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February 18, 2012

Parks, lodge say no to train

Mackinaw Crossings has submitted a formal proposal

BY BRIAN McGILLIVARY bmcgillivary@record-eagle.com

TRAVERSE CITY — Grand Traverse County parks commissioners don't want Traverse City's miniature train, and neither does an area lodge.

The county Parks and Recreation Commission voted 9-1 this week against submitting a proposal for the Spirit of Traverse City. The city decided to remove the bayfront train to accommodate planned park renovations, and some county officials expressed interest in moving the train to the Civic Center.

But, county parks commissioners found the train incompatible with Civic Center uses and with other county park property. The board also found the cost to install and operate the train "extremely high," said Peter Doren, parks commission president.

"The Civic Center is not a place for the train. It's an active recreation area, not an amusement area," said county and parks Commissioner Christine Maxbauer. "If the parks board felt we had a good fit for the train, we would have looked at taking it. There just isn't a good fit for it at any of our parks."

Several county commissioners called a more than $900,000 estimate to move the train inflated and unreliable. But commissioners acknowledged moving, installing and operating the train won't be cheap.

"The cost to maintain the train alone is about $15,000 a year, and the county just doesn't have that kind of money," Maxbauer said.

The county board will discuss the parks commission decision and consider overruling it when the board meets Feb. 29 at 7 p.m. in the Governmental Center.

"We'll discuss it and see what the rest of the commissioners think and see if we'll be able to come up with something suitable," said county commissioner and train proponent Larry Fleis.

The Great Wolf Lodge in Garfield Township explored obtaining the train with city and township officials. Some county commissioners, including Fleis and board Chairman Larry Inman, saw the resort as a better option than county ownership.

"It doesn't have to be in public ownership, we just want to keep it local," Fleis said.

But Great Wolf officials said Friday the lodge is no longer interested.

"We have no plans to pursue the train at this time," said John Jessup, the lodge's director of sales and marketing.

One resort area remains interested, but it's far from Traverse City. Mackinaw Crossings, a Mackinaw City shopping and entertainment center, is the first — and so far only — organization to submit a formal proposal for the train.

Traverse City's deadline for train proposals is April 5.

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