By Mary Drier (Contact / Staff Bio)
June 20, 2009 - 08:08 p.m. EST

TUSCOLA COUNTY — Tuscola County has a lot to offer for recreation and quality of life.

Those qualities and more are in the process of being cataloged and prioritized with the Public Outreach Program - Tuscola County Coastal Assessment.

During a meeting at Thomas Marina, about 30 participants listened to an overview of possible Saginaw Bay recreation points, plus added some that were then listed. From that, they were asked to pick which ones they thought were the most important.

While Tuscola County doesn’t have an 80-mile long shoreline like Huron County does, it does have some, and making the most of those miles it does have is what this assessment is about.

The shoreline starts at the Bay County - Tuscola County border and continues up to just south of Sebewaing. The shoreline is in Wisner and Akron townships.

The plan is to do more development in the northern part of the county.

Laad noted some possible areas that could be developed were access areas off Allen Road, Barrie Road, Berger Road, Clark Road, Loomis Road and the Old State Road.

Among the things suggested were developing a fishing platform for wheelchair access to the bay for fishing, and viewing wildlife.

“We have to promote ourselves and show what we have,” said Cy Thomas, who owns the marina that hosted the meeting.

Having area children take field trips to Fish Point, the marinas, walk nature trails, and state land was suggested.

“Word of mouth generates a lot of interest,” said Thomas. “We need to know what we have to offer and market ourselves.”

Some of the areas where the group would like to see development include nature trails, snowmobile trails, areas developed for fishing and nature watching and drawing tourist here.

During the meeting, Tuscola County Planning Commission Chair Zygmunt Dworzecki, noted there is a $100,000 grant coming for a study on developing wind energy turbines along about six miles of shoreline to generate power.

The wind turbines in Huron County draw tourists, he said.

Mary Drier is a staff writer for the Tuscola County Advertiser. She can be reached at drier@tcadvertiser.com.