COTC - 5 Mar 2026 - TVC Airport Zoning Overlay proposed

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Good morning, Northern Michigan. This is your cup

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of Traverse City for the 03/05/2026.

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I'm Mike, and, grab your coffee. We're gonna

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be talking about airports

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or the airport here in Traverse City.

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They're gonna have a proposed

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zoning overlay that could more closely regulate building

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heights, trees, land uses

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near the airport. Now use near

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in in air quotes. The the story didn't,

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but

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they're proposing a new zoning overlay district,

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for the Traverse City area,

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and it's the Cherry Capital Airport joint zoning

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board. The ordinance would establish regulations

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on land within

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the airport hazard area,

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which is approximately

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10 mile radius around

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Traverse City Airport.

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And, you know, it says it'll have implication

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for land uses, building heights, tall trees.

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And while this ordinance has drawn scrutiny from

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the locals who worry that'll significantly

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impede property rights and quality of life in

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Traverse City, leaders

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of TVC's joint zoning board argue it would

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create a more

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legal

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or create more legal protections

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and avenues for development.

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So I guess my problem with it I

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I live really close to the airport and,

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you know, so

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there's that. I'm not on any of the

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approaches,

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but,

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still, you know, I've got 80 foot oak

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trees in my yard. I don't want them

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come and say, hey. We gotta cut those

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trees down.

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No. No. No. No. No. That's not what

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they're doing though. So that's that's good too.

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All the existing quote unquote uses, including tall

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trees and buildings that wouldn't conform.

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But, you know, they're talking about a 35

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foot limit,

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without variance.

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You know, if you can't get a variance.

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But my problem with it is is 10

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miles.

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Holy crud.

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The

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Traverse City airspace,

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I am a pilot, so I do understand

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some of this stuff. Not all of it,

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but some of it.

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The the Traverse City airspace is known as

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class d airspace, class delta,

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which is, you know, controlled by a control

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tower.

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And so to fly within

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about four miles from the airport,

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you have to get, you have to establish

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two way communications with the tower.

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Not that you can't go in it. They

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can tell you to stay out,

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you know, but you have to before you

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can fly

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inside that delta,

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you know,

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anywhere from the ground up to 3,000

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feet. I know I'm getting geeky technical, but

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that's the airspace that the,

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airport owns. Well, not owns, but, controls. You

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know, the control tower controls it. Not only

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when the tower is open. When the tower

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is not open, it reverts to class e

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airspace, which is technically controlled, but you don't

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have to talk to anybody to use it.

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So after about nine or 10:00 at night,

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depending on the time of the year,

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all the way till seven in the morning,

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Traverse City Airport is

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more or less uncontrolled. No control tower.

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There's procedures and all that, but I won't

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get into the grizzly details.

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But how they can say 10 miles?

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Now, you know, if they upgrade to a

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class Charlie, which

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I think is what they wanna do

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at some point,

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which, you know, I don't have any major

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problem with, but then that does kick it

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out to 10 miles and, you know, bunch

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of other regulations

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kick in for those flying. But, you know,

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on the ground, you know,

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they built the airport

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in a congested area. And, you know, they

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protect the

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the,

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approaches

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pretty well, you know, as far as, you

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know, that goes. But, you know, one of

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the examples in the story was East Bay

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has a water tower that's kinda up on

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the hill and very close to the approach

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to Runway 28.

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Although it's lit and it's not ridiculously

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high and, you know, when I'm flying, I

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don't

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I mean, I know it's there, but it

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doesn't impede anything I'm doing

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at the height that it is.

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You don't just know your you know, you

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just know it's there, you know. And a

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lot of the modern airplanes will even point

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it out to you. It'll pop into into

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your headset and say,

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something to the effect of obstacle,

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you know, or something. And then you look

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at the screen, and and you can see

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where it's supposed to be. And you look

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out the window and say, yep. There it

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is. Cool. No problem.

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You know? So

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I don't know

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if 10 miles is necessary, and I don't

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know if,

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you know, like, somebody building a tall building

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downtown should have to worry too much about

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air traffic because, you know, like I said,

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the approaches are

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clear as far as obstacles.

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One other

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instance they were talking about is the old

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Tebow florist

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property there

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on 8th Street.

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They're building some sort of an apartment complex

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there.

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And if this ordinance goes into effect, they

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would have to apply for a variance because

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it is kinda sorta on the

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approach to

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Runway 18. But,

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you know, whatever they build, there's not gonna

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be taller than the trees that are already

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there. I mean, for crying out loud, there's

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trees and, you know, was power lines, but

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those are gone,

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along Parsons Road, by the graveyard. There you

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know, there's trees there that are,

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you know,

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you don't get super close to them coming

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in, but, you still

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you know, I don't see them as a

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hazard. I did just you just gotta know

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they're there.

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And, you know, none of the airliners and

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stuff use that particular runway generally.

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So I don't know. Interesting

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proposal.

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Like I said, I don't know if 10

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miles is necessary. It just sounds like extra

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paperwork for people,

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that are wanting to build stuff.

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Of course, you know, on the other hand,

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yeah, I kinda would like to see Traverse

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City not turn into a a town full

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of big buildings, but, you know, progress is

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progress. I don't know if, there's anything I'm

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gonna do about it.

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Anyway, sorry. I went a little long on

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that. Let's get to the weather.

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Today, a slight chance of drizzle after 1PM,

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increasing clouds with a high near 44, so

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the snow melt continues. I love it. Welcome

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to

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to,

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what what was that? March mudness?

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Anyway,

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light variable wind to be coming east

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five to 10 miles per hour in the

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morning. Patchy fog, tonight after 10PM.

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Otherwise, cloudy with a low around thirty four.

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So it's gonna stay above freezing overnight. That's,

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also good for snow removal.

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Tomorrow showers, a possible thunderstorm

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mainly after 4PM.

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High near 57.

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So that's probably the warmest it's been. I

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I don't know 57, but thunderstorms,

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I don't want those.

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Anyway, southeast wind five to 10 miles per

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hour. Chance precipitation

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is 80%.

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So with that, we'll call this an episode.

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Like I said, sorry. I went a little

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long, but

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I thought it was, an interesting

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story. Of course, I use the the Traverse

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City ticker a lot for these kind of

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stories that I read on here. If you

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have something

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other that you'd like me to cover, please

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email me, mike@mikedell.com.

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You can find that email address over at

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cup of Traverse City dot com.

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Catch me tomorrow.