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The wine industry in northern Michigan is bigger than ever, and vineyards are popping up everywhere you look. It's a business that has a multi-million dollar impact on the state, and is expected to continue to grow. Winemakers on the Leelanau Peninsula say the region is great for grapes; the snow insulates the vines, the peninsulas are surrounded by water, and the summer sunshine doesn't hurt either.

9&10's Sara Simnitch and photojournalist Jeremy Erickson go from vine to wine, talking to Mark Carlson of Silver Leaf, Larry Mawby of L Mawby and Andrew McFarlane of Leelanau.com and the Leelanau Wine Trail in this special report:

Open for Business by joeldinda

There have been a flurry of articles and even a new "Leelanau County Commissioners Tinfoil Hat Brigade" Facebook page on the heels of a decision by Leelanau County Commissioners to reject a partnership with Grand Traverse County to promote growth and shutter the county Economic Development Corporation (EDC). It's now reached the Detroit News who report that business leaders are criticizing a decision by the Leelanau County commission to abolish the Leelanau EDC.

Meeting in Suttons Bay on April 8, commissioners said the northwestern Lower Peninsula county is wealthy enough already and that they don't want growth. They said it's up to people to find their own jobs and businesses to make their own plans. (more...)

Chicago Tonight had an in-depth feature (with video) on the lowest Great Lakes water levels in recorded history that features Leland and Leelanau County that begins:

2012 was the warmest year on record according to NOAA, the nation's climate monitoring service. The Midwest was also in the grip of a severe drought. Those two factors have led to the lowest water levels in history for Lake Michigan and Lake Huron, which is considered one body of water hydrologically. The impact of the low lake levels on those who live on the Great Lakes is heavy.

Leland Harbor is the heart of a northern Michigan town. The small town is quiet in the winter, but the population jumps ten-fold in the summer when tourists flock to the harbor, beaches and quaint shops. That tourist economy is now in jeopardy because of the dramatic drop in Lake Michigan's water level.

Harbor master Russel Dzuba said the lake is down more than two feet from its average, and that drop is threatening to close the harbor.

“The economic impact this harbor has on the community is strong. And when things are slow, the guy at the grocery store, the guy at the restaurant comes down and asks me what's going on. They want to know,” said Dzuba. “So, it’s an economic punch that we hate to think what happens if we cant keep that channel open.”

Click through for the video!

Photo Credit: "... is the Lake Michigan water level low?" by Ken Scott was perfect for this feature!

Crains Detroit Business has an interesting feature about how an old warehouse at the Grand Traverse Commons could become the hub for our region's local-food movement:

Discussion is percolating about developing the Commons into a regional food hub, with a year-round indoor farmer's market, processing centers and even a restaurant incubator with test kitchens — all housed in a building that used to prepare food for hospital patients and staff.

J.T. "Chip" Hoagland of Cherry Capital Foods in Traverse City is part of an ad-hoc group led by the Northwest Michigan Council of Governments, a regional economic planning organization.

"There's a warehouse and bakery building that had lots of coolers that was the centerpiece for food production on campus," Hoagland said. "The basic configuration is there."

One function for the potential food hub: Supplying the Traverse City Area Public Schools with fresh, locally grown fruits and vegetables.

Rob Sirrine, an educator with the Michigan State University Extension in Grand Traverse County and a champion of using the Commons as a food hub, said equipment is going to be purchased in the next three months that will process locally produced food and deliver it to the schools by this fall. For now, the processing will happen at Cherry Capital Foods, with a shift to the Commons if funding from a state grant goes through.

Read on for more about plans for the Grand Traverse Regional Market.

"What does this have to do with Leelanau?" you might ask. It's pretty simple - Leelanau is one of the farming engines that's driving our regional local food economy and efforts like this help small farmers get good prices for their food and get that food to consumers!

It's another year, and another winter that Sugar Loaf is no closer to re-opening.

Will this Leelanau icon ever return and offer scenes like this one from the 1970s on Waffle? Stay up-to-date at the Friends of Sugar Loaf group on Facebook.

Photo credit: NW Cedar MI Leelanau Days Gone By Skiing at Sugarloaf Mountain Resort... by UpNorth Memories - Donald (Don) Harrison

In Busiest ... summer ... ever in the the Glen Arbor Sun editor Jacob Wheeler writes the Good Morning America selection of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore as the Most Beautiful Place in America put Glen Arbor tourism on steroids with record profits but also some less than desireable side effects

Sometime this month, the 1,364,835th visitor to the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in 2012 will arrive at the Dune Climb, hike to Pyramid Point, or perhaps bike the Heritage Trail and enjoy its stunning autumnal beauty. In doing so, that visitor will officially make this the busiest year ever for the Glen Arbor region, the most profitable for local businesses, and perhaps the most hectic one too.

...as of Sept. 1, visitors to the National Lakeshore were up 21.7 percent over the same eight-month period in 2011, putting the Park just 66,764 visitors shy of the annual record, which was set in 1999. “It’s extremely likely we’ll exceed our record by the end of September,” deputy superintendent of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Tom Ulrich told the Leelanau Enterprise. “Even if we were to have our lowest September attendance ever (70,000 in 2003), we’d still have a new record.”

But record profits weren’t the only change in the north country. Some business owners noticed distinct types of tourists to which they were not accustomed, and not always attracted — visitors who were driven to come here perhaps by the successful Pure Michigan campaign, or more likely by the Good Morning America honor, and the northern Michigan social media campaign that secured that victory.

“My concern is that at least some of them were expecting something different from Glen Arbor than what we actually offer,” said Widmayer. “Some people who came probably got a signal from Good Morning America that this place was really beautiful but they didn’t take their expectations into account. We describe Glen Arbor as a flip-flop-wearing, beach town, whereas they were looking for something more upscale, where they only have to wander short distances.”

Read on for much more about the impact on and observations by local businesses and also share your comments over at the Sun or on our Facebook!

Photo credit: Untitled by granisz

The TC Ticker reports that a fifth-generation of the Carlson family has purchased Fishtown's anchor business, Carlson's Fisheries.

Sources tell The Ticker that Bill Carlson, who has operated the historic fishery in Fishtown since the late 1960s, and his wife, Jennifer, have sold Fishtown's flagship – Carlson's fishery – to Bill’s nephew, Nels Carlson, and his business partner Joe Campo.

The new enterprise will continue to operate out of the iconic fishery shanty. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

“Fishtown has had continual commercial fishing activity since the second half of the 19th century… and the Carlsons have been an ongoing part of this history in Leland since 1905, when they built a shanty on the north side of the river,” says Amanda Holmes, executive director of the Fishtown Preservation Society (FPS), a nonprofit organization which took over ownership of the historic fishing village in 2006 to preserve its heritage.

Holmes says the sale sets an “optimistic tone” for the future. “We do not want to think about what it would mean if this sale had not gone through, except to say that those who have been involved in Fishtown over the years have had to adjust and adapt – and Fishtown has survived,” Holmes says.

Read on at the Ticker for more including a photo of the Carlsons at the purchase. Photo credit: carlson's fisheres by oldbrushes.

Here's a short video of the crew at Carlson's cleaning a mess of whitefish (fish guts warning!) that includes Bill Carlson and (I'm pretty sure) Nels as the first guy on the left.

via Absolute Michigan - also see comments from M-22 legal counsel regarding the ruling...

UPDATE: Peter Payette of Interlochen Public Radio looked at the issue of trademarking Michigan road signs, talking with M-22's attorney Enrico Schaefer of Traverse Legal and Aaron Wong of Price Heneveld.

The Detroit Free Press reports that M-22 (and M-119) cannot be trademarked by private companies. Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette has ruled that the highway sign logos are public property and as such cannot be "commandeered" for private use.

"Because the State of Michigan, the creator of the design, placed the Michigan highway route marker design in the public domain, no entity can lawfully obtain intellectual property protection of the design under trademark or copyright law," Schuette concluded.

"...The fact that they have appropriated the design from the public domain and affixed it to merchandise does not create a legitimate basis for trademark protection."

That's probably not the best news at M-22, the clothing business that has made the sign an iconic symbol of active life in Leelanau & northwest lower Michigan, but it doesn't look like the ruling precludes them selling clothing and other products with the road sign on it.

Speaking of M-22, they  are holding their annual M-22 Challenge this weekend at the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. The annual bike/run/kayak triathalon is a pretty cool spectator event if you're in the area!

Here's M-22 and M-119 (aka the Tunnel of Trees) on Wikipedia.

Photo credit: M-22 Euphoria by Chris Cerk

Commentary from Enrico Schaefer, Founding Partner at Traverse Legal, PLC

Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette must know that trademarks, copyrights and other IP are matters of federal law. The State has no say in the matter. His opinion has no force under law at all. More importantly, his "opinion" is severely misguided and uninformed. Taken to its conclusion, no artist or photographer can have intellectual property rights in their artwork or photographs of state parks, buildings, landscapes, roads, etc. Public universities, funded with public dollars, could not hold IP either in their logos, trademarks or patents. Neither could the state of Michigan protect, for instance, its Pure Michigan campaign which has tens of millions of dollars invested in its campaign. It is also important to note that trademarking these road signs has literally no impact on the public domain rights. Assuming that these companies who have invested time and money creating IP rights around road signs to create valuable brands (no easy tasks for sure), the only impact is to keep someone from copying that use as a trademark. All other non-trademark uses, for instance to identify location, as always permitted. By limiting the trademark use to a single business who (a) was first in the market and (b) invested substantial money and risk in creating the market), companies are created which generate tax revenue and jobs. Without trademark protection, consumers are left with cheap knock-offs and imitations. Consumers can not identify source and the market is destroyed. What Schuette fails to comprehend is that without trademark protection, there can be no Nike or Microsoft or Google. Consumers would not buy products based on brand because consumers could never gauge quality based on a trustworthy source.

Thank goodness his overreaching is without effect, since the adverse impact to the Michigan intellectual property economy could be in the hundreds of millions of dollars or more. This appears to be just another example of overzealous government bureaucrats trying to expand their reach and control over Michigan businesses. Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette proves once again he knows nothing about commerce and business. He has certainly proven he knows little about intellectual property.

This morning's Ticker reports that the Stony Point Pub is opening in Suttons Bay as soon as the Michigan Liquor Control Commission approves its license transfer, which is expected to be any day:

A distinct break from the more buttoned-up vibe of the spot’s former tenants – its location has been home to fine-dining digs like Jim Milliman’s Hattie’s, then Sam Hybels’ Samuel’s and, most recently, Hybels’ Gusto Ristorante – the pub aims to be a casual eatery.

Guests can expect live music on weekends, sports on TV, a street-side deck, and a menu that marries traditional, hearty pub fare with an upscale twist.

Think: apps like homemade tater tots with smoked bacon, green onion and boursain cheese served with smoked tomato catsup, and mainstays like build-your-own stuffed burgers (with $1 add-on options like ham, chili, fried egg or andouille sausage), Michigan fish, and southern-style BBQ shrimp and grits.

The pub is owned by Suttons Bay native Mark Waldrup, who operated a 600-seat pub in Jackson Hole, Wyoming for 20 years.

Here's the Stony Point Pub on Facebook. The article also has information about the Suttons Bay Marketplace that will open (sometime) in the Silver Tree Deli space, and Gerard of Pleasanton Bakery added in the comments that the former Debs Dish spot will be the home of Hannah Isreal's FRIDAS is one of the most unique and creative bakery/cafes around. Hannah is a longtime Pleasanton vet who will bring her culinary wizardry to town!

In Community Wind Faces Roadblocks, IPR News Radio explains that the village of Northport owns the hill behind its new sewage treatment plant, and a planned wind turbine about half the size of the windmill outside Traverse City will supply half the electricity for the plant.

Tom Gallery and more than a dozen other investors formed a private company and put up their own money to finance the turbine,allowing them to use federal tax credits and incentives that would not be available to the village of Northport.

Despite the benefits of local owners generating clean energy and using it on site, community wind projects are rare in Michigan. And Steve Smiley says it's because the state makes them difficult to do. "Every time we turn a corner someone's putting up a wall in front of us."

Smiley is the project manager for Leelanau Energy. He says, under state rules, there's an incentive to keep these projects smaller by paying less for the electricity as the projects get bigger. Originally, the Northport turbine was designed to supply all the electricity at the sewage plant. But at the lower rate, the numbers didn't make sense.

And Smiley says if state rules required a fair price for all community wind it be a lot easier to do. "We wouldn't have to go through tons and tons of paperwork and complications and have twenty or thirty people involved for a year just to try to do a piddly little project."

Read on for the rest of this interesting piece - what do you think?