595 Revival, Hospital Feedback, Rahoi Settlement, Museum Collaboration, and Taco Mystery

COUNTY ROAD 595 ain't dead yet, not by a long shot.

The Marquette County Road Commission is getting ready to sue the Environmental Protection Agency which rejected the proposed 595 cut-through in northern Marquette County in 2013.

That's right, a county agency is going to be suing a federal agency

Interesting. And what's more interesting is that the money behind the lawsuit will be coming from private interests, specifically the timber industry.

State Senator Tom Casperson (Republican) is the man behind this unusual private-public collaboration, and State Representative John Kivela (Democrat), who's been privy to the talks, fully endorses the suit as well. They insist the EPA was just flat-out wrong in rejecting the proposed road.

Background: CR 595 was proposed in 2011 as a way for Kennecott Minerals to transport its ore from the Eagle Mine near Big Bay down to its mill near the old Humboldt mine--a 22 mile road that would have been a shortcut through wilderness and kept the heavy trucks away from Marquette, Negaunee and Ishpeming. It would also have been used by other trucks, loggers in particular.

It was a plan that had the full support of city and county officials, as well as US Senators Levin and Stabenow (Democrats) and Congressman Benishek (Republican) and Governor Snyder (Republican). Nearly a consensus.

Not quite. Environmental groups, including Save the Wild UP, opposed it, as did the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community....and ultimately, and most importantly, so did the EPA. The feds ruled that the road would be impinging on wetlands.

So County Road 595 died. Almost. Now its being revived, thanks to the efforts of Casperson and some county officials.

The recent accident involving a mining truck on CR 550 that tied up traffic for hours might generate more support for 595. None of us wants those big-ass trucks anywhere near town.

So the battle is back on. Environmentalists versus a business/government coalition that's well-funded and, to be honest, probably has more popular support than the environmentalists. Will that be enough to prevail over the EPA in court?

We'll see.
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REACTION CONTINUES TO come in from our roundtable discussion about the hospital three weeks ago.

Analytics tell us that more than 20,000 people, the overwhelming majority from Marquette County, have read the blog, which means nearly one in three residents here read it. More than 170 posted comments. It's fair to say we all care about our local hospital.

It was the first agenda item for the hospital's Leadership Meeting shortly after the blog was posted. No word on what was said or suggested at the meeting.

Otherwise, hospital executives are offering no official reaction except to say that "internal" discussions are taking place.

Oh, and CEO Ed Banos and Chief Nursing Officer Dagmar Raica brought in Jimmy Johns sandwiches to a group of nurses the day the blog was posted.

And the exodus of doctors from the hospital continues. Dr. Richard Rovin, a neurosurgeon, is the latest to close up shop.
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THE TRAGIC ROBIN Rahoi hit-and-run case has been settled in criminal court, and now it appears that it's nearing resolution in civil court, as well.

In fact, it'll be settled out-of-court for an undisclosed sum. The settlement will not be anything substantial, from what we're hearing, because there just wasn't much money to get.

Michael Nelson of Big Bay received a nine month jail sentence, plus two years probation, for the hit-and-run killing of Rahoi, an NMU employee, just about a year ago. Rahoi was walking along a dark road when she was struck by a vehicle driven by Nelson.

The vehicle left the scene. Rahoi was left to die.

Rahoi's three children had filed the civil suit, not because they were looking for big money or vengeance, according to their attorney Steve Pence, but because they were hoping Nelson would take responsibility for having taken their mother's life.

Nelson all along has insisted he never realized he had struck a human on that dark night.

So it goes.
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WHAT THE HECK happened to Ron's Taco Shop?

The little diner was in the process of relocating from Third Street to Washington Street downtown when suddenly, amid rumors, the move ground to a halt.

The last posting on Ron's Facebook page came way back on November 19th when the owners said they were working on the kitchen, the floors and the walls, with an anticipated opening around the Christmas holidays.

Not likely. The landlords at what was to be the new location now say they don't want to talk about Ron's.

The landlord at Ron's old location is still grumbling about unpaid bills.

And those of us who liked the fare at Ron's Taco Shop are searching instead for our beloved taco trucks.
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ONE OF DOWNTOWN'S stalwarts, Moonstone Gallery, is closing up shop on Wednesday, Christmas Eve.

Jeweler Ann Kuhnly says nine years is enough. She'll still be making her own jewelry and selling it at art fairs and such, but operating a store downtown is just not working for her. The last two years in particular, when we've supposedly been recovering from the recession, have been very tough.

Apparently the millionaires and billionaires who've watched their stock portfolios soar in recent years aren't buying moderately priced jewelry in Marquette.                                                                                        

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A TOTALLY DIFFERENT story right next door where Spice Merchants opened up just a couple of weeks ago.

Owner Mike Carl, positioned near an overheated cash register, tells us he's having trouble keeping his spices, teas, rubs, chocolates, soups and gifts in stock. The damn customers keep buying them.

It's been busier, he's been told, than even the Spice Merchants store in Traverse City.

We'll check back with him January 15. Here's guessing he'll likely have more time to talk next month. And the month after.
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THE OTHER NEW store in town, Great Turtle Toys, may be moving next door into the Childrens Museum.

Nothing's definite yet but Ben Nye, the store owner, is interested in taking over Sprouts, the less-than-successful store on the first floor of the museum.

Museum director Nheena Ittner would welcome some sort of collaboration with Nye, but the final decision, including the financial arrangements, would have to be approved by the museum's board.

If something is worked out, Nye's shop could be in the museum, under a new, as yet undetermined name, by the end of next month.

Nye's got plenty of ideas and energy. His pop-up store, Great Turtle Toys, has done steady business since he opened up a couple of weeks ago but his quickie lease will expire on January 1st. Now he wants to stay in town.

Seems like a good fit with the museum.


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

If you want to be notified when Word on the Street is posted, go to Word on the Street by Brian Cabell on Facebook and "like" it.

A No-Holds-Barred Conversation About Our Hospital

SOMETHING DIFFERENT THIS week.

Let's call it a candid conversation about our community's hospital, with the voices of people from the inside--employees who work at UP Health System Marquette, formerly known as Marquette General Hospital.

We've all heard the murmurings, mumblings and grumblings within the hospital over the past few years, and they seem to have gotten louder since Duke LifePoint took over. But understandably few of the hospital's nearly 2000 employees want to voice their criticism publicly. They worry that they might lose their jobs.

And the media, who have their own economic concerns, also seem reluctant to take on what is arguably the most powerful institution and business in the county.

So we'll take a crack at it.

A couple of notes first. The four employees who spoke to us did so anonymously. We'll call them Doctor A, Doctor B, Physician Assistant, and Nurse.

After we conclude with their comments, we'll get responses from hospital CEO Ed Banos.
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WHAT MANY OF us have heard anecdotally over the last couple of years, especially recently, is that doctors are leaving the hospital. Quitting. Bailing out.

"Absolutely," says Doctor A. "It's not normal turnover. Doctors are fed up. It hasn’t been good and now it's getting worse."

"There's definitely been a spike in 2014," Doctor B agrees. "People are always coming and going, but we’ve lost some key doctors recently, and many of them were people we spent a long time trying to recruit. A big part of it is a lack of respect. The administration makes it clear that everyone can be replaced at any time. You can hit the road if you don’t like it."

So what's caused the problem? Is Duke LifePoint the culprit here? Well, that may be a little simplistic and unfair.

"The transition to Duke LifePoint has been rocky," the Physician Assistant concedes. "But nonprofits are being bought up by for-profits all over the country. This kind of transitioning is taking place everywhere, not just in Marquette County. When you make changes like this, people get apprehensive because you wonder whether the administration is looking for people to cut."

The Nurse noticed the change almost immediately. "When Duke LifePoint took over, they told us we had to get our nursing budget under budget," she says. "Otherwise, we were told they'd start slashing the staff. They were threatening people. I have a lot of friends whose positions were eliminated and some of them were awesome people."

"Ed Banos recently told a meeting 'We're going to get rid of negative people,'" Doctor A explains. "That sure seemed like a threat. If we try to bring issues up, we're reprimanded, we're called naysayers. A nurse recently brought up a problem and she was called a troublemaker. But she was right!"

The Nurse has kinder words for the CEO. "I have seen Ed Banos around. He seems to be putting in an effort, but the rest of them (the administrators), we never see them. I don't even know who they are. And the problem is, they're making staffing decisions without knowing what it takes to work on the floor."

"Comunication is essential," the Physician Assistant tells us. "The senior administrators need to let us know what we're doing and why, and they should listen to us. They don't do that very well, especially the senior staff. We never see them."

Possibly the biggest problem, according to the four employees, lies in the fact that the hospital is now owned by a for-profit, out-of-state corporation.

"Every decision comes out of Tennessee now," Doctor B says. "That's made a huge difference."

 

"Our supervisors and managers here have no say," the Nurse agrees. "Nobody at the hospital has any say. Everybody is a number. Everybody is replaceable."

 

"We're now practicing corporate medicine," Doctor B continues. "It's all about money. It used to be, What can we do for the community's benefit? We used to feel that we had a medical mission. No more. That feeling is gone."

 

"It's all about money," Doctor A says. "See more patients, earn more money, but do it with less staff. What can we do about it? We can leave or we can do what they want. We have to see more patients, we have to make more money. We're being asked to make a profit on people's suffering."

 

The single, indisputable fact is that Duke LifePoint is in business to make money. It has to be concerned with the bottom line. That's the nature of the beast. Increasingly, whether we like it or not, that's American medicine in the twenty-first century.

 

"An administrator said to me, 'What can be done to increase your productivity and our revenue?'" the Physician Assistant tells us. "It’s that simple. We all realize that’s what they want and if we want to keep our jobs, that’s what we have to do."

 

"There's a constant pressure to see more patients," Doctor B says. "It’s always, 'Can you see two more?' We’ve always been encouraged to increase our patient load but now the emphasis has really changed. It's always 'Can you squeeze a few more in?'"

And for the doctors who aren't seeing enough patients, there can be consequences. Their performance and salary are determined by their total of Relative Value Units (RVU's) which takes into account the number of patients seen and the severity and complexity of the patients' conditions. Doctors are encouraged to boost their RVU's.

 

"And they have a scorecard at the end of the month," Doctor A explains. "The fewer the patients, the worse. Names and identities are attached to the scorecards, so everybody knows the score. They try to shame you. It's like churches that used to publicize who put how much into the offering plate."

 

So is there something wrong with encouraging doctors to be more productive?

 

"Absolutely," says Doctor A. "Patients get the idea that we have to hurry up because we have other patients waiting so when they're talking to us, they leave things out. And then we as doctors are going to miss something because of the pressure to hurry up."

 

Clearly, there is pressure--to see more patients, to make more money, to make certain the hospital is economically viable.

 

"It’s a competitive market," the Physician Assistant points out. "Duke LifePoint is worried about Aspirus. Its just like Walmart in competition with Target."

 

"There's a fear of Aspirus," Doctor A agrees, "a fear that Aspirus is stealing our patients. And that's a possibility because patients are fed up with the long lines, the long waits, and appointments that are too short. The lack of attention. I don't blame them."

 

The picture they paint isn't pretty, but they concede that this may not be just a local problem.

 

"For a city this size, this is a good hospital," the Physician Assistant tells us. "We're blessed to have the physicians and the technology we have. Yes, we have egos and problems, but that’s probably like everywhere else. My feeling is the major villain in all this is the insurance companies and federal government with Medicare and Medicaid. They force us to treat patients like numbers, not individual patients."

The doctors are less kind.

"The Hippocratic oath says nothing about money," Doctor A says. "We all swear by it, but that's not how we're allowed to practice." 

"I'm not really optimistic about the future," Doctor B says. "How can you recruit doctors to a damaged place full of bitter doctors?" 

 

And the Nurse has the final word. "The hospital today is not about taking care of people. It's all about big money, big business." She pauses. "You know, I love my work. I love taking care of people but everything has changed and it's sad. It's really sad."

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NO SURPRISE, CEO Ed Banos has a different take on what's happening at his hospital.

Unusually high turnover among doctors? Not really. "We've had some specialists who've decided to leave recently," he explains, "but overall turnover has been normal. And those who decided to leave left for good jobs." 

 

Banos says he and an outside group have done their best to gauge employees' morale, and their conclusion is that it's actually rising.

 

"This has been a busy summer and a busy fall, and people have been working a lot of hours, but overall I think we're doing well," he insists. "And our patient satisfaction scores are improving. When I came here a year and a half ago compared to now, our quality scores are up."

How about the criticism that Duke LifePoint is pushing the staff to see more and more patients?

"I'd like to say its like that in any business," he explains. "We’d like them to see more patients and serve more patients. There are standards in this business and we want our doctors to perform what a normal practice can do. We’re trying to stop patients from migration. We don't want them to go to Green Bay."

As for the charge that the hospital is trying to weed out staff members who are maybe...too negative, Banos doesn't deny it.

"We make thorough evaluations of all of our employees and we take those evaluations seriously," he says. "We have a commitment to quality. We want to make sure we’re all on the same page here. We want to act as a team. If not, then maybe some employees might find that they're not the right fit for our hospital."

He says he understands that transitions can be difficult and that he, himself, is still relatively new to the hospital, but he insists he's trying to build a positive relationship with his staff. 

"I can't get out and see all 2000 employees every month," he tells us. "I do structured rounds and informal rounds every month and and we have employee forums. I try to get out as much as possible, especially in departments under stress."

 So ultimately, why is there such vehement criticism of the hospital and the way it's now operated?

"I think it’s only a small minority who aren’t happy in their jobs," Banos concludes.

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SO THERE YOU have it. Two very different sides of the issue.

 

Now, you could conclude that the four employees, from different departments, are not representative of the rest of the hospital, and that maybe they're just whiners.

 

Or on the other hand, you could decide the CEO is oblivious or disingenuous, and Duke LifePoint is nothing but a cold-blooded, cold-hearted, money-grubbing corporation.

 

It goes without saying that all big businesses and all big institutions have problems. Employees are frequently critical of management. Who hasn't thought, at one time or another, that his or her boss was an idiot?

 

But the internal, critical noise does seem to be a little louder here. 

 

Transitions are tough. Maybe we'll get over it. A brand new, state-of-the-art hospital, still at least a couple of years away, will certainly help.

 

It's just that hospitals occupy such a special, unique place in their communities.
 

We care deeply about them because they take care of us. And this is our hospital in our community.

 

 

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

If you want to be notified when Word on the Street is posted, go to Word on the Street by Brian Cabell and "like" it.

 

 

  

Hospital Location, Recall Campaign, UP Culinary School, and Mining Journal Legal Threat

So now Duke LifePoint is down to the nitty-gritty of wheeling and dealing with the city, the township and the property owners over the future location of Marquette General Hospital.

It's been down to three possible locations for at least a month--the Heritage Golf Course site, the so-called Roundhouse property, and the township property just off of Wright Street--and negotiations with the various property owners, public and private, are well underway.

When it finally announces the site winner, Duke LifePoint wants the property deals all signed and sealed, with no last minute snags.

Those "in the know" will tell you Duke LifePoint would prefer, all things being equal, that MGH stay in the city. The township disagrees and says their site is shovel-ready.

The Roundhouse site may not be shovel-ready, according to some sources. In fact, there's word that Duke LifePoint may want further remediation on the property--like another thick layer of soil--before it erects a $300 million hospital on the site.

Not only that, but Duke LifePoint may want further financial considerations in the deal.

The golf course site? The Marquette Golf Club has a nagging $4 million dollar debt. It would like to get out from under that burden, but even if Duke LifePoint agreed to that, would golf club members vote to split their golf facility in half? Greywalls 18 holes would be on one side of a huge, congested hospital complex, and a truncated Heritage course would be on the other.

Not terribly appealing, but then again, neither is a $4 million debt.

So that brings you back to the township property which seems like the simplest deal, even though some have voiced concern about the township's ability to provide infrastructure and services. Bull, say township officials.

Actually, both the city and township officials are staying remarkably tight-lipped on the whole process. They either don't know or they're not talking.

And Ed Banos, the Chief Executive Officer for MGH, meantime is badmouthing all three sites. None of them is ideal, he says, they're all lacking.

Kinda like three homely girls (or guys), but you gotta take one of them. There's probably some truth to it. There's probably also the wee hint of a negotiating ploy in there somewhere.
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The ill-conceived recall petition against three City Commissioners appears to be dead in the water.

The Board of Election Commissioners said the petition contained factual errors and couldn't proceed unless it was revised.

Problem is, Michael Neiger, who initiated the campaign, is now on his way to the Arctic Circle in northern Canada and won't be back for a couple of weeks. So he won't be doing any rewriting or resubmitting anytime soon.

Actually he's a fascinating guy. A 25 year veteran of the State Police who retired as a Detective Sergeant. Worked in a crime lab. Graduated NMU with a degree in criminal justice, got a PhD in political science from Wayne State. He's paddled all the way from here to the Arctic Ocean.

He does work for Michigan Backcountry Search and Rescue, and in fact, his expedition into the Arctic Circle over the next couple of weeks will be in search of two people who were murdered there over a half century ago.

Yeah, kind of an interesting guy.

His recall campaign was motivated by his desire to keep private development off the city's coastline. It now appears that the city commissioners fully intend to make the controversial boathouse publicly owned and operated. That, he concedes, eases his concerns. He'll have the next couple of weeks in the wilderness to think about it.
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A culinary school in the UP?

Yep. Not in Marquette but rather on the far east side of the UP in Hessel. The program director for the brand new Les Cheneaux Culinary School is NMU graduate Zach Schroeder.

The school, which starts up in September, will emphasize local farm-to-table products.

Local investors are now having the Hessel Bay Inn reconstructed to house the school which expects to enroll 12-14 students for the one year course. The Inn will also serve as a working restaurant where the students will get real-life experience.

Schroeder is now contacting restaurants throughout the UP as well as Lower Michigan to make certain his students get jobs when they graduate.

And Schroeder himself? He's only 27 but he's acquired experience at Upfront and Company in Marquette, at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island and the Drummond Island Resort and Conference Center, as well as downstate.

Now he's ready for a new challenge. Seems like he and the folks in Hessel are tapping into something--local food--that's getting bigger every day. The evidence is clear. Local farms here are expanding and increasing, the Food Coop just recently doubled in size, and The Marq, a farm-to-table restaurant on Baraga Avenue, will be opening later this summer.
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Coco's, which recently completed its outside deck, is becoming an appealing place to go on those sultry summer afternoons and evenings.

They're now featuring live music Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays and sometimes Sundays.

A great place for beachgoers, bicyclists and walkers to stop in for a drink or two and a bite to eat.

Coco's had been hoping to capitalize on its location across from the beach by setting up a sand volleyball court but was told by the city, no deal unless they constructed an eight foot fence around the court.

Huh? The court would be located a good distance away from the road but rules are rules. Coco's, after its recent renovation, doesn't have the money for the fence, at least for now so...no volleyball court.

Too bad. So it goes.
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Remember Hakem Dermish?

He was a young sportscaster for TV6 about 8-9 years ago. Well, if you're an avid ESPN watcher during the late or weekend hours, you've probably seen Hakem. He's made the bigtime. He'll likely to become more prominent on ESPN or other sports channels in the years ahead.

He's got a natural, fluid, likable style, something he showed here almost from day one. Some folks have it, most of us don't.

Other TV6 alums who are moving ahead in their careers:

Pooja Lodhia is in Houston.
Samantha Liebman and Noel McLaren are in New York.
Jerry Hume is in Orlando.
Kathy Kuretich is in Santa Luis Obispo, California.
Charlie Marlow is in St. Louis.
Phil DeCastro, Heather Sawaski, Gabrielle Mayes and Andrew Lacombe are in Green Bay.
Yona Gavino is in Milwaukee.
Natalie Jovonovich is in Dayton.
Emily Pace and Chris Abbotts (Website director) are married and in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
Emily Lampa is in Salisbury, Maryland.
Eric Kane and Gabriella DeLuca are in Norfolk.
Nikki Junewicz is in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
Nikki Davidson is in Des Moines.
Aaron Martin is in Roanoke.
David Fath (Fox UP) is in Charlotte.
Wesley Williams is in Monroe, Louisiana.
Brad Soroka (Fox UP) and Meagan Quigley (who are engaged) both recently left Jackson, Mississippi.

The list goes on and on. And it doesn't include some of the very best and smartest alumni who decided to leave the business in the last few years. It's a tough and demanding job, and not very conducive to building a strong marriage and happy family.
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No one's gone to court yet in the dispute between the Mining Journal and Marquette Social Scene, the young digital upstart.

Last week Mining Journal publisher Jim Reevs threatened to take legal action against Brice Burge, the editor of Marquette Social Scene, after Burge posted a way to work around the Mining Journal's new website paywall.

Burge didn't back down but he's had no subsequent contact with Reevs or any attorneys.

Oh, actually, he has heard from the Mining Journal. From a reporter. He's been asked questions about his candidacy for the City Commission. It's good to know the legal dispute isn't preventing the news department from doing their job.