people agreeing and presenting them that initial data analysis and then looking for feedback from the stakeholders as well. It's really important to work with our stakeholders to get contacts so as we move forward to bringing this study to the public and looking for public engagement. We are asking stakeholders for support and connecting us to community groups. So for Baghdad committee Amanda,
Amanda, you went mute
I'm sorry, I don't know how it wasn't touching anything.
Computer said
somebody accidentally is that my kid or wrap up? i Is that like, You have five seconds left?
We have we have play out music.
Oh, yeah, violin would be nicer. Okay, well, I will. Okay, I'll start to wrap this up. Yes, so happy to coordinate with any community groups that our BiPAC committee members might be able to put us in touch with. We want to work with the community to get this out to as many folks as possible. So the public survey will be online and ready for distribution January 9. We'll also be reaching out to some community groups in person to have you know, paper surveys that we can help fill them fill out the surveys and for folks who might not be able to get online to complete the survey. And then as well we'll have a web page up that will have information and links to the survey as well. All right. Again, we are here in the winter are processing the data and just getting ready to kick off outreach engagement with the community with the survey, and then we'll be reviewing the feedback that we receive on the surveys from the community and putting that together with the data. And this is going to be rolled into strategies that we'll be looking to present early next year. And those are the public meetings that Tom and Michelle and Karis were sharing with you all previously. So those will be we don't have dates for those meetings yet. But so stay tuned early next year. We'll have more information on that and be able to invite the community to those meetings as we move forward. So there'll be like a round one early and 23. And then we'll continue to refine, refine those strategies and recommendations based on feedback and come back again to the community or refine strategies and then we're we'll be looking to wrap this up. In about November next year. So think I might have shared this before but maybe you weren't at a previous meeting. You can see some of the ways in the data is being processed and looking at parking distribution on the island throughout the days in the summer. And so these maps just kind of illustrate where the concentration of parking is and where capacity is higher around the park in some areas over others. So and as well. Here's kind of a pre look at the Belle Isle multi mobility study. This will be a link on the Michigan DNR Belisle website and an opportunity for folks to get updates on the study and access to the survey survey. And like I mentioned before, we'll be working with our partners like MDOT and the BAC and SEM cog to have links to the survey to increase the distribution for
survey engagement
as well, the team We're really looking at wayfinding as well and not just vehicular circulation around the park but pedestrian and bike circulation and how to improve that access and circulation around the park. So the wayfinding will encompass vehicular circulation as well as the pedestrian and bicycle circulation and what we're like finding anecdotally is that folks, we'll there's even though the some of the features on these internal part of the park might be very close. It's very disjointed. You know, there's not a lot of, you know, connections that people are aware of between the facilities like how you know how close they are, might be a five minute walk from kids road to the aquarium, but it seems like it's further away. So we're looking for opportunities to once folks get to Belisle, maybe get out of their car, walk around a little bit more and just shift the experience to more pedestrian bicycle circulation as we move forward. So again, looking to increase the different modes of transportation to and around the park
and then you're muted again. Okay,
I will wrap up with just showing you a couple of fun images of the MSU study. That was done. We asked them to look at re imagining the paddock area. They did a great job layering the different elements into that space looking at connection again, kind of piggybacking off our mobility study now we asked them to look at different forms different modes of transportation that could connect people to this part of the park and sit in the rest of the park and so they looked at the historic aesthetic of the park. They looked at programming, they looked at sustainable development. And I think we they had some really great ideas. And I'll just share a couple here and I can I can send some more to Barb as well. She can get those up on the BiPAP website for those who want to dive a little bit deeper and just some of the ideas they had. But So again, these when we coordinate with the universities, projects on this, it's a great opportunity for the students to have like a real client like the DNR and, you know, learning what some like real constraints might be for design. Obviously budget isn't one of them. That's one of the benefits of the student but so well, we it is, I think a mutual Win Win between the DNR and the students. We get to introduce students to some great assets throughout the state and they get opera challenged by you know, sites like the Lyle that have a lot of opportunities. So it's a nice partnership we have with them, but not not by any means of course intended to be plans that we would be working for to move forward from but just a good opportunity to get the juices flowing and see what's possible in some of these spaces so
any questions?
Any questions for Amanda? Amanda, it's Mike Curtis.
Great presentation, as always, just had a question on how you do community outreach. Because I think you know, obviously it's important that there there's a little bit of a maybe perceived disconnect between Detroit and Belle Isle even though Belle Isle is Detroit. So I don't know, do you talk to for instance, Council President Mary Sheffield or council person and Leticia Johnson, who's whose districts are right along were Belisle. Is there a communication there?
Yes, we did invite all stuck all the council members to a meeting. Councilwoman Sheffield she was not able to attend. But we did have a representative from Don's and we did have an apologize I can't remember her name but we did have another council woman join us and so we're working with Eleanor Austral, who is a wonderful community engagement manager for this project and she's really great at reaching out and so just on that note, we will be coordinating with Don's and their distribution list to share the survey that way we'll be reaching out again to all the council members and their aides to work to either go in person to their sites, or some of them have virtual meetings that we will request to be on the agenda and then can share it that way. So we're working with MDOT and their community distribution lists. And so those are just a few of the con connections that have come out in these stakeholder meetings. And next month, I'd be happy to give a better comprehensive list of all the people that we're working with but we are reaching out to the community I think. Okay, now we've got a pretty good broad reach. But like I said, Mike, always happy to hear more folks that we should be connecting with. And if there's anyone you think that we shouldn't be, you know, working with we're happy to do that.
Thank you. Thank you, Michelle. I just Just a thought. I'm just wondering if we should if we should invite leave a five minutes slot open in our agenda every every every month for one of the city council members and they can pick and choose who they want to send or we can ask, well, we want but I really think that they need to be present. And, you know, they can tell us what they're doing and how it affects Belisle. And I think we have to have a start a dialogue there because quite honestly, there hasn't been other than our annual meetings at city council. We haven't had a council member come to any of our meetings and then we need to open it up for them I think.
Well And on that note that Conservancy and i know i Oh Thomas is on the call. We actively engaged with Detroit City Council as well. They were all invited for example to the birthday party. For the aquarium. We did have some staff representatives in attendance. And we're working to get regular one on ones with each of the members of council so we do work hard to engage some of their staff is represented through the done which is an acronym for Department of neighborhoods. On our Community Engagement Committee as well. So it can always be more can always be better. But I think we're certainly taking the steps that are necessary and can take this feedback back. I think the thought of giving them some agenda time is a great one. So I see that you've gone live so I know you're hearing this and we can follow up with that. Any other questions for Amanda? Thank you so much, Amanda. In before moving on to the conservancy update. Just one more question for the team, the DNR team and one just to thank you for sharing the document on procurement, the vendor and concessionaire process in advance of this meeting and in response to the last meeting were questions about how that process proceeds was discussed. And I know we at that time agreed that there would be a presentation to the BiPAC on that. So I would like to ask that despite having that information share that I think it's still important to do that at our January meeting so that the public is well aware of what that process is to So again, thank you for sharing that and I look forward to having that as an agenda item. In January and then and hopefully that meeting can take place on the dance floor in the conservatory. I think that would be a lot of fun with Papo. Just kidding, sort of. All right with that, I Oh, take it away and we look forward to hearing what's happening on the island. Ah, can you um, can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you and we can see your screen.
Okay. I'm trying to sorry. There was a new team's update I feel like it just changed since yesterday. So I'm trying to share my screen. Give me one second please. Okay, now Can everyone see the screen and just see December updates?
Yes, but there is a black square on top of it. What about your good?
Okay, so good morning, everyone. I did want to share just I know Amanda was trying to recall the name of the council members who represented I wanted to just share Councilwoman Santiago Romero was present there were a couple of other representatives but I just wanted to call that name because I think that's who she was trying to recall. And so December updates for Belle Isle. There's, as we know, of course with the cold weather the island tends to be a little quieter. And so there are just a couple of updates that I want to share. The first being that of course Belisle is a four season park. It continues to be active. And so my first reminder is that udaf garden again is a four seasons garden. It changes about every 11 to 14 days. Just with the plant growth, and so I would encourage you to check it out. The ludolph garden is open as long as Belisle is open, so that's 5am to 10pm Unless there's some sort of special event which we know. And so yes, please check out the lid off garden as it continues to change throughout the winter. The next thing I want to just remind everyone again, the nature center has reopened to the public. I have had the pleasure myself of attending the Astronomy Night. I think I mentioned that previously. That was mentioned earlier at the dark skies during the dark skies presentation. If you have not been to the nature center for one of their programs or just to see the newly renovated space, I encourage you to do so. And then you'll see listed here the programming that will occur throughout the the end of the year. So there's family nature hikes, some winter birding hikes. Nature tots is a program for toddlers so I believe it's a younger children around up to around two years old. And they are caretakers who are this event is catered to and so you'll be able to do some nature tots programming around animal tracks and looking for the various animals that are active in the winter seasons. And then there's some beginner nature journaling that programming that will take place and of course
is there a question? Okay,
and then of course remembering to take a look at overlooked which is an artistic interpretation installation that is over at the nature center and you can always visit their website for more information. The next is the Dawson Great Lakes museum as I've shared previously what their hours are, and they continue to be free for children under six $5 for adults and children and then $20 For a single household of up to six with parents and children. And so then just wanting to also highlight that there are a couple of days where there's free admission and then of course the special hours for the holidays and so free admission this upcoming Sunday which is December 18 and then open the 28th through 30th of December and then closed of course, the 24th 25th and then New Year's Eve in New Year's Day. And then just a reminder, moving into specifics about Bill I'll Conservancy, you can continue to schedule tours and special activities through our website, Christmas and end of year. Ours are similar to the Dawson we are closed Christmas Christmas Eve we will be closed January 21 and 23rd but open on the 23rd of December the 26th and and then open the 26th to the 31st. And then, of course a reminder that if you are interested in receiving the latest updates through text service, this is a DNR mdnr text service. That's everything from Island closures to other special updates. You should text Jim G M 2808. And then one last thing before we before we conclude Belle Isle Conservancy in partnership with Somerset collection has an opportunity for those of us who are shopping for this holiday season to support Belle Isle. And so if you happen to be at Somerset collection, there is an installation you can see on your screen, the Tiffany's, Andy Warhol inspired. It's a kind of a giant ornament. And it's one of only four in the world. And so if you happen to be at Somerset, you can stop by the lights and bites, and it's one of the $20 donation. We'll get you a selection or pour of wine and some small plates, and 100% of that donation will come to Belisle Conservancy, and that donation is $20. So, please do if you're out in the areas that buy and support Belisle and I can take any
questions. Thank you
I owe any questions for IO. Appreciate all of your efforts and your hard work all your IO The only thing I would add is that we if you're looking to do your end of your giving, our giving society as well as take sponsorship is a real tangible way to be able to contribute into and help sustain the park and in particular the aquarium going forward. And then I'd also suggest that you do your end of year or holiday shopping as well at the aquarium there's a wonderful accumulation are curated selection of gift items that are uniquely Belisle and are sure to delight the people in your life, including a stuffed axolotl, some of our octopus merchandise in that and other printed materials and the like. So we think you'll you'll, you'll find a treasure trove. All right, moving on in the agenda here we've got our final item and our most important item which is an opportunity to connect with our community. You certainly do impact our work hopefully you see that show up in the the outcomes of our work. I will remind you that you have three minutes to speak and share your thoughts and concerns. We will do our best to address any of those thoughts and concerns. Within that three minutes. It's not generally intended for back and forth dialogue. However, so we will be sure to connect you with whomever can assist you thereafter. And with that I we will get the timer going here. And let's see again. It's a little challenging to manage all of this but if you could raise your hand use the raise your hand function, we will be certain to recognize you and get you on the floor. So is there anyone who would like to share an update? Share a thought share a concern? Share a suggestion looking for those hands? I'm not seeing them. Another few
seconds you got to up right now?
I do okay, they're not showing up on Okay, now they're there. All right, Steven. Scott, do you need to go ahead the floor is yours please. Welcome by the way and good morning and thank you for joining us. Hi.
Thanks for having me. Um, my concern. So I've been on the island almost daily for the past 10 years. And I've been pretty happy with pretty much everything that Steve has done with managing and updating facilities. But My one concern is regarding the streetlights. And I know they're mentioned earlier, but since the new ones have been installed, I've never seen them operating the only times I've ever seen them they're flicker there's like one or two maybe and they're flickering. I've never actually seen all of them on and particularly when the island gets dark Now, earlier. It's kind of a concern when being out on the island. running or walking in. It's just pitch black for most of the island. Just doesn't feel safe. And so I was just curious what the if they're looking at getting other solar powered lights for the island, What's the guarantee that's not going to have the same result as the ones that are currently there because whatever lights that were on the island previously when the state took over, were functional. But these ones I've never seen in the last six years work. So I was just curious on that.
Yes, Steven, thank you so much for sharing that of course it is a concern. Health and safety issue. The DNR has reported that it is working with DTE as well as a contractor to address the matter and I believe Mr. Kerr, Mr. Floyd also indicated that there is some exploration into solar lighting as well so we are on it. But maybe DNR, you could put an email address or contact information in the chat so that you can work more closely with Stephen given the fact he in particular, he's a daily user that is invaluable input. So I will encourage that to happen. So he has a contact person and certainly, Steven if that. If we can't get that up there quickly enough. You as well as anybody are always welcome to reach out to myself or to IO. My email address is Hodges M HODGS M at Bell il conservancy.org. And I can certainly either work with you directly or facilitate on your behalf. So please do that. And thank you Karis. I see you've shared your contact information as well. Appreciate it. Anything else Stephen? You've got 41 seconds left.
That's all for me. Thanks.
All right. Happy holidays. Thank you. Okay, let me switch back here. Robin Heller, you are next on the rotation here the the floor is yours. Good morning and welcome.
Good morning. I just had a quick question. Is there any update about shiver on the river will it be held in the winter?
Thank you Robin for that of course. That's one of our long standing traditions. Does the DNR want to address that? If not,
well, I haven't received the yearly application but I will follow up with our Lisa Terrell to see if they have applied do that Sharon river this year, but keep in mind with the casino being closed for construction. That was their main location for their program. They may or may have found something different to do so but we'll follow up for you and we'll find out what's going on.
Thank you sir. This is idle. I just want to jump in ship on the river is going to happen. February 4 10 to three at the Dawson. Great, thank you. You're welcome. So just be on the lookout more information to follow.
Thank you I oh and Robin, thank you for all your leadership. She also serves on the bell conservancies board. We also have our chair Nancy Vela here with us today. We certainly appreciate all you do for the island. Thank you. Next up we have Jay W I'm sorry Jenna steel. Jenna. Good morning and welcome.
Good morning.
As you said my name is Jenna. I'm also Wayne State student and I work for the sustainability office at Wayne State and I just wanted to express my support for the urban night sky initiative as filarial as a student, we Belisle is this amazing natural ecosystem. We use it as a study place in a lot of my environmental science classes. So thank you for that and also the human health aspect of preserving the night sky, preserving energy, all of that good stuff. Again, just wanted to express my support.
Thank you Jenna, we appreciate that. That's certainly helpful. We will be studying this further. So feel free to submit anything you might have in writing to so we can document that. But thank you and go, go Wayne State. We love our partnerships with Wayne State and MSU. All right, J W Mitchell, you're up. Good morning. Welcome.
Good morning. Thank you
for allowing me this opportunity. Like the other gentleman, I'm out to the island on a regular basis for the last 3040 years. Sometimes when I come out the lights on the bridge or out some assuming that it's on a timer. By the time I get back around the lights are on. So I was going to suggest maybe put it on a photo sale. We're gonna come on when it gets dark out. So I would help to if there was a storm or something that you know the lights have come on automatically. I kind of like it dark out there. It's kind of fun when it gets foggy out and the visibility is not that great. Of course maybe that's just mean. Similar deer comes out more when it's like that. I've seen beers. Anyway, that's all I got. The other thing I did make a comment in the chat about participation. And I kind of think that if it was not early in the morning that maybe more would participate because nine o'clock. You know some people have businesses that they need to start up and try and be available at night and it's kind of a stretch. So anyway, that's all I have and thank you very much.
Thank you Mr. Mitchell. Yes, we do try to accommodate all we do have an evening meeting once a year and I will say it's not usually well attended. So I think we all need to do a better job of getting the word out on that. So please share with your friends and neighbors that opportunity because this is a great opportunity for dialogue. So we do really encourage people to be there. That's our August meeting. So please join us and please spread the word and thanks for all the great feedback. All right, um, I see your hand is up. Did you still need to speak did you have something more to add?
No, sorry. I'll put it down. I just wanted to respond to the question about shiver on the river.
Thank you prepared to do that. Are there any final members of the community who would like to speak I'm not seeing any hands at the moment.
Michelle, I also just wanted to address the lighting on the bridge too, just so you know lately, the last couple of weeks it's been kind of wonky with the construction going on across the other way. They've had to shut down the lights quite often due to that construction. So that might be part of it. But um, that has been contacting the public lighting authority to work on some of the intermittent outages on the bridge for the lighting because you're correct. It has been kind of wonky lately.
Let's good to know you're on at time and thank you for stepping in and sharing that information. All right. Well, with that we will close the public comment portion of the meeting and move into the final stage here. Mr. Curtis, I believe it's you and I left our other colleagues had other obligations do you have anything you'd like to leave us with?
Just Merry Christmas and a great healthy happy Holidays everybody and see you in person next year and be safe.
Do you know thank you all for another great year. We really value our DNR teammates and all that you do on behalf of the community as well as all who served the bowel Park advisory committee staff for the Conservancy and most importantly, our park users, especially those of you who take time to be with us at these meetings. That's another level of commitment and passion and love for Belisle that needs to be recognized and we appreciate you being part of the team and part of the family that loves Bella also, we look forward to a strong 2023 And as Mr. Curry said, finally meeting in person and enjoying one another's company and working in tandem to push forward so happy holidays and we'll see you all in 2023