Gull Island / Lake St. Clair
 

I'm sure there's a financial aspect to it for local resturaunts and venders but I'm betting the main reason to lease the island is so they can enforce what goes on there. Basically shut down Jobbie Nooner......Someone always has to ruin the party :rolleyes: :mad:






Harrison Township to study takeover of Gull Island

Residents wary of Jobbie Nooner party site in Lake St. Clair

PUBLISHED: April 27, 2005

By Mitch Hotts
Macomb Daily Staff Writer

Harrison Township residents aren't wild about the idea, but township officials this week agreed to study the feasibility of leasing controversial Gull Island and sub-leasing it to a private company to convert it to a family-oriented destination.
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The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which owns the 19-acre manmade island five miles east of Metro Beach, has offered to enter into a 25-year lease with Harrison Township to operate it as a park.

But the island -- a barren but popular destination spot for Lake St. Clair boaters in summer months -- may be best known as the site of the twice-a-year Jobbie Nooner parties that are known for rowdy behavior.

"I don't want to live in a community that supports Jobbie Nooner," said township resident Ginny Porter. "What's next -- massage parlors and adult bookstores?"

Under the plan, Harrison Township would take over the island and use grant money and permit fees to erect minimal facilities such as portable toilets and permanent trash cans. Yearly fees could generate about $24,000 a year that could be spent on the island.

In addition, Boat Town USA, a nonprofit corporation made up mostly of Harrison Township bars, restaurants and marinas, would manage the island and could erect concession stands to sell food and beverages.

Members of We Are Here, an environmental group that has performed cleanups at the island following many Jobbie Nooners, has agreed to provide maintenance during summer months.

Pete Arsenault, who owns the Jobbie Nooner site on the Internet, said 3,000 people a year attend the adult parties and have money to "spend on concessions" that could be in operation on Gull Island.

Ray Azar, a township resident, supports exploring the concept. "This sounds like a wonderful opportunity," he said.

Other residents are leery of the idea, especially when it's billed as a no-cost facility for Harrison Township. "I'm very suspicious at the no-cost aspect," said Mary Ellis. "It must have hidden costs."

Harrison Township would include the park in its $2 million insurance policy, said township Supervisor Anthony Forlini. However, since the island is technically in federally protected waters, the township would have to make it handicapped accessible to conform to federal disability laws.

Victor Kotwicki, chief of the real estate division for the Army Corps, said the island could be used for private parties, camping for Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, and youth environmental education trips.

"It's a jewel of an island," he said.

The township Board of Trustees agreed to set up a committee of officials, residents and business owners to give the lease additional study.

Re: Gull Island / Lake St. Clair
 

wtf is jobbie nooner?

Re: Gull Island / Lake St. Clair
 

Harrison Township can't run Metro beach, what makes them think they can run Gull Island?

Ban Ban Ban, they ban everything that is fun, but we still will have the MOOT.

Re: Gull Island / Lake St. Clair
 

It's a huge party on an Island that starts at noon on a Friday.
Girls tend to be topless and everybody's drunk.

Re: Gull Island / Lake St. Clair
 

http://www2.jobbienooner.net/coppermine_dir/

It use to be once a year now it happens twice but basically the more popular it gets the more they want to shut it down!

Re: Gull Island / Lake St. Clair
 

Another Goverment idea that will be a bust at TAX payer's exspense. Have been going to GULL for many a year and never had a problem. Yes JOBBER NOONER can get a little out of hand but no one ever really gets hurt. GULL is nothing like it was about 10 years ago when the WATER WEENIE was docked in the bay.

So if Harrison Twp. thinks that people will pay a fee to tie up on an Island with no AMENITIES go right ahead. I will spend my money at METRO BEACH or spend my time at one of the many FREE locations on the Lake.

Re: Gull Island / Lake St. Clair
 

I think that they see the pics of all of those boats and people and think "how come nobody's making money off this?"
But people are - Gas stations, party stores, restaurants for the afterparties.

Here's a quote from one of the articles in the Macomb paper:
*********************
Pete Arsenault, who owns the Jobbie Nooner site on the Internet, said 3,000 people a year attend the adult parties and have money to "spend on concessions" that could be in operation on Gull Island.
*********************

That I think sums it up. I'm expecting that they will ban outside alcohol and sell it themselves on the island. Have you ever seen the amount of empties left on the island after JN? People pick them up for the dime, but I think Boattown and Harrison Twp don't see those as a dime, they see them as $2.50 a pop. That's just my conspiracy theory, but to me, the reasons they give about making it a family destination and cleaning it up don't hold water. I go a couple times a year other than JN with my family and friends and we never have any problems, except for dogs fighting. It's truely rowdy and out of control twice a year for a couple of parties that you have to go thru some serious effort to get to. On a Friday, early in the season so the water is pretty cool, rafting with at least a thousand other boats and wading in through anchor lines. Jobbienooner is not a big enough problem for a township 5 miles across the lake in a different county to need to fix.

Re: Gull Island / Lake St. Clair
 

What I hope to see if they do take it over and try to charge $25 a boat is that JN will set up right at the entrance to Muscamoot Bay. That way the township and the people trying to make the money it can see and hear the party, while they sit in ticket booths and beer tents wondering why nobody came to their island.

Re: Gull Island / Lake St. Clair
 

Bunch of crap. We will just move ti 1 mile north to the Moot, where there is no land and 3 foot of water like every other weekend. Why does there need to be land involved????

Re: Gull Island / Lake St. Clair
 

This is another example of someone telling you what is good for you. Another group of self rightious people making moral decisions for everyone. It sure seems to me that there is many more important issues that need to be addressed in Michigan and the USA than the jobbienooner. The city of Detroit is almost in bankruptcey, hundreds of teachers accross the state are getting laid off, Detroit is out of control with murder, gas prices through the roof, men and women dying every day in Iraq, but we are going to shut down this evil jobbienooner because it's bad for us. Geez

Thanks, I'll get off my soap box now.

Re: Gull Island / Lake St. Clair
 

Know how many unsolved murders there are in Detroit annually?

95%

We must stop those jobbie nooners before another crime goes unsolved....and lets spend a fortune doing it...bust everyone....and issue arrest warrants and notify neighborhoods of the topless offenders....and make them register at their local police departments.

Imagine a bunch of drunk people in the middle of nowhere..it must stop! :drink:

Re: Gull Island / Lake St. Clair
 

latest article



Nonprofit works to clean up raucous island celebration

The group hopes with regulation the Gull Island party will be a civilized affair.

By Amy Lee and Edward L. Cardenas / The Detroit News


David Coates / The Detroit News

Brian Bugaiski of the We Are Here Foundation helps pick up trash on Gull Island. Volunteers with We Are Here remove about 6,800 pounds of garbage and at least 5,000 beer cans after the Jobbie Nooner party, the nonprofit's president says.




Jobbie Nooner


• Partygoers this year may have access to portable toilets on a barge that the nonprofit We Are Here Foundation plans to provide. The party is set for June 24. Permits will be required for the event at a cost of $25 per boat. Annual permits, which include entry to Jobbie Nooner, cost around $75. • An adults-only Web site to promote the event has also begun selling T-Shirts, tank tops and beverage cozies, as well as adult-themed videos of the event.

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HARRISON TOWNSHIP -- Where some see trouble and alcohol-fueled rowdyism, a suburban Detroit group sees opportunity.

A tiny Lake St. Clair island for 30 years has been home to the annual Jobbie Nooner party, a bash that draws thousands of boaters on a Friday in June to booze, bare their flesh and party, far from the nearest toilet. Up to 5,000 people annually gather on 4-acre Gull Island for the blowout, which locals have dubbed the "Mardi Gras of the Midwest."

"It's mind-boggling how it's grown," said Lee O'Dell, 63, of Troy, who began the party in 1975 to celebrate the birthday of his co-worker Lee Wagner. "We went out with 17 guys and four boats, and everything was fine. We had no idea it'd grow into what it is today. It's kind of nasty now."

Officials with the St. Clair Shores-based We Are Here Foundation see a chance to recast Gull Island as a family boater's paradise and even turn a profit by taking over the island from its owner, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Visitors would be required to buy passes, and the money raised could pay to bring Porta-Johns, volleyball courts, garbage cans and other amenities to the deserted island, said Tom Cleaver, president of the group.

"It needs to be taken from its present state and reeled in. Jobbie Nooner (could be) transformed into more of an event like the Woodward Dream Cruise," Cleaver said. "Jobbie Nooner is going to continue on, but the nudity and underage drinking is going to be severely prohibited."

The group plans to charge $25 per boat for the party.

"I'm concerned that any agency that would involve itself in such a free activity as Jobbie Nooner will ruin it. Jobbie Nooner is probably one of the best expressions of good old American freedom that you'll ever find," said Pete Arsenault of Waterford Township, who owns and operates the Jobbie Nooner Web site and also makes money from selling videos of women who expose their chests during the party.

"They say they want it to continue, but the ultimate goal here is to stop Jobbie Nooner."

Located five miles offshore, east of Metro Beach Metropark , the island each year hosts thousands of boaters and families drawn by its remote location, shallow waters and limited police presence. Jobbie Nooner is set for June 24 this year.

Some regular Jobbie Nooner partygoers, including Christine Kotila of Mount Clemens, support the idea of making the island a park. Kotila visits the island regularly during the summer and has attended Jobbie Nooner for the past 10 years.

An official park designation "would give boaters some place to go and make it a destination," she said.

Also in favor of the plan is John Zangara, or "the Z-Man," who is probably best known as the guy who deejays music from his boat at the Jobbie Nooner party.

"If they could get it organized, it would be nice. Ninety-eight percent of the people are pretty good, but there are a few that cause a bit of ruckus," Zangara said.

The island each year is overrun with post-Jobbie Nooner trash. Volunteers with We Are Here remove about 6,800 pounds of garbage and at least 5,000 beer cans after the Jobbie Nooner party, according to Cleaver. Harrison Township officials this spring floated the idea of taking over Gull Island for a community park but backed off late last week when representatives from the Native American Wyandotte Nation of Oklahoma claimed ownership of the island. The tribe's claim was made to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, according to Victor Kotwicki, chief of the real estate division for the Corps.

The corps is confident it is free to enter into an agreement to transfer control of the island to the We Are Here Foundation, Kotwicki said.

Officials with We Are Here envision selling up to 350 annual island-access permits at a cost of about $75 per boat, according to Cleaver, whose foundation members have cleaned up the island after Jobbie Nooner for the past six years. The plan calls for permits to be sold at local marinas and through the foundation's Web site, www.weareherefoundation.com. Color-coded wristbands to distinguish people older than 21 would be provided at the time of purchase. Boater Dave Humenny, 33, said he supports the fees, as long as the cash is reinvested into island upgrades.

"I definitely would do it," said Humenny, of Macomb Township, who has attended Jobbie Nooner since 1990. "That might get rid of some of the troublemakers."

The original Jobbie Nooners were contract workers for the Big Three auto companies, who earned the moniker "Jobbies" because they moved from job to job. They pulled a "nooner" by cutting out of work early on a Friday and created the now-infamous Jobbie Nooner party.

The timing of the proposed takeover is critical because the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has grown increasingly frustrated with the huge size of the unregulated party and was ready to post "no trespassing" signs in an attempt to shut down the revelry.

The island was created by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which dumped clean dredged materials onto the site from 1937 through the mid-1960s. The island is actually about 137 acres, but all but 4 acres are submerged.

The Corps is eager to get a lease agreement in place before this year's bash. There would be no charge for the lease.