Taco Trucks, Teacher Talks, High School Hugs, and Bullriding

Everybody loves taco trucks and ice cream bikes, right?

You get great snacks right where you want them--outside the bars, in parks, next to your work places, on the bike paths, at the soccer games.

Plus it's a boost for capitalism, the free enterprise system and entrepreneurs.

Win-win-win.

Well, not quite.

Marquette now has two taco trucks--Dia de los Tacos and Senors' Food Truck--along with an ice cream bike--The Treat Trike--and almost everybody's happy with them.

Almost everybody.

Here's the problem. These scrappy, on-the-go businesses have to pay only for an inexpensive peddlers and hawkers license in Marquette. The bricks-and-mortar merchants, on the other hand, have to pay heavy property taxes.

So is it fair, say, for a taco truck or an ice cream bike to sell their products in direct competition with a nearby restaurant?

Still, you can't help but root for the little guy. Rick Rhoades Sr, for instance, just recently started up Senor's Food Truck. At 57, he was out of a job and he was known to make great Mexican food (he's part Mexican), so he said, what the hell, let's cook up some tacos, carnitas and quesadillas, and get our food out on the streets. And make a few bucks. Capitalism in its purest form.

Same thing with Dia de los Tacos, which has been around for a while and was recently voted to have the best tacos in the UP. The same also with The Treat Trike. Pedal your bike around town and offer up ice cream to walkers, bikers and beachgoers in need of refreshment.

The food truck industry is now a one billion dollar a year business and growing. One company in San Francisco actually sends out 150 trucks a week.

Of course, things are a bit more modest here in Marquette--two trucks and a trike--but we like the idea. Love it. It's small-town, it's personal, it's entrepreneurial, it's nostalgic. So let's encourage them.

We just have to make sure that, in our burst of enthusiasm for the little guys, we don't inadvertently squeeze out the merchants who are paying the big bucks to keep the city viable and prosperous.
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One week, you're up. The next week, you're down.

That's the update on the teacher contract talks. Superintendent Bill Saunders says he's disappointed with the lack of progress in Thursday's negotiations, especially after the optimism that arose with the previous week's talks.

No new talks are scheduled. That's not good.

Saunders says compensation for the district's 193 teachers remains a major stumbling block. The district's current offer calls for 4% base pay increases, but essentially no steps--in other words, no built-in increases for seniority and advanced education.

Previous offers had included reduced pay increases for steps, but with little or no overall pay increase.

Medical insurance and class size are also unresolved.

The administration's concern is a paltry 1.3% increase in state funding for the district for the next year. That gives the district only about $335,000 to play with. Not much.

Talk to the teachers and they'll tell you the money is there. The purse strings just have to be loosened.

This back-and-forth has been going on for a year with no resolution. Sad.
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Speaking of teachers, it'd be hard to top the poignancy of the graduation ceremony of the Marquette Alternative High School this week.

Twenty-seven students got their diplomas. These are kids who, for one reason or another, were struggling in the traditional high school setting.

But they finally made it, and the ceremony, at times, brought tears to your face even if you didn't know the kids.

The teachers, remarkably bright, fun and energetic, paid lengthy, emotional tributes to each of the students. The students reciprocated.

Plenty of hugs, plenty of tears and quivering lips. How many teachers say "I love you" to their students? Better yet, how many students say "I love you" to their teachers. You heard that a lot at this graduation.

Amid all the criticism of the American educational system, this was heart-warming.
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One of our most talented individuals in town is leaving Marquette.

Dave Poirier, who ran the video production house, Thunder and Lighting, has gotten an exciting and lucrative job broadcasting Professional Bullriders which airs on CBS.

He'll be the technical director for the broadcasts while also doing some occasional shooting and editing. He'll be based in Colorado but he'll be traveling a lot around the country. In fact, Professional Bullriders is now expanding to Brazil and China.

Poirier's originally from Lake Linden but for the last 15 years he's been working out of Marquette. His work has appeared on ESPN, PBS, Showtime, and the Sundance Channel, among others. He also produced the Doug Garrison Show locally and numerous TV commercials.

He's got some regrets leaving the UP but--big surprise!--it can be tough making a living up here. That, and the fact that his new job no longer requires him to tote around a couple hundred pounds of TV gear, were enough to attract him to Colorado.
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If you've made it out to the Marquette Golf Club, you've probably noticed that the greens, especially on the Heritage course, are in remarkably good shape.

In past years, some of them had been ravaged by ice.

This year was different. A nice, thick layer of snow settled on top of the greens early and never melted and re-froze into ice for the duration of the winter. When the snow did finally melt in the spring, the grass was fine.

In previous winters, the snow would melt, then refreeze directly on top of the greens. That's bad. To counteract the ice, Superintendent Craig Moore and his crew would throw down 50-75 pounds of sunflower seeds on each green to draw in the sun's heat and melt the ice. Sometimes it worked, sometimes not.

Makes you wonder who first figured out that sunflower seeds were an important tool in maintaining golf courses during the winter.


You got news? Email me at briancabell@gmail.com

Abortion Vigil, DDA Dilemma, Patient Golfers, and Das Steinhaus

 

Over the last week you may have noticed sign-holding demonstrators outside the Planned Parenthood offices on Third Street. They're from Forty Days for Life, an anti-abortion group. They'll be there for another month.

 

No incidents, no problems so far. Just a quiet, heartfelt protest.

 

The demonstrators say they've heard enthusiastic support from honking, passing motorists while also encountering a little opposition from the occasional, opinionated pedestrian. Nothing nasty, though.

 

And inside the clinic, workers say nearly every day, someone comes by with cookies, a salad or flowers to show support for what Planned Parenthood in Marquette does. One businesswoman has even pledged ten dollars a day to the organization for every day that the protest outside continues.

 

So it's a peaceful, respectful standoff between two groups that disagree on an extremely important issue. Kinda nice to see, especially when you consider that such disagreements in other places around the globe--like Iraq, Ukraine, Central Africa and China--frequently result in threats, assaults, jailing and even death.

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Let's hope the Farmers Market fracas that broke out last summer and continued into the winter is over.

A committee considering new rules for the market will present its proposals to the Downtown Development Authority board on Thursday.

Here's what to expect. An increase in the fees for each vendor, but nothing exorbitant. Last year, the fee worked out to less than three dollars per site each Saturday. It'll be more this year and, let's be frank, if you can't afford ten dollars a day for a vendor's fee, you probably don't have a viable business.

Between five and seven more vendors' sites will be opened up this year. That's good. There's been pent-up demand to sell at the market.

The set-up of the market will be different this year, hopefully to facilitate better traffic among the vendors.

Finally, (Controversy alert!!) there will likely be an opportunity for a vendor selling produce from downstate to set up at the market. This was the  issue, of course, that created a nasty dispute between Farmer Q's and local farmers last year and ultimately resulted in Farmer Q's closing up shop.

The DDA is in the difficult position of trying to please both the local farmers, who generally oppose competition from downstate, and local shoppers, who love the fresh produce from downstate.

Sure seems like the best and fairest solution is to allow downstate produce at the market unless and until it competes directly with local produce. Then it has to be pulled. Some local farmers say that's precisely what they'd like to see.

The new regulations should come out Thursday, the 13th. Applications for spots at the market can be submitted on Monday, the 17th.
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If you were hoping that this recent respite from our brutally cold winter was an indication that an early spring was on the way, well, good luck with that.

Weather guru Karl Bohnak says this winter weather pattern--long, frigid periods interrupted by a few days of relief--will likely continue through March into April.

Spring will probably arrive later than usual.

The problem is, the Pacific Ocean just south of Alaska is warm. That keeps Alaska warm, and in turn, keeps us cold. That's just the way it is, and it's going to stay that way.

Wonderful. Can't wait until summer arrives in September.

Something else that's notable. Even though it's been frigid, snowfall is actually down in Marquette County this winter. Like, about 30 inches below average at the Negaunee weather station.

There's still plenty of snow on the ground because the temperatures haven't allowed much melt (at least until Monday), but there hasn't been a serious system snowfall all winter. Just two inches here, five inches there. Nickel and dime stuff, Bohnak calls it. Strange winter.
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And how's the winter affected the Marquette Golf Club?

Surprisingly, it hasn't been too bad.

Craig Moore, the superintendent for the grounds, says they've checked and there appears to be no serious ice accumulation on the course. The heavy snow pack is protecting the grass. That's good news, although winter's not yet over. In past years, significant parts of the Heritage and Greywalls course were damaged because of ice.

When will Heritage open up? Likely in mid-April unless we get another unwelcome visit from the polar vortex. Greywalls will follow a couple weeks later.

As for the persistent and pesky rumors that the MGC is on shaky financial ground, office manager Amy Burdick says absolutely not.

Three straight years of profits, she says, and last year play on the two courses was up 10%, revenue was up 5%.

Membership dues are slow in arriving, as usual. Only 180 have coughed up their money so far; there were 575 paying members last year.

Maybe when we can actually see a blade of grass poking through the snow on the course and the temperature starts hovering above a balmy 40 degrees, we'll start thinking about golf.
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More on the winter theme.

Marquette's new and heralded German restaurant, Das Steinhaus, has made it through the slow season. The entrepreneur and chef Justin Fairbanks concedes there were a couple of dreadfully slow weeks in January, but business through December exceeded expectations, Valentines Day was a record for them, and business has clearly picked up in the last month.

Then, there's this: Das Steinhaus has added a lunch in the last few weeks, their Sunday brunch (sometimes featuring lobster benedict) has exploded in popularity, the staff has increased from 6 to 16 over the last several months, they're now making their own desserts and their creative cocktail selection is becoming legendary.

The NMU influence is substantial here. The staff includes two NMU grads and three current students. Fairbanks, himself, attended  NMU but never graduated when he found himself cooking more than studying. He ended up getting his education at the Institute of Culinary Education in Manhattan.

Oh, one more thing that you can't help but admire. Das Steinhaus offers 60 different beers, all craft beers or imports. You want a Bud Light or Miller Light? Sorry, they don't carry it. They'll steer you to something else.

German food's not for everybody--especially those who love fresh, crisp vegetables and lean, rare cuts of meat--but you can't help rooting for this place. It's local, it's ambitious, and it's different from every other restaurant in town.

You got news? Email me at briancabell@gmail.com