Beaver Island Michigan

You can always drop your empty containers off at the airport and fly them over. For 5 lbs in total weight, you will probably pay just a few dollars to fly everything over and then pick them up in Charlevoix when you arrive.

A recent response on the survey from a Peaine township non voting property owner:

"I have owned property and a cabin for 37 years on the Island. I love it there but only make it there once a year because of the cost to get there. The price to bring your vehicle on the boat is outrageous. This needs to change if you want the economy to improve. I try to get friends to come, more often than not, the cost stops them."

We all know as residents it has to change because it is killing our middle class tourist. We all have many stories of people wanting to come but change their minds due to the cost. How can that change be made??

For full disclosure in the interest of BITA. When I surfaced my concerns about BITA accepting free passage from the BIBCO as a possible conflict of interest, the board and staff were receiving at that time unlimited free tickets from BIBCO. As a result of my surfacing the concerns on this might look to the paying public, the board decided to limit the number of passages to 12/person/season that BITA would accept from the Boat Company.
Quick math tells me: If this means 12 one way tickets per person it would be 24 with spouse. That would be 24 x $30 (avg ticket) = $720.00. I take it to mean 12 round trips which would be 48 x $30 = $1,440.00. With 5 board members and 1 staff, that would mean 6 x $1,440.00 = $8,640.00 in free tickets from the BIBCO to BITA.
The BIBCO has to charge for a lot of empty tubs to make up that amount of lost revenue. Conflict of interest? They say "no".

Bob -
Good tip to fly my tubs off. I hope my point isn't lost on the cost of my tubs but is about the appearance of conflict of interest.

The interesting thing is if all of the kid clothes were put in suitcases there would be no charge. They put them in tubes so they can be on a hitch rack on the back of their Suburban. They canâ??t put suitcases back there in case of wet weather.

John -
In regards to cost you asked, "How can that change be made??". In my conversations with BITA, they are blind as to the Boat Company's financials because BIBCO refuses to share any of their financial records with BITA. In several contracts with public entities, it is a requirement that the contractor open their books for review or audit. I don't think this is written into the agreement between BITA, the State and BIBCO. I would offer two recommendations on how to bring costs down for the public.
1. BITA be aggressive with BIBCO on making their total financials available for audit or review with the intent of working together to lower costs of fares.
2. BIBCO voluntarily share their financials with BITA. If BIBCO is making an honest and reasonable profit margin, which they should, there would be no reason not to share total financials with BITA in the public's interest.
I think the free tickets given to BITA by BIBCO may be just the tip of the iceberg for the ever increasing fares.

BITA Board, I would respectfully request that BITA release to the public the following BIBCO financial information:
1. Dividends paid or set aside on BIBCO stock shares
2. Breakdown of all BIBCO executive salaries and officer salaries
3. Breakdown on cost of BIBCO executive/officer medical insurance, life insurance, retirement plans, bonuses, expense accounts
4. Breakdown of BIBCO free passage fares for BIBCO board, BITA board, family, friends, political friends, complementary
5. Disclosure of BIBCO discounted freight fares
6. Breakdown of BIBCO respective number of stock shares owned by BIBCO officers/executives and direct family members
These are a few of the questions people have sent to me and I believe the public has a right to know.
Thank you for your attention to this matter and I will follow this up with another e-mail directly to the BITA Board.

Update to my previous message to BITA. BITA responded to my e-mail stating that they have no information from BIBCO relating to the cost issues I listed above. I sent a reply message asking that my request be placed on the BITA agenda at their next meeting in order for discussion as to whether the information would assist BITA and BIBCO working together on controlling or reducing the escalating transportation costs on the EI. If BITA is going to be responsible for oversight of transportation, I believe that many of the costs I requested would be imperative to know.

Darby,
I don't know all the details but I do know that BIBCO is a private company and BITA is through the state although BITA assists BIBCO in some finances to help provide this service to the island BITA isn't privilege to the private business finances (even if they knew it they couldn't release private company info) and BIBCO being a private company doesn't have to share that with BITA or anyone else.

If you want to know more about BIBCO I would think you would need to buy shares in the company and possibly get on the board of BIBCO.

I can not say I truly understand all of the ins and outs of BITA/BIBCO but this part I am pretty sure is correct. Maybe if you talked to a board member of BIBCO they could answer some of your questions.

Andy!

Mrs. Kohls, Thank you for the information. This has been truly a learning process for me. Every little bit of information helps. I do understand that BIBCO is private and BITA is public but like many including yourself, we don't fully understand the relationship between the two. I think what most people I have talked with understand is costs for the boat are out of control and increasing rapidly while ridership is decreasing.
I am in the process of attempting the purchase stock shares but have been told I can only buy them in blocks of 5 shares and no one seems to know the current value. The people I have talked with vary by hundreds of dollars for just 5 shares.
Thank you so much for your post.

Darby,

Have you posted on a new thread in the market area wishing to buy stock? I know sometimes people will list if they have some to buy or sell.

Because it is a privately stock held company I am not sure there is a list anywhere for you to reach out to current owners to see who is interested in selling.

Maybe Joe Moore could also put it out on his news on the net that someone is interested in shares. We have thought about buying some as well, but you are right, it is hard to find it.

Good luck!

Kathe