While Ernest Hemingway spent many an hour along the shores of Lake Michigan, it was John Steinbeck who wrote of his “winter of discontent.” Steinbeck’s discontentment may or may not have risen to the level of Silver Beach area residents in St. Joseph, but there are a whole lot of people who would love to be the author of the next plan to resolve a multitude of issues regarding fighting, parking, noise-making, traffic tangling and a boatload of other problems within walking range of the Lake Michigan waterfront.
Berrien County Trial Court Judge Dennis Wiley lobbed the first volley and for the better part of 90-minutes the St. Joseph City Commission and Public Safety Chief Brian Uridge fielded a number of hot potato issues regarding the problem of the ever increasing popularity of attractions below the bluff from Silver Beach itself to the Compass Rose Fountain, the Carousel at the Silver Beach Center, and even Silver Beach Pizza which is a major destination attraction in and of itself at the train depot.
Wiley lives on State Street in the city and proceeded to voice how “disheartening” it is to go on his early morning run to mountains of trash and debris in and around overflowing trash receptacles, traffic noise from muffler-less motorcycles and hot-rodding motorists and much more.
As Chief Brian Uridge responded to queries about the huge bevy of oscillating squad car lights at the beach on Sunday night, he told the story of one and possible two people who had been physically attacked but both of whom refused to cooperate in any manner whatsoever with his officers. One was a woman who had been punched and the other was a man who may or may not have been accosted near the Shadowland Ballroom. Both refused to speak to authorities despite the man being taken to the hospital for treatment.
Uridge said that he couldn’t not corroborate rumors that guns were flashed in the mob scene that his team worked to disperse. It all happened after Berrien County Deputies had left the beach for the night shortly after nine. The fights broke out around 9:40pm.
Uridge expressed disappointment that he had forewarned as early as Thursday that with the projected heat wave and expected huge contingent of beach goers but his pleas fell on deaf ears at Berrien County. He did applaud the FBI Violent Crimes Task Force for helping his officers, but the whole discussion led to a fair amount of gnashing of teeth, finger-pointing and incredulous cries over Berrien County’s failure to help the city to financially fill the bill.
Uridge says two key tenets need to be met — you should adequately staff the situation before there are problems and officers should be out of their cars, on foot, and walk up to any potential flash point in a friendly and diffusing manner. He wants all officers to be respectful.
Concerns were voiced that while there were Berrien County Sheriff’s Department vehicles parked on site at Silver Beach all day they were clearly “Trojan Horses,” meant to present an image of security without the manpower to back them up.
Mayor Mike Garey characterized the entire situation as “unacceptable.” He added, “We want people to come and enjoy our community and the beach, but (as Commissioner Dr. Jeff Richards says) ‘bring your manners.'”
Commissioner Mary Goff was somewhat alarmed saying, “I thought we had a viable plan. We want to keep on top of this, and we may need to work on additional access” to police by concerned citizens who voiced concerns about the time lag of going through central dispatch to get issues addressed.
Commissioner Fran Chickering said, “We need to let the two jurisdictions (the city and the county) work together, but maybe the idea of stopping patrols at 9pm is unacceptable because it’s still daylight at that time.”
Public Safety officials are now three weeks into their three pronged approach to summer crowds based on Engagement…Enforcement…and the Pilot Traffic Process of one way streets, restricted turning and other options. Chief Uridge reported that in those three weeks 500 parking tickets have been issued, they’ve conducted 67 building checks and made 11 arrests. He continues to ask people for feedback on the situation and he’s getting an earful as are all city officials.
One unidentified citizen was not pleased at all that the county draws a bountiful revenue from parking fees but shares none of that money with the city of St. Joseph whose police force is having to pick up the slack.
Goff argued that the county’s archaic reluctance to embrace credit card technology to speed the traffic flow through their gates is dramatically slowing the process of getting people into the park. Uridge continues to argue that they need to at least experiment with having people drive in freely and pay on the way out.
Saying that “sometimes enough is enough,” Mayor Mike Garey added,” We need better solutions,” and urged city staff and police to meet with the county to resolve issues, while at the same time encouraging angry citizens to take their voice to the County Board of Commissioners on Thursday to demand a better way.
Former FBI agent and city staff member Al DiBrito called the whole affair, “a historical problem,” and aruged, “Hire police, train them to be effective enforcers of the law, arrest people and take responsibility for the matter.” That triggered an argument from Dr. Jeff Richards that “We are not simply passing the buck.” DiBrito responded by saying that “You don’t send part time offficers into a mob action. Give Brian (Uridge) the3 tools he needs to do the job.”
The city hopes to have a concrete, detailed plan nailed down by the 4th of July. Stay tuned.
