KALKASKA - When it comes to politics, even small towns can suffer from big name problems. The very same bickering that happens at a national level can take place inside the meeting halls of Kalkaska.

Dean Farrier is the new Chairman of the Kalkaska Downtown Development Authority. He hopes to move beyond the recent problems that have been bogging down relations between the DDA and the Village of Kalkaska.

Farrier has been involved in the Kalkaska area for the last few years in some capacity or another.

"My first board appointment was in about 1999. That was to the county park and recreation board. I spent three to four years on that board. Shortly before it was disbanded by the county commissioners I resigned. Since then I haven't had a lot of specific involvement on any board. Of course, being the only survey business in town we do a lot of site plans for individual companies. So, that keeps us in touch with the village and the counsel planning and zoning committees. As far as promoting outside of town, the last five or six years, working with the TART trail, we were the designing firm for that. That has been a major community outreach for the last five or six years," Farrier said.

Farrier was appointed to the DDA board two months ago.

"I was appointed to the board approximately two months ago. In my second regular board meeting, I was elected chair," Farrier said.

There had been some confusion with who was actually the chairman. John Wheeler was the vice-chair at the time that the chairman's position became vacant. In the absence of a chairperson, the vice-chair is to assume the responsibilities of that position. The vice-chair, however, does not become the chairman. An error, it appears, was made in the February meeting when Sue Vowels was elected vice-chair, essentially leaving Wheeler with no position on the board.

Farrier's appointment was a bit different than what may usually happen on any given board. That has not stopped him from setting goals and making plans.

"I didn't seek the appointment. In fact, I had, to some degree, campaigned with other members to help them take the position. Being the chairman of that authority was not my initial intention. But, there was a perceived need for someone who can be neutral and is able to use RobertÔs Rules of Order and delegate. Granted, I have very little experience with the inside workings all through the 1990s, but in the short amount of time that I have been on the board, talking to members, I was unanimously nominated and unanimously elected. I see my role there almost as an arbitrator. My first task is to set up structure of the meetings and get functioning committees. One of the fun parts of the functioning committees will be taking each of the four TIF districts (the DDA's main source of income) and revisiting their plans, inviting those TIF districts to an open house, and discussing their dreams for development around them. Also discussing the use of the funds that are available, and then revisiting our plan to integrate some of those so that we have some money to spend," Farrier said.

Farrier has other ideas as well for the advancement of the DDA and Kalkaska in general.

"I do have a lot to learn. One thing that I learned recently is that all of the downtown block's money is currently being spent on past improvements that were bonded. So all of the TIF money that comes in for downtown actually does not make the bond payment. Some of our operational funds have to go toward that bond payment. So we do not have any money available for the downtown TIF until 2011. But, there are a couple of improvements that could easily be seen. If the Hotel Sieting could be finished that would be a tremendous asset to the visual ascetics of the community. The Van's lumberyard, if that could be turned back into a public open space or be used for retail that would also be a real asset to the community," Farrier said.

As for the relationship between the DDA board and the village board, Farrier is hopeful.

"This is my hope and vision for our relationship. The DDA is created under the authority of the village council. It is created by statute of the village council, set up through state law. We effectively are an arm of the village. But, the TIF funds are to be used 100% through the DDA for the individual TIF district. We plan to build a strong and positive dynamic with the village. The village has conceded that over the last many number of years the TIF funds haven't been handled properly. I don't believe any of it was illegal. They weren't receiving the type of interest that they could have because they weren't invested well and they were lump summed with other village money. They understand that and they agreed that is a problem and that they will set those funds into their own accounts so that accounting for them will be more readily available. As a board, we want to put the past behind us, we want to promote, in a positive manner, our community. We do need to have our funds set aside into their own accounts so that month to month we can see how much we have for the individual TIFs that have money coming. That way we can plan on what to spend. My charge to them at the meeting today is to plan an open house for each of the individual TIFs, contact the land owners or business owners in the TIFs and invite them to the open house and do an envisioning," Farrier said.

The village and the DDA have a joint meeting coming up that will, Farrier hopes, get the ball rolling on what funds will be available to the DDA.