“We have a geographic implicit bias right here in our county, where the highway was built upon a village,” said Melissa Petoskey on Aug. 19 as cars zoomed by on M-22, seemingly unaware that they were driving through a tribal reservation between Suttons Bay and Northport. Petoskey is the human relations executive for the Grand Traverse Band. “There’s no reduction in speed limit here. We’re the only village in Leelanau County without a reduction in speed.
In the wake of former Leelanau County Road Commissioner Tom Eckerle’s public racist tirade, and subsequent resignation, activists are pondering whether to launch a movement to change the name of Eckerle Road, a small stretch of road just south of Suttons Bay, and coincidentally where the Leelanau County Road Commission sits. Here’s what it would take to change the road name.
According to Leelanau County officials, three paths exist to remove Tom Eckerle, the Leelanau County road commissioner who used the N— word just before the road commission’s monthly meeting on Tuesday night, doubled down and repeated his racist rants to the press today, and now faces a firestorm of calls that he resign or be forced from elected office.