Line 5 At the BOC Meeting!

A robust crowd of concerned citizens attended the Grand Traverse Co. Board of Commissioners meeting this morning in TC, protesting the resolution to support building the Line 5 tunnel put forward by Comm. Brad Jewett. Over twenty people spoke including Kelley Thayer, Deputy Dir. of FLOW, Emily Magnar of MLCV, Holly Byrd and Tom Peters from the Traverse City Band, Brenda Rusch and Berta Meserve of Indivisible Traverse City, as well as former Commissioner Tom Mair.

To the right we give photo space to all the speakers who spoke in favor of the Jewett/Embridge proposal.

People were outraged that the resolution to support the tunnel was even being raised considering that the GT BOC had endorsed a proposal supporting shutting down Line 5 in the past. Several called for the Chair, Rob Henschel to recuse himself from the vote as he sells gasoline at his hardware business. At the end of the comment period, Comm. Jewett removed the resolution until the next regular meeting when hopefully all Commissioners would be present. It was seconded by Comm. Coffia. Both Comm. Hundley and Comm. Wheelock were unable to attend today.

We were impressed by each and every one of the speakers, and we will be publishing on this blog space the complete statements of the those that provide written copies. They were all eloquent and worth hearing or reading.

The Record Eagle recorded, and 9&10 News filmed the public comment session. A video of the session will be posted at - http://www.upnorthmedia.org/govtv_gtcounty.asp.

One might ask why the commission would consume valuable time and resources to advance a proposal over which the county has no jurisdiction. Indeed, this question was asked but not answered in the meeting. It is noted that Embridge is a sponsor of the Michigan Counties Annual Conference that is being held in Grand Traverse County this month. Embridge appears to be soliciting support from individual counties. Should we follow the money?

Thanks to everyone who came and commented today demonstrating once again that this is what democracy looks like when everyday citizens stand up make their voices heard.