Like I said, that's the process. But the good news is that, you know, I don't want to be little $21 million versus 35. But I think that's a big step forward in terms of an investment. And it could also spark some leveraging from some other outside sources to But at any rate, that's what I have. And I don't know if anybody has questions, or maybe I didn't explain it very clearly. But I want to make sure you know what's going on.
Just to add to that, Mr. Olson, we did, as you said, have a very successful tour of the islands. Thank you to our DNR teammates for being part of that that included our legislators as well as House Speaker Tate and his staff. And in addition, we did conduct a day in Lansing where we met individually with legislators and have continued to stay in contact with them. I will say it House Speaker Tade has shown tremendous leadership and is working very hard on behalf of Belisle. And I think that just shows what an important asset he has to our community and how fortunate we are to have him. We're receiving very favorable indications. But nonetheless, we need to keep the pedal, pedal to the metal so to speak, to ensure that this gets to the finish line, and we're hearing similar timing that June is when this will likely be buttoned up and some of us will be at the Mackinac policy conference as well. And we can do additional advocacy there. Reverend peak. Mr. Curtis, do you have any questions for Mr. Olsen or anything to add on that topic? Good. Ron was good. I'm good. All right. Thank you, Ron. With that, we'll move on to our park update with Mr. Bisset and Mr. Floyd. Good morning to you both.
Morning. I'm gonna I'm gonna let Karis handle handle that part. He's got his thumb on the pulse.
Okay, well, good morning, everyone. Morning. Oh, well. I want to announce that we just hired another park ranger for name is Caitlin Brooks and she started this week. And she will work as a seasonal Ranger eight months seasonal ranger for us on the island. She's a recent graduate from Grand Valley State University as of April 30. And so we're pretty pleased to have her on she's been a previous worker, summer worker at island like recreation area. And so we're pretty pleased to have her here with us. We had the annual report to the city of Detroit, which I felt like well, they had some questions that they wanted us to provide some additional information which I sent that information last week. And so I've also in that letter invited the council out again, onto the island with the hope that we can have some boots on the ground to kind of show them all the improvements. And it's great to show a PowerPoint, but sometimes it's better to see to things in person. So I'm hoping that they take us up on our invitation. All of our restrooms are now open. The only one that's not open would be the athletic complex. So there's some additional parts that we needed to order for that building. But all of the other restaurants have been completed. And so we will start opening each restaurant, especially as we get closer to Memorial weekend. On the park, since we are getting quite a few users. Even as we have colder weather today, we're still getting quite a few users in the park. So we're doing a lot of litter pickup and it's it's been seven days a week that we're just out doing litter and making sure that the shelters are ready for use on weekends. I want to give a big up I know Tom's gonna talk about it a little bit here. But the staff was a ranger staff was able to get the scout fountain up and running. And so that's a very, very good thing for the public and in the community. One thing we're trying to do is actually trying to get a hold of Miss Helen Gentry because we would like her to come out and have an opportunity to fire up the fountain one day so we're working on that so hopefully she'll take us up on that invitation. The park booth now it is staffed daily. Seven days a week. You will see our staff all at the booth greeting our cars summers as they come in, and so revenue is is up. And so we're kind of recovering from the pandemic years. So it's good to see we've been able to get people hired and working on staff. So we're pretty happy about that. We also had a hit and run on the booth. Apparently, someone ran into the sunset booth. So we're working to, to get some repairs. So like the electrical was disconnected on the booth. And so we're taking cash only right now, our booths until we can get the credit card machines back up and running.
So we have been attending the monthly meetings for Metro Youth Day. The goal this year is to make this the biggest Metro Youth Day ever saw a lot of the sponsors are coming back, a lot of the volunteers have returned, we've had four meetings to date with the executive board. And so we're really working to make this a really big push, there's been a lot of recruitment with the young teenagers, and also with even the older kids. Because there was a lot of discussion at yesterday's meeting about you know, all the violence that's going on and, and you know, Metro Youth Day was centered around that. So we want to kind of push to have give kids another opportunity to get out and about and have those opportunities to participate in activities, meet with a lot of the college administrators and just have a full day out at Bella. We held the unit supervisor interviews on May 15. And so we got some individuals that we are checking the references on. And we will keep you up to date as we get closer to getting approval to hire that individual. We had our state worker training on May 11, and 12. So we have 27 individuals hire for the allow. And so we put all the all the employees through a training session for two days. And so that's been completed. So now you'll see individuals, we'll start seeing the ramp up of more people out in the field.
We will again be participating in the swim program sponsored and partner with the Metro park system. And so you will see that the press release should have gone out yesterday that will announce how to sign up. And it will take place at the beach at bail out. And it's been pretty successful through the years. And so we're looking forward to another good season of teaching young people how to swim. We had a vendor training that took place on April 24. Basically, we were highlighting a lot of the minority businesses to give them an opportunity and understanding how to sign up and be aware of all of the projects that are upcoming not only at Dell, but also throughout the state. So they they are now being taken through and pretty much we're walking them through how to sign a company up. And then they'll receive the information through email whenever there's a project that they may have listed. So we we had companies from landscaping to plumbing to electrical, we just wanted to spread it out a lot of construction companies to give individuals an opportunity. So we're going to build on that training. This was the first one that we've done. So we're looking at just do this annually so that we hit as many companies as possible.
I was leaving I just wanted to share that I was leaving the park late one evening, as I like to just kind of go out and drive through before I leave the park and the sports complex. I just wanted to just acknowledge the work that Ollie is doing over at the athletic complex. I have never seen that complex. Every phase of what he offers was packed and active. So the summer baseball leagues, the volleyball leagues, the pickleball leagues, the exercise station, the basketball courts, all were packed with individuals out of the athletic complex so that's a that's a big up to ollie and his game. And since we've been here to in eight years, I've never seen it that busy before. We will be participating in the Summer Youth Employment Program, it will start around the June time period. We have several groups that would like to do projects on that route. So we're have submitted a list of all the projects that will need to have done on the island. And so we'll have those groups that will be gathering in that June time period to help us here on the island. The events section we have, we're doing really well with events, even with the casino on the flint building closed. People are really getting creative with their weddings. And I think it's a good thing because they're discovering other parts of the park. Our shelters are reserved right now, every weekend, up until Labor Day at this point. People are still coming in to do other events, we've added some new events that you will see that we list out on our bill our website. So things are moving well. So the events are still up there. My numbers and and equality events. So so we're happy to see that. And that's my report. Good.
Thank you cares. Yes, please,
if I could just add that Barb did put in the chat of the meeting the PowerPoint for the annual report that was done for the city council so that folks can just click on that and take a look at it if they're interested
in is that also linked from fellow park.org? The website?
Correct. If you go to the michigan.gov. And look at BiPAC. It's under. If you scroll past the minutes down to the bottom is under other resources. And you'll see you can see previous reports as well.
So is that there's another website fell out? park.org. Is that separate? I think that was meant that's meant I'm sure that's managed by the state as well. Are they one in the same?
I believe they're linked together. Okay.
Great. All right. Thank you bar for doing that. Go ahead, Mike.
I'm sure. Yeah, I noticed that you that they said the annual report to city council already happened. We are normally notified of that. I don't think we got. Right. And I'd like to be able to have notification to be to be present for those. Did I miss that? I missed that.
All right. I see Tom taken a note. So no, did. I just assumed everybody was invited. So we will make certain that that happens in the future. And thank you for all your prep on that. Tom, as Amanda noted during our planning, they were the best slides ever. So nice job. All right. With that let's move on to the law update. I don't believe I see Lieutenant Cisco however, I do see Lieutenant couturier if he would like to take the mic you're on
Sorry, I'm working off my cell phone this morning. My iPads not working. So sorry. I missed out on the unexpected, crucial visit yesterday on bail. I'll be glad I got well that
the starting the holiday weekend. We're going to be staffing to troopers every day during the weekends and then also throughout the week. So we're excited to be back out there.
The episodes that we have nothing else to report.
Okay, I suppose that's good news. And you're right. And actually I was going to make freighters our mission moment today and hadn't quite done that. But that's part of why folks love coming to Belle Isle is to see the freighters, right they're graceful, they're grand, they're beautiful. They're commerce, they show our international waterway and they also choose to get grounded here right Lieutenant which is what happened yesterday. I'm sure everybody's reading the news. But I believe the newest Frater on the Great Lakes was grounded for four hours yesterday due to a power failure at least is the early suspicion of what might have happened but it might Google alerts were blowing up more than usual because of that. So we've made the news yet again. Hopefully folks got a chance to check that out. You get a very close up view. But thank you for all you do, Lieutenant we certainly appreciate your leadership and you keeping Belisle in great shape. Next item Mr Bisset back to the awesome Scott fountain. Mr. Becker Yes. Good morning. Sorry. Yeah, sorry,
Sergeant. Akerson and for Lieutenant Cisco. So as far as DNR law enforcement, we have switched over to our summer staffing. So we have shifts three, three, excuse me, 7am to 3pm. And then 3pm to 11pm. We have officers staffed out there, and then we will add more officers on the weekends throughout the summer. And then one other thing that we think parks division for throwing up those signs that have detect radar speed on vehicles, I think has made a difference. However, speed is still an issue. So we've stepped up our speed enforcement out there. And then, as far as the freighter goes, Yes, none of the DNR staff was involved with that that was really handled by the Coast Guard, because it's navigable water. So we didn't have any involvement in it, but it was quite a sight to see.
Great, thank you so much for being here today, Sergeant. All right. Any questions for our law enforcement team? Good job, keep it up. Right. Thank you. Okay, back to you, Tom.
Okay, I'm gonna give it a shot to try to share my PowerPoint here. Hopefully, you can see that. Yes, we can. All right. Boy, technology is working up in interlocking today. So we wanted to, you know, do just do a brief update on the Scott fountain. Obviously, many people know it was down for most of the summer, last year, had some significant improvements done to it. And so I wanted to highlight those and kind of explain what was done to it. And hopefully this slideshow does a good job of that. One, first give out a shout out to Robert Carpenter, who is our quote unquote, fountain expert. He's run the fountain for quite some time for the Grand Prix, and is a retired DTE expert as well. So he was great help with getting these improvements done for us. The Fountain itself since it was closed this past summer, has seen funding added for improvements from both the grand Premier and the state capital outlay funding, there was over $100,000 in plumbing and engineering, as well as electrical work done $14,000 in labeling and alignment with a new user manual, so that the DNR staff could obviously learn how to operate it based on those new improvements $32,000 in safety bulkheads for the lower bowl, which I'll show some photos of. And 323,000 was allocated to structural and masonry inspections and testing. So I just wanted to talk about some of the previous lighting. These are some of the things that we discovered as we're taking things apart. And so as removals began, you can see that there are some safety issues. When you look up close, for example, some of these light fixtures, were in the wet location type of light fixtures and connections were not made inside of junction boxes. So the junction box, the left center, you know, is obviously not in a watertight box. And you can see some of the corrosion as we're taking it apart, wiring connections made outside of junction boxes. And so bringing stuff back up to electrical code, shown in the picture all the new watertight and explosion proof lighting fixtures. What the photo doesn't tell you is that that conduit, that plastic conduit that you see running to all the lights was also replaced. All the conduit under the fountain was metal, and in some cases, either rusting or non watertight connections. As you know when you're underneath 100 year old fountain, you're going to have some sort of moisture at any given time. So that's very important for worker safety. The tunnels that lead to the underneath of the lower bowl. Basically when you go down the steps, there's a door that leads to a hallway that hallway has access ports underneath the lower bowl and in the event that that lower bowl failed, the mechanical room could have flooded and as you can see some of the lighting fixtures if they were submerged would have been problematic and and we all know that water and electricity don't matter. Next, so these bulkhead doors were installed. And now should there be any sort of failure, these openings are rated to hold back the water and protect workers. So that was a really good improvement, an entirely new manual was developed. And all the valves switches and controls are now properly labeled and painted and tagged for ease of operation. As I said before, once all the electrical improvements were done, the manual was updated to assist park staff with the ease of opening and closing the fountain each year. pictured in this photo is the main fountain column. So the picture on the left hand side shows the main water column going up to that center jet. You'll notice in several different locations, including the photo to the right, some of the new conduit and labels and some of the removal of some outlets that were in the lower space of the floors that would have been susceptible to water. So a lot of electrical improvements in that right. Any previous visitors to the service area, the fountain would certainly attest to the darkness that existed as you worked in the area. And now as you can see in the photos, it's well lit both for safety of the workers and identification of working components with the fountain. Again, the overhead lighting that you see in the photo on the left is all watertight, vapor proof lighting fixtures. So again, very significant improvement. The biggest and longest thing that was waited for was the old main panels. So you can see on the left hand side photo, the old service panel sat on the ground, we had extremely old control boxes, and the pictures even show things safety features like a drip pan that was placed above a junction box. So that stuff was all removed as you can see in the photos. And the left shows those brand new main panels that were installed on the wall and above ground level. They were also wired back to the improved DTE transformer and new service coming in. And again as you can see all brand new wiring all brand new conduit and lighting in that area. Pictured here are two of the three pumps that actually run the fountain and obviously new electrical service and wires run to those pumps. On the left are those excuse me, I guess it would be on the right are those electrical control panels and cabinets that run the pumps. So when a worker goes in, for example for the morning to turn on the fountain, now it's simply a matter of checking water levels. And then to switches on those cabinets, turn them on and hit the green button and the fountain is going so certainly some vast improvements with the overall operation of the fountain day to day. Still a lot of maintenance, a lot of cleaning is required. And obviously water testing and chemical balancing and the like but I myself on the Tuesday after mother's day went down and was able to watch it get turned on it was it was pretty easy compared to what we used to have to go through. So with that said, the fountain officially opened on Mother's Day, and obviously to great fanfare a lot of folks. I don't know if you can hear the volume but this is a video so the fountain is going right now. Still a little bit of work that needs to be done here or there but the overall function and operation of the main fountain is ready to go for the summer. The Rangers have been able to turn it on daily and starting Memorial Day weekend. It will be open a little bit later in the day as of right now, usually about seven 30 We have to shut it off due to staffing. But again, Memorial Day weekend, we'll have it back open in the evening and you can go out and watch the sunset. But rangers have been turning it on basically as soon as they get to the park in the morning and shutting it off about seven 730 at night. So that is kind of the brief update. I hope it answers a lot of the questions that folks may have had with why the fountain was off for as long as it was and you were able to see some of the significant improvements that were made already.
Yes, thank you very much for that visual show. It always helps to see Tom, and any questions from BiPAC. Members. Congratulations. Yes, sir. Tom, I think there's it might not hurt i to articulate the greater need as well. Problem not solved correctly. Would you label those improvements as short term band aids? Are they part of the bigger picture in the long term solution, as funds allow for the full restoration that is needed, which is significant and is in the millions of dollars. So maybe just make sure that community understands that this is I'll be at a significant step, still a baby step and the whole scheme of what really needs to happen to that fountain in order to protect it for the long term?
Correct. And as you saw on the one, slide, $323,000, there's been engineering and testing, there are several structural components that need significant attention. The lower bowl, obviously, when you're down there, you can see some water infiltration, that concrete is in need of attention. There are joints and mortar that need attention. There's still work to be done on the upper and lower cascades. But the main part and part of what was covered by the governor's proposal for the general fund budget, was that that stabilization of that lower bowl, which is of main concern, because if that were to give way obviously the fountain would not be able to operate. Yeah, these these repairs, were just operational repairs. There were no structural repairs done yet. And that is the most significant need.
Correct. Excellent. Thank you. Well, thank you very much for getting in operating. And I am it's kind of neat that that was done on Mother's Day. And I know at one point, I saw a photo of your staff team on the fountain and they looked fabulous, and obviously very proud of their work and care about Belisle and we certainly appreciate that. Okay, next on the agenda. We have our mobility study team up with a I would think I call it exciting update on what's being accomplished. So welcome, Amanda Treadwell, and Laurie Pollack and Courtney Piotroski. We're glad to have you today and looking forward to this report.
Thanks, Michelle. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for the opportunity to discuss the Belisle multimodal mobility study. And we're super excited to be involved with this project and to be able to share with you and an overview of the study findings and our recommended strategies for improving improving mobility and access on Belisle. So we know we have a lot to cover today and definitely want to hear your thoughts and input So Courtney and I are going to try to speed through this presentation in order to allow for time for discussion afterwards. And this study is being conducted in partnership with the DNR, vi c and m that team members include Amanda Treadwell who's the DNR project manager and urban field planner along with Charisse Floyd, manager of bile and Tom Bisset urban district supervisor from the BAC our team members include Michelle Hodges president and I Oh Thomas engagement coordinator. And I'd also like to introduce the consultant team. I'm worried pollack. I'm a traffic engineer with Wade trim. And I've been assisting Amanda by managing the project on the consulting side. Our team also includes Courtney Piotroski, who's a landscape landscape architect from living lab, and she'll be presenting the strategies today that the team has developed. The team also includes Scotland Sennheiser from weightroom, the UK royal from Living Lab, Laura Ostrow Nora Cox from the Greenway collaborative and Corbin for Wayfinding. Next slide, please. Here we ask you please add your name and organization to the chat box so we have a record of attendance when you get a chance. And for those not familiar with this study, we're conducting it in order to improve safety, access and ease of travel for all users of all modes. Over the years, big increases in visitor attendance has really impacted the ability to navigate around the park, particularly in those summer months with peak attendance and during events. This study is recommending a phased strategy for implementing sustainable improvements. to better manage all modes of travel circulation and parking, Belisle and with each strategy, we checked ourselves against the project goals to ensure all are being met with each move. These project goals include providing convenient access for all modes in a sustainable manner by reducing dependence on personal vehicles, while also improving capacity of visitors and parking. And this, in turn will improve the visitor experience and reduce the need for traffic management and enforcement. And we know there's a lot to accomplish during this meeting. We're going to start with a quick summary of what we've learned through the data and surveys and the stakeholder engagement. We'll review what we're calling the big seven plus strategies for meeting our project goals. And we hope to gather feedback from you to further refine our recommendations. So we're gonna start off with some of the key data takeaways. At the beginning of the study, we collected a variety of comprehensive data in order to really be able to quantify and understand all of the issues that the island is facing with access. We collected the majority of the data in July of 2022, which historically, July is the month that really has the most visitors to the island. We wanted to keep capture that peak period. Vehicle pedestrian and bike counts were collected at 60 intersections and driveways throughout the island, as well as Jefferson and Grand Boulevard for use and traffic modeling, and analyzing potential changes to the transportation network. And to get a good evaluation of traffic congestion and parking patterns and all the things that are happening, aerial photos, we thought were the best way to see. And so as part of the data collection 38 plane flights were made creating hourly aerial images of the island, which showed us where the congestion points and popular areas were. We also did some in person observations, and had discussions with the DNR and BAC staff. We also did an inventory of the regulatory and wayfinding signs via marketing stress control. And we collected a lot of all a lot of other data such as crash reports over the past 10 years, shelter attendance, plus users, parking and roadway conditions, and then public survey data as well. And all of this data was analyzed and ultimately found that circulation issues can be attributed to several main factors. First, there's a lot of visitor confusion about the toll booths and past past purchases. Secondly, access issues include vehicle queuing, motorists circling around looking for parking spaces, or the one way configurations of the roads and then figuring out how to navigate around them. And finally, traffic modeling for the peak conditions showed that most of the intersections did operate at acceptable levels of service. But the toll booths and the parking areas where the areas really having the most delays. Then the data also tells us that there definitely are parking demand gaps and over utilized parking at the popular areas especially during the most busy times. The operational and safety issues documented in the aerial photos included parking on the bike lanes, parking in the lawns, people blocking driveways and doing all kinds of interesting things. From the crash data and speaking to the law enforcement, we found other safety issues really due to confusion how to get places when people are speeding, especially in those areas with undefined why travel wings, and there is traffic control confusion, especially at the statute and so ruined Central. It was also found that connected and safe walking and biking infrastructure is lacking between the popular destinations throughout the park. And these next few slides are summarizing some of the key takeaways from the public survey. We wanted to hear from people who use the island that's going to be really important to learn from their experiences and help us to develop those strategies to improve travel and making it easier just to get around. And first and foremost. What we heard from the public and stakeholders is that people truly love Belle Isle is a special place and people really love visiting and they mentioned that in a lot most of the surveys. In addition to that they had some really good insights on improving the visitor experience transportation wise. So we heard that the toll booths are a key frustration and clear and we wayfinding signage would be desired. People also said that the one way roads are frustrating, confusing and inefficient. They had they had concerns about the bridge closures. They also mentioned there is excitement and support for additional modes of arrival, such as a ferry and an all off Island shuttle on but there really wasn't as much excitement about the island only shuttle. And people did note that it's difficult to find parking at certain areas, mostly mentioned was the beach aquarium and conservatory. They also mentioned there's misunderstandings and frustration over the Recreation Passport, and some noted concerns for pedestrian safety. And of the over 3000 people that responded to the public survey 42% are Detroit residents and people with zip codes adjacent to Belle Isle were represented well in the survey. As shown on the slide here. There were 31 responses from out of state visitors and 15 from Canadians. And then beyond Detroit, reloc, Grosse Pointe Ferndale and Oak Park folks were the next highest number of respondents. Some of the key findings surrounding transportation on the island include the fact that most people arrive by car which isn't a surprise 83% Well, 12% bike and 2% walk or run onto the island. And then once they get there, we found that people really do like to stay in visit for a while and nearly half of them staying one to two hours and 38% staying three to four hours. Most of these visitors already have a Recreation Passport, and they said that they know they're allowed to proceed on to the island without stopping at the booth since they have that passport. And most of the popular areas include the Conservatory, aquarium gardens and sunset point. But people also said they really liked the trails and open lawn areas as well. We also found people are interested and excited about ways other than their personal vehicle to get to the island and around.
As shown in the park pie chart. People do like to visit popular destinations but they also really like to look at the water. And they like to walk run and bike. And then other modes that people were interested in included shuttles outside of the island to get onto the island and then bike rentals, a possible ferry and potential additional bus service.
We also heard one of the biggest frustrations with 1/3 of the respondents building that the condition and the design of the existing roads and bike lanes were seen as an issue. And then 26% didn't really have any frustrations. And then some other frustrations that were noted. Some people had multiple frustrations, including condition or design of trails and sidewalks traffic use and the bridge closures. And based on all of the data analysis and findings, we developed seven big plus strategies, the plus with additional smaller strategies with big impacts in order to achieve a safer, welcoming and more accessible Belisle. The big seven plus strategies work together with a holistic approach, which we'll talk about each and a little bit further detail on upcoming slides. All of the strategies work together to improve mobility for all modes and have been checked against those goals that we mentioned at the beginning of the presentation. And the first strategy is intended to create a welcoming bridge and entry experience. entry from Jefferson and traveling over the bridge is really the first thing that people encounter and improving that experience. Experience is important as it really sets the stage for someone's visit to the island. And during popular times, especially nice summer weekends the bridge backup and closures are not only an issue for the visitors but also for law enforcement visitor visitor confusion, operations lanes in the passport issues are the main contributing factors to those backups on the toll booths. Also, improved pedestrian bike infrastructure is part of the strategy to improve the bridge experience. We hear it's not just cars and drivers. Entry improvements will help pedestrians and bikers feel more comfortable, safer and move efficiently onto the island. So one thing we looked at reconfiguring the lanes on the bridge could be made to include a separated pathway, where bikes and pads could be protected and can remain entirely separated from vehicles. The cross section of the bridge could be adjusted with pavement markings and other lower cost delineation to include enhanced access for walking and biking. With the separated modes. This really improves comfort levels for all users, where it could be uncomfortable for both motorists and bicyclists to be traveling so close together over the bridge. Then again reconfiguration of the lanes on the bridge can be tied into the trail where bikes and pads are protected. The configuration eliminates the conflict points between the vehicles and non motorized users, which really improves comfort levels and safety for almost. And one of the findings from the video footage the observations and talking with DNR staff is the confusion at the toll booth on the passport. And those people who are unsure or if they have questions or need to purchase it. They tend to block the left lane which is supposed to allow passholders to pass through without stopping. So advanced we finding and Lane use messaging really helped to alleviate some of those types of issues. And a combination of tools is needed to alert the motorists where they need to go ahead of time. Advanced information giving drivers enough time to make decisions such as overhead signs, lane markings, can provide the information to navigate those people into the correct areas. And the next big strategy is the one to two way conversion approach, which is really the key to improve safety and access by improving the visitors ease of navigating and providing the traffic calming effect to reduce the speeds. Again, the existing road road network combination of one way and two way roads was shown in the develop data evaluation and public and stakeholder engagement to be confusing for visitors and creating issues. And then reconfiguration of the lanes with a loop upon arrival, with one way traffic remaining on Sunset point where this area really already has really good traffic traffic calming elements. And with the on street parking facing the water, it's very popular area. The remaining roadways, as shown in blue will be configured with Two Way operations and some on street parking as well. And then the dashed line on central through the flat Woods represents limited access operation where the segment might be closed to vehicles at certain times. And now I'm gonna hand it off to Courtney to discuss further details regarding access and road configurations.
Thanks, Lori. We just wanted to share this, this historical aerial image, as you see the reconfigured road network. It really kind of references this geometry from earlier times. So just an interesting thing to keep in our minds as we look at the system through the rest of the slide deck. So transitioning to two way traffic for much of the network really simplifies movement through the island for folks traveling in vehicles, but also biking and walking in it kind of reorganizes things as you can see on this slide into into more traditional intersections in in somewhat of a street cred network. And we wanted to we want to start here to talk about how that improved network Bennett foots not only motorists, but non motorized users as well. And by non motorized, we mean folks on scooters and bikes and wheelchairs, walking, all of those all of those other opportunities to use and experience and visit the island, other than in your vehicle. So we started looking at opportunities, number one, to improve on street biking, and you'll see that with a protected bike lane on the loop, and as well as expanding the shared path that is been the beginnings of that a being implemented on island with an expansion to a 15 footpath allowing for users who might move slower on a bike or in a wheelchair, you know, folks with kids in tow, as well as walkers to have space to move slowly around the island. So that's what you'll see here and one of the most constrained sections of the strand. And then, let me go back to that. So this is coming right off of Sunset point one way loop. As I noted, it's constrained conditions. So it's one way each way along with the ankle parking looking at the water. And then the existing cross section does wide mount and two lane traffic and one way the the existing one way route will remain. And then the one way, one lane going the opposite direction. And there's a lot of precedent across the city. When we think of non motorized transportation networks and how we create walking easier walking and biking on the island. We want to connect to the entire the entire network across the city and its 15 foot shared bike and pedestrian path has has precedent, not only on the Dequindre Cut, but on the new Joe Lewis Greenway. So wanted to note that we're kind of aligning that with existing and proposed systems across the city. And then this gives you another look at kind of that overall network just to orient yourself here. Right. This shows how folks would would enter the may enter the island on a bike coming off the riverwalk from downtown. This This line shows a clean transition from the riverwalk without crossing traffic onto the islands. And using that loop to circumnavigate the edges. So a really a really nice transition without conflict with vehicles is to continue around the island on Lakeside. This is a one way or one lane each way along with that that single bike lane and shear path. On riverbank, we widened out again, bike lane angled parking. And there's some there's some increased space between the water's edge and riverbank to create an even wider opportunity for bikes and pedestrians to be off road and separated from each other. And again, this is if you watch the Joe Lewis Greenway going in this is a similar kind of cross section to a number of of those newly built segments. And then around sunset point, again, you'll continue that 15 foot shared path, the existing angled parking and this segment would have two lanes one way as noted in that plan view, you'll see this in the pink section, the transportation network for vehicles around sunset point already functions really well. And so that's retained in the plan. Central Avenue has, we're proposing that this section, this segment really be focused more on all users that cars use central as a very seen question in the chat. The 15 foot segment would be paved. It's currently an asphalt cross section and we would imagine it being expanded by another five feet in an asphalt pavement. So Central, looking at Central to beat to function more as a space to slowly find your parking space for picnicking and kids grow a promenade section that's used in street design and architecture. are classic architecture as is much of the design of Belisle. So to elevate a road to be for people, cyclists and vehicles, so in this cross section you'll see parking on the edges a single, navigable Lane each way for vehicles, and a lovely wide promenade, planted signage benches in the like insole grew. This segment would be one way each one lane each way, some parallel parking, and a 10 foot shared walk adjacent. And then we're proposing a segment between the aquarium and the Datsun museum to transition to pedestrian only promenade. It is this quite constrained at the bridge crossing for the amount of pedestrian cycling use between these museum amenities. And it's the opportunity to really elevate the connection between really well loved and well used areas to encourage folks to park in one spot when they visit the island and, and visit all of all the museums that conservatory and gardens on foot since they're close so close to each other. Lawyer Avenue has that same 15 foot shared path to wage traffic and parking. And there's precedent for this 15 foot path. In recent improvements outside of the aquarium and Conservancy, you'll see in this section right here, this is a 15 foot wide path with benches and trash receptacles off to the side. That's a really generous, lovely cross section. It holds a lot of you know, it has space for lots of folks to move between and gives you some context for that sort of nice generous connector for folks. And it really, it is a design indicator when we create a pathway that large to physically show folks that this is a main spine or with a main connector. And that coupled with wayfinding really starts to encourage movement on foot between amenities. This stuff VISTA has currently parking majority on one side of the road to support the athletic facilities. And as Karis mentioned earlier, those are really heavily used and incredibly popular place. So the proposal is to add some additional on street parking the opposite side of the road to facilitate that, as well as pedestrian and bike connection on one side. And we want to share as we you know envision in improved network how people may how we envision traffic moving onto the island and being dispersed across the network as opposed to the current situation where folks are really follow a very similar pathway onto the island. So this kind of delineates how folks may get to certain locations. An important note here is the toll booth location. And noting that some folks may take different routes, whether they are a pass holder or a first time visitor so to sunset points in the casino, and folks would probably take the same route, whether they were a first time visitor or Passholder. But when we start moving to the garden, and the aquarium conservatory, we may have some different signage and different routes for folks to pass through the toll booth as well as those who are recreation passholders to take a more direct route to their locations. So you'll you'll see two routes on some of these locations. One thing to really note as you kind of watch how we're anticipating folks moving to these popular on the island is that they become dispersed and that's really managing Fick and getting the traffic counts on each individual road. And something to note as well as you as we click through these slides is that we really are staying away from routing vehicles along Central Avenue with its emphasis on this the spine down the center of the island for pedestrians and and
cyclists as well as cars. We really want to keep that from being a three way and make it a space that you You had to to do your picnicking to visit kids row and other amenities. You'll note that access for pass holders, to places like the beach and the Yacht Club is is quite direct, and eliminates that long route around the island, which causes you know, some increased speeds and other kinds of unsafe driving habits.
So speaking of Central Avenue, and its elevation to being a space for all users, you know, right now the cross section on Central is quite wide. And even the spaces where there is a shared use, like the image on the right, there's just some inappropriate parking or use that we saw during data gathering and in our conversations with users. So really looking to elevate Central Avenue as a distinct space in and of itself, and if you look at this historic image, you know, Central Avenue is always a place for people to gather to congregate, and picnics. So we're really looking at how we can bring that back. Image of sort of an example of a street that would have this as a less Ramblas in Barcelona, a street that has the pedestrian space in the center flanked by tree canopy, and cars and parking out at the edges. This is kind of a an example image that might get your, your, your mind acclimated to some of the cross sections we're about to see. So imagine yourself walking from the just turned on Scott fountain, and heading up across the green space. This area is imagined to be a lovely wide walkway containing signage and benches tree lined. And if you remember that historic aerial image I pulled up earlier, it has just these these visuals, whether that's through lawn space down the streets with which lines of trees that we'd like to see reinstated. As you pass over the canal, and you had further north on the island, this is where the promenade and some traffic lanes would exist. This area would be imagined to have some pockets of parking along the edge as it moves through sort of the core picnic areas of the island. As you get into the central avenue, core, near the slide and kids row, you'll see the existing cross section allows for some angled parking through this area as well as travel lanes and our promenade. And as you head north past the zoo area, that parking gets limited to one side in the current configuration but could expand to both sides as changes happen at the existing su location. And then this is a segment that was shown as a dash line in flat Woods is currently a vehicle and cycling walking segment. We imagine that staying the same and being closed as this condition shows for bought walking and biking during some core days of the year or core seasons of the year. But limited access for vehicles and other times so that it can kind of function as appropriate during the time of the year. All right, so in all of this, we're acknowledging that there are some popular areas of the park and as Laurie mentioned earlier there the parking is over utilized creating a series of unsafe conditions and what's really what's what we really want to make sure that we're doing in that in this study is understanding what the demands are in these key areas and identifying the right sizing, the parking, providing all those other amenities to use non motorized transportation and addressing things like you see in this area where you've got, you know, the whole parking lot legally parked plus 16 illegally parked vehicles on the road. This is just for all of you who are familiar with it And this happens, you know on any warm, busy day during the summer at the beach. So what we've noted, these orange dots on the map show, the busy the busy and popular areas on the island I'm sure we're all familiar with a crowding at the beach, athletic facilities get very busy conservatory and aquarium as well. The casino area is a hotspot. And then there are some some spaces that are just really well used as far as picnicking and shelter use. The nature area is a popular space. And the iron Bell trailhead and access out to the lighthouse are all identifying through conversations with folks in our data gathering as important and popular spaces. So something interesting about that is they can feel really far apart, because of a lack of connected pedestrian and cycling networks and signage to let people know how really close these popular spaces and amenities are. This is a map that shows just how close each of these facilities is if you're on a bike, just a few minutes between a lot of the core activities on a bike. And if you're walking as well, it's really not that far, particularly if you're on the island to visit you know the museums and gardens and then hit the playground or the slide. It's all very close. But then networks have that non motorized network is just not as strong as we hoped it would be. So as a part of the seven big strategies, in all of these popular areas, we're looking at placing what we're calling mobility hubs. It's a place to park your car if you've if you've driven your your own personal vehicle to the island. You could you could catch the bus at any of these locations grab a scooter or potentially a bike share. It would include electric car charging stations, walking distance information, place to buy your Recreation Passport, if you haven't really all solidly connected through a non motorized network. We want to as a part of this balanced parking and remove parking that doesn't support these popular facilities as well as right sizing. The parking in these locations really do encourage folks to come to the if they're coming to the island in their own car to park once and use alternative modes to move around the island. So part of that strategy would be to migrate some of the parking that exists in the paddocks area and relocate that parking to these popular areas increasing the parking to meet building capacity user the data we found on how many folks are using it and then also to remove some underutilized road adjacent parking that exists around the island. And again relocate it to the places to support these popular facilities. These are some examples of what those mobility hubs could look like that can be spaces with signage, information. Mogo stations, this image shows just some some small signage This is not permanent, it's temporary. But it's an example of how we can really just start to show folks how easy it is to get to one place from one place to another, all connected to you know our bus system and improve nonmotorized system on the island. So just some examples of what some of these mobility hubs could look like. And then the type of micro mobility and connections to the greater system that could could occur. So we mentioned wayfinding and that once folks arrive, showing them how easy it is to get to places both driving your vehicle onto the island and making sure as you're crossing the bridge, you know where to go, you know where to head whether you need to purchase a Recreation Passport or you already have one. What we what we did in the data gathering section of this study was to look at all of the existing regulatory and wayfinding signage on the island and this is just a graphic of of the analysis and inventory of existing signage on the island.
So as a part of that work is currently in progress to focus on addressing an island wide brain ended wayfinding and signage system that addresses vehicular wayfinding and, and a system for bikes and pedestrians. It will also address regulatory wayfinding signage to make it really clear where folks should go and how to get to these important and popular spaces. So there is a consultant, Group Corp InDesign, who is working on this project. As a piece of the broader plan, we will keep you updated that is in the early stages. And we'll have I'm assuming over the next couple of months, some additional updates to share as they develop both the look and feel but also the plan itself. So beyond the car alternative modes, as we dive deeper into opportunities to access the island in different ways, we want to acknowledge that really the the challenge out on the island today is that it's it's a stressful place to be if you're riding a bike often, and a challenging place to navigate if you're on foot. So this is a map that shows the level of stress for cyclists. And as you can see, you know, the bridge and the Loop Road are, are tough for cyclists. As you can imagine, on a busy evening or weekend day, that conflict between cars that are going really quick. And cyclists is is a significant one. And the sidewalk network. This is a map of existing sidewalks and they're very disconnected. And some of that is that, you know, sidewalks have degraded over time, or facilities or connections, facilities have moved and not been those connections not been remade. So we want to make sure that those are strong, strong connections. And this is just kind of a fun as we do all of this work to bring all these modes of transportation to the island. We also want to look at you know, kind of historically what's happened and acknowledge the islands deep and rich history. So this is kind of a fun map to look at from 1948. They had a bus route. It had a canoe route, a ferry route and a pony route. And while we're probably not proposing ponies and canoes as modes of transportation on the island, this is a really interesting thing to look at, as there were opportunities to arrive on the island in different ways. Bus and ferry were options, as well as walking, and cycling. So this dives a little bit deeper into the that non motorized network. The gold lines on this map, show that network for folks walking and biking overlaid on the road network. And again, just referencing how quick and easy it really is to move between all the facilities on the island. And to do that, through the use of mobility hubs for folks who perhaps don't have their own bike with them, they can, they can visit the island. Or they can move around the island using some of the on island facilities. We're also proposing a new DT out bus route that would hit each and every mobility hub around the island offering folks the opportunity to take the bus onto the island to their favorite destination, but also to use the bus to move between facilities on the island. And then looked at in partnership with a number of other facilities up and down the river. By no means is this proposal indicating that the island should implement ferry access without a coordinated effort, a lot around all kinds of parks and destinations along the river. But we do know that those conversations are starting a lot amongst many park facilities along the river and want to ensure that we identify a strong spot on the island for ferry docking. And right now we think else improved additional mobility hub location and also be a place where ferry could service the island as a part of a broader network. And then finally, there are a series of smaller interventions that we think would have big impact and these can be short term interventions. that really create better safety and opportunities for mobility across the island. What we do know is that there's a lack of appropriate crosswalks and traffic controls at a lot of intersections and road crossings, there's some large turning radii. Often, those were part of the Grand Prix route. There are some extraneous payments associated with that. And then, as we know, from some of the flooding that's being remediated by the flatwoods project, we need to implement some green stormwater practices around the island. So to capture runoff from paved surfaces. So some examples of these sort of short term but big impact improvements are a pedestrian crosswalk. Here, there's not a there's not any pedestrian markings or sidewalk crossing from the conservatory to the museum. So you know, real clear space that people could walk back and forth, but there's not a safe and appropriate crossing. Here's an example of just a big turning radius that encourages speeding, and makes it really unsafe for a cyclist to cross this law, this very large space, they're not sure where cars are going to turn and what in what segment of that that intersection. And then we clearly have extraneous pavements as a part of the paddocks and some of the Grand Prix infrastructure that we could see removed, and replacing some of our pervious or just lawn spaces adjacent to parking with green stormwater infrastructure to capture the runoff from paved surfaces before it gets into the storm sewers or into the river. It does good things for drying out areas along the island as well as ensuring water quality in the river. And then information campaign Recreation Passport when we talked about public engagement, folks, there's a lot of confusion about the Recreation Passport. People don't know if they have it. They they're not sure how to how to buy it. There's really not a lot of options. Off Island. There's a misunderstanding that it that it doesn't just provide daily access to the island or even annual access to the island, but it provides access to all state parks. And there's some signage challenges around the toll booths. So our recommendations out of this plan is to improve promotion of the Recreation Passport in the park, basically an information campaign that make sure folks know that the Recreation Passport Holders can use the bypass lane and make their way to their destination. Making those passport purchases something that's available at all the mobility hubs using banners and kiosks, messaging boards to promote that purchase. And really let folks know that once they buy a Recreation Passport that they can use this to access all of the state parks. And then there's really I think the opportunity to do a broader outward facing Recreation Passport promotion project or program with some earned media, some advertising and other things just to remind really remind folks the value of this passport. And again, ensuring that they know that this is a an investment in your long access to recreation. I saw a few questions pop up, I think in the chat. Great. Amanda's been answering some of those. And let's see, there's another question about daily passes. There is not a daily pass to be there's just the Recreation Passport. There we go, Amanda sharing some more information. So this is a little bit of a preview of the presentation we'll be doing with stakeholders on June 2, and June 6. We'll be refining and advancing the plan a bit after that. This is kind of a midpoint presentation. And there will also be a public open house on the island on July 8. So those are some upcoming engagement activities. And I do see Hold on let me see someone has their hand up. Io.
Hi, hi, Laurie. Or Courtney. I'm sorry I didn't want to interrupt but I just wanted to call to attention. I think there's a daily pass But it's only for out of state books. And so I wanted to just ask if someone could clarify that.
Well, it looks like Amanda just commented on that and said, state residents only $13 for annual passports, all 103. Parks. So I think you may be right there. i
Yes, I believe it is correct that there is a daily pass for out of state visitors to the island. There is not one for residents of the state of Michigan. Oh, I'm sorry, Courtney. Go ahead. Oh,
I was just gonna know Amanda also noted, it's $13 passed. I don't know if I read that out. I'm trying to read her her comments, because she doesn't have a voice today.
Great, so there's more information there. Okay, we does that conclude your presentation? Courtney, did you want it sighs?
Okay. No, it does. And I apologize for how fast we went. But we wanted to get you a little preview during this meeting. And you'll probably get a slower and more thorough presentation during those stakeholder meetings if you'd like to join us.
Well, and similarly, that would be the place for active dialogue and discussion, correct less. So now I think if BiPAC members, which I believe it's just Michael and I now have any initial comments, you know, feel free to share that. But for real dialogue, come to one of those sessions, is what the recommendation is. And at least now your appetite has been wet. And you have a good sense of where this is going. And you can start formulating thoughts and concepts to share as part of those sessions. I hope that's an accurate representation of what you were hoping for. And with that, Michael, did you have any commentary or that that you would like to share at this point?
It was really, really phenomenal. I think it was eye opening? I think it's needed. And I'm glad that we got through this part. And I look forward to getting through the next part, the implementation of of getting all this done.
roadmap so to speak. You have to jump off I'm sorry. Okay. Thank you so much, Michael. I think we need to begin wrapping up. And thank you very much to Amanda, of course, sorry, you're not feeling well to Laurie to Courtney. For all of your efforts on this. Obviously, it's a huge undertaking, and it does set the stage for a future that will ensure everybody can get around Belisle efficiently effectively and in a modern way. And I love that old 1940s map is very cool, I can get a copy of that. Okay, we are going to forego the next item on our agenda, which is infrastructure updates to get back on time, and I think we've discussed the most important infrastructure items already anyway. So I'm sure that it'll come as disappointing news to some of you because it is usually the favorite part of the agenda. But nonetheless, we'll keep moving forward and move on to Valhalla conservancy updates which will be provided by my wonderful colleague IO Thomas. So go for it I'll
Good morning everyone. I'm trying to share my screen Give me just one second. Okay, let's see.
Okay, can you all see this where it says made update? Yes. Okay, perfect. So I just want to start by saying, I typically share the updates for the various islands stakeholders and then complete this presentation with the information specifically specific to Belisle Conservancy. So we'll start with Detroit Boat Club crew, you can learn to grow that registration is now the registration is also available and open for the adult masters racing team and that Registration closes on June 20. The classes are for ages 11 to adult and any information for those interested can be found at Detroit Boat Club crew.com. Just another reminder that the old off garden is indeed a four seasons park and you can visit as long as the island is open 5am to 10pm. And if you're interested in guided tours, there's a suggested $5 donation per member of the tour or participant of the tour and all of that information can be found head off garden Detroit that org. Tonight the Belle Isle Nature Center is hosting the nature at night series another installation and it's from five to 9pm and it gives participants chance to understand and explore how Bill Isles wildlife lives under the night sky. And so you have an opportunity for hikes and education, activities and just a bunch of engagement opportunities. And so I want to encourage people to check out that tonight but also to check out the many hikes, education programs, etc, that are occurring regularly at the nature center, and their website is listed here. A reminder that June 1, or actually more accurately, May 31. The Hours change at the Dawson Great Lakes museum. And so the hours will be Wednesday through Saturday 10am to 5pm and Sundays one to 5pm. I also want to just highlight that on Monday, May 29. The Dawson will be open from one to 5pm with free admission in observance of Memorial Day. Also want to bring attention to the woman up the watch theater performance on June 10. And then cap Detroit, which is June 26. Through the 30th for eight youth ages eight to 12. All of that information can be found on the Dawson Great Lakes website. Really proud to highlight that the polish the jewel Bill aisle legacy formerly legacy luncheon. But polish the jewel fundraiser for Bella conservancy will take place tonight beginning at 5:30pm. Also for those who are interested in the 10 year impact report presented by Bill aisle Conservancy. That information can be found on our website Bill aisle conservancy.org. We'd like to share some save the dates for those who are interested in engaging with our programming. We have community yoga, which will take place on Thursdays at 6pm beginning the June 1 I believe is the first Thursday in June. We also have sound bass with amplify outside. And so those are listed here community funding which will be July 23. I won't go through all of the details but just wanted to call a couple of things to your attention and of course, keep Belisle beautiful our stewardship program which takes place every third Saturday and every second Friday, April through September. Finally, just a reminder to check out the tech service and subscribe for the Indian our tech service, Jim 280888. If you have not already, it's a great way to get real time updates everything from closures and this information that's critical to your visit to Bill IO. And then for those who are interested in in a replay of the annual bill, I'll update you can find that listen on the City Council's website or excuse me, the city of Detroit website. I believe it's channel 10. You can scan this QR code here. And I believe the link is still in the chat for today's meeting. That's it. Thank you I
owe so much for that. I appreciate all you do to connect with the community and ensure that the community is connected to Belisle, please, no members of the community that IO is your go to with anything that you might have on your mind. So again, thank you I O, we will now move into our public comment portion of the meeting. Again, that's a primary purpose of this meeting to ensure that you have a voice and that it impacts the day to day operations of Belisle. You do have three minutes to share your thoughts, we will do our best to get you any answers you need within that timeframe. However, if it extends beyond that, or it's something more appropriate for offline to be efficient, then we will advise you accordingly. And with that, I will invite whoever might be interested to raise their hand we will set that timer please just state your name and where you hail from and I'm trying to I see Mr. Haas Bakker is here. I think you probably had your hand up first, but please go ahead. The floor is yours.
Thank you very much. I am Jerry Hess patcher and I'm the co chair of the Sierra Club Southeast Michigan group, which represents the all volunteer arm of the Sierra Club and Macomb, Wayne, Oakland and St. Clair counties. And we had our fourth event astronomy event on May 6. It was sponsored by the nature center with the Wayne State University planetarium and the Michigan Science Center. And it had been moved from the week before, which had been the statewide astronomy night because of cloudy skies. And amazingly, there were cloudy skies again, but we had a great event and we had a tremendous number of people. I didn't ask for the exact number but we had astronomers and biologists on hand that people could chat with we had it in And inflatable planetarium and the auditorium that you could visit inside. And it was pretty much about some eight feet tall, which was great. We had tabling both on the path behind the nature center and next in the under the tent. Next in the nature center. And we talked about, of course, being an astronomy event talked about why dark skies matter, and how to protect dark skies. And I was part of that I had my display was three different light bulbs, 20 700k 4,000k and 60 500k. And we had a light meter, so that kids could measure the temperature of the light. In other words, if it's warm, or if it was blue, white, and also the lumens, which was the brightness. So we had a lot of kid friendly activities. And this was a fourth in a series of events. The first one was on May 7 2022, for statewide Astronomy Night, then we had October 21 2022. And then we had opt outside on Black Fridays. So instead of going shopping, people came to the night to the nature center during the day and look through Sun telescopes gazing at the sun, which is really pretty interesting. So it's been a great boost for dark skies. And we hope that that continues. And also for nature, we have to remember that there's a nature aspect to the island, and that we need to protect, particularly the migrating birds, and also any of the other animals that are on the island. So thank you very much for your time.
Thank you very much for all you're doing. And I'm sorry, I missed your reschedule event. My plan was to go but something a family matter came up. But thank you, Jerry, for all you do. And I know you're one of our wonderful volunteers too. So you get kudos for that, too. All right, moving along. I see. We have Mr. Livingston, how are you, Patrick? Welcome.
Hey, doing okay. And first of all, I'd like to say I was really encouraged by the great presentation about the transportation study, and the many mobile usage potential for the island. So with that, I also saw that there was some reference to the repurposing of the paddock area, which I have addressed the group about in the past. And I'm just taking this time just to reiterate that desire that the paddock area be repurposed to more recreational or relaxation usage. But it also has the potential for usage in the multimodal study as an orientation center to the island. And I think that's something that when we talk about signage and talk about all of the attractions on Bill aisle, that there is a need for especially first time visitors or infrequent visitors to be able to have a point of reference for all of the attractions on the island and, and the best ways to get there. So I hope that the committee once it gets back into its work will keep in mind the repurposing of that area. And that it blends back into the natural landscape of the island, which was, I think, part of the fourth highest visited locations on the island, were those lawn spaces. So that is of high importance there. And I encourage the committee to to continue its work to make the paddock area more a natural part of the bell aisles of beauty in the future. With that, that concludes my comments for this time around. So thank you very much.
Thank you, Patrick. And thank you for your tenacity and commitment on this matter as well. I'm really appreciate the thoughts you've been bringing to the table over the last few years. I believe I connected you with the mobility team. It's been a while now. But hopefully that all of that feedback is in the queue and in the planning process. So thank you for that. And it's all about timing right. Maybe now we'll see something happen. Next, Mr. Castile. Good morning.
Yes. Good morning. Can you hear me? Yes. Okay. Yeah. Citizen in Livonia, Michigan, and I'm thrilled first of all three chairs are going to weigh traffic on Bill aisle. I think that in itself would do wonders to help a lot By the reason I'm here, I went visited the beautiful old walled garden. And I noticed the Nancy Brown Caroline there is now front and center with that public space there so beautifully designed, but the bills aren't working, I'd want to get some update on the status of the restoration of that beautiful tower. And how and find out more and so on.
Yes, I believe Mr. Castile, thank you for acknowledging that one. You know, one of the reasons for really wanting to have the out of garden Detroit there was that it would become a catalyst for restoration of other neighboring assets like the Peace Memorial, Carolina and, you know, bring attention to it like people have your like yourself, because it's a significant need. That is there it is, has some pretty serious structural issues. We did have dollars for a planning process, we, we thought those dollars would be adequate for a restoration as well, unfortunately, they were not. And this is probably like eight years ago, already. And I know as far as the so so of course, that's one of the needs that we have. And then I believe in terms of the chimes, there's an electrical issue that needs to be resolved. But the DNR is more than welcome to put an answer in the chat or if they want to chime in now as well to confirm that or to add anything to it. Certainly, they're welcome. But noted, and I think it adds to the experience to have those beautiful times there right when you're experiencing that incredible garden. So I know DNR is committed to getting it done. It's just a matter of how significant the issue is.
Is there is there any like girlfriends of the Nancy Braun, Caroline or anything? There's,
there's not but we have talked about uniting all of the strong women that have a history on villa, you know, descendants of Anna scripts would come descendants of Nancy Brown descendants of Albert Kahn, you know, Marshall, Frederick, and they are out there, you know, so it could be and then of course, we have all today's strong women. Right. Sarah, early our founder, Mary Wilson in the work she's done. The dome, Sherry cotton and her commitment. So we need to be loyal. Yes. And Nancy Brown would be certainly one of them. So I Oh, maybe you can help us track down Nancy's descendants. But, yes, we need to make something happen there. It's just all these freight trains are heading at us at different speeds. That's one of them. It's not about to hit us. Some of the others are. But once there's a burden hand, you know, maybe there's somebody out there who's really interested in making something happen there sooner rather than later. And then we can look at what the priority level is. But thank you for loving vile and coming to Belisle and for taking the time today to share your input. Thank you. Maybe you'll find you have some Nancy Brown DNA.
No, I I was very inspired to is based on seven religious services down there. Just a wonderful spiritual center, that that garden is between the old offset himself is between the peace to peace monuments, it's in really excellent. World class venue there. So needs to be
protected. And Nancy has a spiritual background as well. You know, she was holding prayer services on Belle Island. Yes. 1930s leading into the war, hoping to fend it off. And there were 10s of 1000s of people coming. So
that's why the tower was built. That's right exists. Thank you.
Thank you. Is there anybody else who would like to be heard today? If so please raise your hand. All right, all it looks like not. But we certainly appreciate you all being here today. Our next meeting is on June 15 at 9am. Please enjoy the island. Please enjoy your day and we'll see you all soon. We are adjourned at 1051 Thank you. Bye bye. Thank you.