Port Huron High School - Student Yearbook (Port Huron, MI)

Page 9 text:

Lighting the night, fireworks flare over the display was sponsored by London’s Farm Dairy Port Huron Municipal Building. The annual during the Blue Water Festival. Community

Page 8 text:

Highlights of Port Huron At Last!! While the city of Port Huron be- gan to celebrate its annual Blue Water Festival, its occupants noticed a major change in its community. The Cumberland Val- ley Carnival Company entertains with their usual flair, among the activities of the Festival was the exotic spectacle of fireworks that awed the crowds of Port Hu- ron. Along with this celebration came the realization that Port Hu- ron had to celebrate another event. After twelve years of contro- versy and two years of construc- tion, the Thomas Edison Inn opened in July, 1987, to fill a lot of the former Peerless Cement property. The Inn, owned by Donald Reynolds of the St. Clair Inn, faced a challenge even after vot- ers approved the plan to build the Inn in 1985. City resident Dean Kibbe filed a lawsuit protesting the language on the ballot. He claimed it was “con- fusing and misleading”. The suit was dismissed by a Port Huron judge and Kibbe appealed in Detroit and Cincinatti. Those cases also were dismissed. Once the court battles were put aside, Reynolds proceeded to build the Thomas Edison Inn at its site next to the Blue Water Bridge. The land opposite the Inn was developed into a park and streets were built. In less than two years a dusty, empty piece of land became a luxury hotel and park. Many people who lived in Port Huron throughout the controversy can now have a sigh and say — At Last!! Newly constructed, the Thomas Edison Inn was built near the site where inventor Thomas Edison once worked. The Inn over- looks the St. Clair River. 4 Community

Page 10 text:

VIVID MEMORY SHORELINE DAMAGE The past year has been a hard one on the shoreline of Port Huron thanks mainly due to Lake Huron. A shattering incident is remembered here. The winter of 1986-7 erod- ed all of Lakeside’s beach away as well as the roadway that many remember. Only a bunch of rubble was left for people to think about. The rubble, standing like a lonely guard against any more se- vere weather reminded us of the hard winters in Michigan and the effect it can have on us. Lakeside was then the city’s problem and they set about to repair it before sum- mer began. The city council approved an $80,000 project to get the job started. The first thing to happen after the money distribution was set- tled was to locate a contrac- tor. A local contractor was hired in April and the work actually began in May of 1987. By June of the same year the beach was again looking like a beach but not the Lakeside we remem- bered. Steel walls were erected to serve the rebuilt beach. The water level was shallow compared to years before, but it was still Lake- side to us. The beach had been saved. The next memorable inci- dent to be recorded here was much more recent but not much was known after it first happened. The former Peerless Site was changed into a seawall park area to accompany the newly finished Thomas Edi- son Inn. In September of 1987 a Yugoslavian freighter ran into the seawall and damaged it beyond repair tearing away some of the walkway as well. What was known was that the wall was covered by insurance and plans were slowly being made to repair it to its former state. All in all the year for Port Huron and its adjoining wa- ters was a good one with the sight of new buildings and parks. Only a few marring in- cidents ruined the beginning of a new year for the shoreline, Lake Huron, St. Clair River and the surround- ing land. Storms ruined one of Port Huron’s beaches the winter of 1986-7. The Lakeside Beach was restored and many people still enjoyed the summer throughway of Lakeside was demolished and the beach completely covered there. Steel walls, called jettys, were fashioned af ter the ones at Lighthouse by Lake Huron. Beach. 6 Community