We have to commend the new Emmet County Board of Commissioners for holding county officials’ feet to the fire concerning the Headlands International Dark Sky Park near Mackinaw City.

The park, in northern Emmet County, has long been criticized by this newspaper’s editorial board for its cost — paid for by a capital improvement bond approved in 2014 and initially budgeted at $7.6 million but may reach $8.7 million by completion — and for not having any clear written feasibility study before construction. On top of that, the county administration doesn’t even seem to have a written plan on how it is going operate this park once its new facilities officially opened.

At a county meeting earlier this month, county administrator Marty Krupa was questioned by commissioners about the setting up of an open house date that was never discussed with the new board members beforehand, whether the building had an operations budget set and if it even had staff trained to operate the telescopes that are being installed at the facility.

The answers the commissioners got were vague with Krupa saying that he had faith in the parks and recreation employees who would be involved with caring for the facility and operating the programming. Krupa also stated he could bring the operational budget as a discussion at a future meeting.

“We have qualified park staff that run all of our parks, whether it’s the Alanson Locks, Cecil Bay, or Camp Pet-O-Se-Ga. We rotate our staff where we need people at the time,” Krupa said in a Petoskey News-Review story published on Feb. 14. “We operate as a team and we’ll continue to do that. Yes, we’ll have to work out some of the details, and we’ll get those worked out with you, but I believe the staff we have on hand is qualified enough to keep it maintained.”

We are deeply disappointed with all the time, money and controversy surrounding this facility that Krupa and county staff have not worked out the details for the operation of this facility other than vague answers to questions from the commissioners. Which leads to being further shocked — but not surprised — that nothing has been written down on this matter by Krupa or parks and recreation director Laurie Gaetano.

Have they not been paying attention to the questions we have been asking about this facility’s operation all along, or the questions others in the community have been asking on this facility, or the fact that the Dark Sky facility was one of the big issues in the county board of commissioners’ election last year that saw most members of the old board voted out of office?

As county commissioner Charlie MacInnis said to Krupa at the meeting regarding the Dark Sky Park and facilities plans, it’s time to write this down. After all, millions of dollars have been spent on its construction, it makes more than enough sense that the county actually has written plans. These plans can then be shared not only with the commission, but the taxpayers footing the bill.

Petoskey News-Review