The doctor, the knitter, the bookstore owner and the boy who came home

What’s new in Glen Arbor and Empire this spring

By Jacob Wheeler
Sun editor

Just as the toughest winter on record was about to pull its punches, residents of Glen Arbor and Empire were hit this spring by two nasty right hooks. In early March, patients of Doctor Matthew Houghton received the shocking news that the longtime family physician, medical examiner, and outsized personality would retire on March 10 “due to sudden personal health changes”. Houghton had served the community for over 40 years, the last 15 in the Glen Arbor Medical Arts Building. (Read about Houghton’s colorful career here.)

Six weeks later, Glen Arbor learned that the HomeTown Pharmacy’s Prescription Shop, located next to the Township Hall, would close its doors on May 1. “With the local doctor’s decision to retire, the business took a marked decrease in prescription volume. An already low volume went lower,” wrote Anna Rider regional manager of HomeTown Pharmacy (ironically-named; it’s actually based in Newaygo, Mich.).

Worried about the viability of this aging community without its long-term doctor and without a prescription shop, the Glen Lake Chamber of Commerce took the proactive step in late April of circulating an email that explored whether it should go out and recruit a new, young doctor to Glen Arbor. But the response from Chamber members was resounding: there was no need—for an energetic and dynamic young doctor had just arrived in Empire.

The timing couldn’t have been better for Dr. Nicole Fliss, a native of Rapid City, Mich., who had returned to Michigan in September 2013, and in December replaced Doug Coles at Crystal Lake Clinic’s Empire location—across M-22 from State Savings Bank. Fliss cut her teeth in Medical School at the University of Michigan, and ran a family practice up in Marquette, before the Air Force (which had paid for medical school) relocated her to Eielson Air Force Base in Fairbanks, Alaska, for 15 years.

“The winters were too cold there,” joked Fliss (yes, even by the standards of our recent winter). “My husband and I moved home for the milder winters.” Fliss and her William Lang, an Ohio native, just built a home on Cooper Road in Benzie County.

The timing of her arrival in Empire—three months before Houghton’s sudden retirement—was lucky because her predecessor, Coles, who was based in Frankfort and only worked a couple days a week in Empire, likely wouldn’t have been able to handle the onslaught of patients who suddenly came to the Crystal Lake Clinic in March. Fliss speculates that Houghton’s patients would have started going instead to Traverse City, and might not have returned to a local, Leelanau-based doctor.

By late April, Fliss had a giant stack of new patient files on her desk (“Houghton’s patients are older, so they have long medical histories,” she said. “That means complicated charts.”), but she was thrilled at the opportunity.

“I’ll never be to the community what Doc Houghton was,” Fliss speculated. “Nevertheless, the timing was fortuitous.”

Fliss will serve as medical examiner for Leelanau, Grand Traverse and Benzie counties on an interim basis, until Houghton is able to resume that job. In the meantime, she’s thrilled to have a practice in Empire. Assisting her at the Crystal Lake Clinic are Nancy Kerby (who, Fliss says, “knows patients by the sound of their voice”) and Leslie Miller.

The space next door to Fliss’ practice is a physical therapy and off-site blood drawing lab run jointly by Traverse City-based Munson Medical Center and Frankfort-based Paul Oliver Hospital. Fliss hopes that a pharmacy could move into that space in the future.

Teacher in a classroom of yarn

MaryTurak2-webMary Turak didn’t sit idle. Not after she fell and broke her right wrist in March 2013, and had to re-learn to knit. Not after building permit delays stymied her plans last summer to re-open her Yarn Shop in the ground floor of her daughter, Lissa Edwards’ house. And not when she turned 82 years old. Instead, Turak rose every morning last summer and walked two miles, then sold doughnuts and coffee from the kiosk in front of Edwards’ house on Lake Street.

“I learned patience and to keep smiling,” reflected Turak. “At my age, some would be happy sitting around in rocking chairs, but not me.” During her forced sabbatical last year she read history books on her Kindle.

This spring the Yarn Shop is back open—in its ninth location in Glen Arbor, since the business started in 1955. Turak inherited the Yarn Shop in 1977 and moved it to the Village Sampler plaza when she retired from teaching in 1994. Many elements in this location are new. Attractive, and practical shelves built by Dick Hilton line both sides of the rectangular shop. Turak sells expensive mink yarns now (though she also has the right yarn to fit any customer’s price range), and the walls feature plein air oil paintings by Lily LaFolette. Yarns here can also be purchased with mobile phone-enabled QR codes—a concept that baffles Turak. “When I was a little girl, all phone calls went through an operator,” she laughs.

But Mary Turak’s warm, teacher-like presence has not changed. As she sits on the couch, she’s just as likely to weave a story, as she is to knit a scarf or a sweater. The “to teach is to love” poster, which features her in a classroom in the 1970s, still hangs from the wall above her desk.

“Running a yarn shop is not unlike running a successful classroom,” concludes Turak. “You always have to be willing to help if someone doesn’t understand.”

Old Cottage Book Shop gets new owner

Sue Boucher has always had a thing for bookstores. “They really grab you,” says the new owner of Glen Arbor’s Cottage Book Shop.

Boucher left the Chicago area and moved up north last October, and bought the bookshop from Barbara Siepker on April 1. Boucher had owned the Lake Forest Book Store in Lake Forest, Ill., for 18 years, and vacationed in Leelanau for 20. During each of the past two summers, Siepker convinced her to come and work for a month in the Cottage Book Shop. Boucher was smitten.

“I’m not the retiring type,” she said. “This store, like my store in Lake Forest, has an ‘at home’ feeling. But the best part is that, here, everybody’s on vacation.”

The Cottage Book Shop has always been a kid-friendly destination, and Boucher wants to continue that tradition. She is taking part in a national “Where’s Waldo Local” hunt for the month of July. Participating businesses will display a Waldo somewhere on their premises, and it’s up to kids to find them. A “Where’s Waldo” party will take place on July 30. Stay tuned for details.

Come meet Boucher and enjoy a piece of cake on Saturday, May 24, from 2-4 p.m. as the Cottage Book Shop celebrates its new owner. Local photographer Ken Scott will also be on hand to promote his new book, The Ice Caves of Leelanau: A Visual Exploration, which was published this spring by Siepker’s Leelanau Press.

Also new in Glen Arbor

Cynthia Goodrick opened Elements Fine Home Goods on May 1 in the location next to the Old Schoolhouse, which was previously occupied by MacBeth & Co. Opening this store had been on Goodrick’s mind for years, and Glen Arbor was always “the site”. The shop features unique, high-quality goods from 30 different states, all 100 percent American made. There are blankets and linens, duffels, tote bags, canvass goods, leather, glasses and ceramics.

For Goodrick, who worked as an archeologist in Spain before returning stateside, Elements Fine Home Goods is an expression of her patriotism. “I wanted to showcase what we do well here. We do have great manufacturers still surviving. This store is about what Leelanau means to me. I’m proud to be from the USA, proud to be from Michigan, and proud to be from Leelanau.”

Goodrick is married to Mike Wiesen. She says her nephew and niece, Matt and Katy, who run Crystal River Outfitters, have been a huge help in opening the business.

Next to Ruth Conklin Gallery, April Prince and husband Ryan Farris opened the Plover Dunes Yarn Shop mid-last summer. The name of the shop came to Prince one day as she was driving toward Glen Arbor. “I remembered the plight of the Piping Plover and its classification as endangered, and how their summer home is the Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes, and I blurted out ‘What about Plover Dunes’?” The name stuck.

Plover Dunes Yarn Shop seeks to create a comfortable feel for all ages, and men and women alike. Prince had worked at Lost Art in Traverse City before opening the shop and noticed that men weren’t really enthused about visiting the yarn shop with their wives. So Farris suggested including antiques for sale.

Bill Walters’ “Ugly Tomato” produce stand is reportedly moving from its spot next to Market-22 near Little Traverse Lake, and relocating to the old Barb’s Bakery building, across the street from Art’s Tavern in downtown Glen Arbor. And by mid-June, Megan Crandall hopes to open her Hatlem Churchill clothing store in the former Black Swan space in the Village Sampler Plaza.

Return of Empire’s native “Soni”

SoniAylsworth-webWayne “Soni” Aylsworth (whose mom Diane runs Diane’s Hairstyling) and his wife April (a Traverse City native) grew tired of the Sunday night drive back to Detroit after visits “home” nearly every weekend to fish, hike and explore Leelanau County. So after 10 years they packed up and left the Motor City for good last July. Soni launched Empire Outdoors in early May in the building previously occupied by the Oberschulte family’s Sleeping Bear Store on M-22 in Empire. The sale closed on March 1.

Empire Outdoors will be a one-stop shop for your weekend of outdoor recreation, offering bait and tackle for the avid fishermen, but also beach towels, floatables, t-shirts, sunglasses and sunscreen for those who prefer to lounge at Empire beach. Soni grew up fishing these waters, and as a teenager he worked in the Sportsman Shop in Glen Arbor, so he knows the drill. The bait and tackle are local (we’re not yet importing cheap worms from China!), the bobbers are made in America, and Soni also has a state-of-the-art bait tank made in California, which creates its own bacteria to feed the minnows.

Soni’s great-great-great grandfather, George Aylsworth, came from North Manitou Island and was the town’s founding father. Soni and April have three kids: Lexi is 7, a survivor of leukemia and has been in remission for a year; Blake is 3.5, and Corbin turns 2 in July. Not just Diane, but all of Empire, is ecstatic that this native son returned home.

Also new in Empire

Megan and Peter Schous, who own the Lakeshore Inn at the corner of M-22 and M-72, have purchased Tiffany’s from the Deerings and plan to re-open the treasured ice cream shop in downtown Empire. Meanwhile, the Van Skyhock Chiropractic Health Center has reopened in the State Savings Bank building north of town.