Recent CWE fliers mailed to Lake Township residents contain testimonials from area business owners that wind developments have brought a great boost to their businesses and the economy in Huron County.

In reality these boosts are only temporary. Only the corporate developers will reap any long term financial gains, thanks to our generous politicians doling out our hard earned tax dollars and the Michigan Public Service Commission for permitting our utilities to increase our rates in order to cover their costs for using alternative energy. To add insult to injury, we, as utility ratepayers, will also be paying for the ITC “Thumb” loop that is being built to take all the power created from these massive turbines in our backyards to other areas. Good God, people, wake up!

Here’s my recent observation of the booming economy in Huron County: Saturday afternoon, February 4th, a mild day at 35-40 degrees, sunny, clear and dry. My wife and I left our home at 2:30 p.m. and headed south down Champagne Road to Kinde Road where we headed east to M-53. At M- 53 we turned right to head south to Bad Axe. At Filion Road we observed the first other vehicle on the road since we left home and saw only one additional vehicle at the intersection of M- 142. As we passed the Walmart parking lot with less than 60 cars in the lot, one vehicle was exiting. At the McDonald Food & FamilyCenter there were eight cars in the entire parking lot and two cars heading north passed us at that point.

At the intersection in the center of Bad Axe there were three other vehicles other than us. All main street businesses were closed except China King Restaurant and eight cars were parked on E. Huron Ave. near the restaurant. We continued east to the Franklin Inn and only passed one vehicle leaving the Self Serve Lumber. We turned into a completely empty Franklin Inn parking lot, front and rear and thought they were closed.

I pulled up in back and poked my head in the bar door to see if they were open. There were four people in the bar including the help. I was told the dining room was open so I parked the car and my wife and I entered the rear dining room which was completely empty. I went towards the kitchen area to make sure it was open and actually startled the waitress who told us to sit anywhere. We ordered dinner, sat and ate for a little over and hour and a half and only one other person came into the bar.

When we questioned the waitress about the lack of customers, her response was that it’s been real slow for quite some time and she had thought that with the weather being so mild it would pick up, but it didn’t.

When we left there was only one car in the rear parking lot and none in the main front lot. On our way back home we only observed four other cars on the road the entire trip. I’ve seen more activity on Good Friday between 12 p.m. and 3 p.m.

What we need in this county are meaningful businesses bringing fulltime employment rather than blow hard developers selling us pie in the sky (not dancing ballerinas, Mrs. Bushey).

Louis J. Colletta

Port Austin