Welcome to Macina Island Moments, hosted by lifelong islander Jason Saint Ande. Through
conversations and interviews with Folle Island locals and residents, Jason will bring you the
real stories and characters that to find life on the island. Whether you're a
seasoned visitor, new to Macana Island, or even an island or yourself,
you'll be sure to learn firsthand about the island with Jason on Macin Island Moments.
Hi, and welcome to the second episode of the Mackinaw Island Moments podcast.
I'm Jason saint and coming to you from Mackinaw Island. I first want
to thank all our listeners from the inaugural podcasts, and of course acknowledge our
sponsor for this podcast, which is the Macin Island Tourism Bureau. Your trip
begins at Macina Island dot Org. Today's episode, folks, I'm simply calling
the Blues and I'll tell you what I have the Blues on Macin Island.
The weather has been horrible and horrible. I mean that it's been balmy and
mild and void of all winter her characteristics. I like winter. I've mentioned
that in the previous podcast. And you've heard me say that I like winter
better than summer, and I do, but what we are experiencing is not
winter. When the lake has so much open water like it does right now,
the temperatures come up and you get fog. And let me tell you,
we are getting the fog. Today, it wasn't as foggy. It
actually lifted for the first time in several days. I haven't seen the sun
in days. These are the times when it's not so fun to live here
in the winter. But as I've always said, when the chips are down
and you start second guess in your decision on about living on mac And Island,
I have a little thing I do. I always think that there are
literally hundreds of thousands of people who save their time and their money just to
spend a weekend or an afternoon here, and I get to be here every
day. And that said, I guess we'll take a little fog when the
fog rolls. Anyway, I'm calling this episode the Blues not just because of
my weather induced mental state, but also because I'm going to talk about the
famous rare blue ice and I'm going to dispel that myth and then I'm going
to talk about Grand Hotel's blue ceiling. I'm gonna myth bust that one.
And finally we're going to have our We're going to have our first guests on
the podcast, The Top Blue, the Top Man in Blue on maclond the
Chief of Macloon Police Department, Doug Tapolski. This is definitely going to be
a blue episode. So let's talk about blue ice or rare blue ice.
Some of you may have picked up on the locals laughing about all the fuss
about blue ice. Sorry, I mean rare blue ice. Full disclosure,
I happen to think blue ice is cool. I think it's pretty. I
even stop and photograph it on occasion. I always like to see it.
That said, what makes it funny. What makes it funny is it's not
rare. It appears every year. I can't think of a time we didn't
see it. It's merely caused by pieces of ice when they push up and
stack on each other and a little snow on it, and the light refracts
and there's some light bluish tint to it. But what ended up happening is
some marketing genius on the mainland, and that's what I'm gonna call him because
he came up with this. Some marketing genius on the mainland added the word
rare to it, and it took off. And what's funny about it is
it's not rare. It's not even it's yearly. Some years it runs the
entire western shore of the island. Some years it runs the eastern shore.
Some years it's all over the place. You know, it's a half mile
off shore, sometimes it's a mile off shore. It's all over the ice
as you go across. I always tell people, if you think it's so
rare, go cut off a piece, take it home and put it in
your freezer. Unfortunately, once you cut it off and bring it inside,
it's not blue anymore. It's not refracting that light correctly, so it won't
be blue. Even m Live got into it with a recent article that stated
it doesn't happen every year. Yes it does. I'm guessing most folks who
live on the Great Lakes, or at least the Great Lakes I've been shaking
their heads about this new manufactured phenomenon. So is it cool? Yes?
Is it fun to see? Absolutely, But it's not rare or a phenomenon
at least not to us. I'll tell you what's rare. The sun has
been rare the last ten days to two weeks. But I believe I've covered
that, So hopefully folks will stop flocking across the state and across the country
and seeing it all over national news when a little blue ice rears its head.
But I guess that's why they call it the media. Huh. Okay,
onto blue ceilings. A whole bunch of you, including a lot of
tour drivers, aren't going to like this one. Why is the ceiling of
the Grand Hotel blue? I know, I know it keeps the birds away.
Birds don't like a blue ceiling. It tricks the birds into believing it's
the sky so they won't roost. And now it even tricks bugs too.
Okay, folks, you're ready for this. The reason the ceiling of the
Grand Hotel is blue the porch right, It's because around nineteen eighty five or
nineteen eighty six, during a major renovation, the hotel decorator Carlton Varney of
the New York decorating firm Dorothy Draper, he looked up at the ceiling and
said, paint that ceiling blue. It'll look nicer in fat Carlton, who
recently passed. He used to call it Jefferson Blue, but it's actually Pittsburgh
paint color. Do Kiss, d ew Kiss, do Kiss. Yes,
I'm aware that lately some paint companies have come out with their own color called
Macina Porch blue or something of the sort. But trust me, folks,
I painted that ceiling half a dozen times. It's Do Kiss by Pittsburgh Paint.
I know, I know, yeah, But we were told now a
blue ceiling won't keep the birds or bugs away? Is there some down South
tradition about haint blue in bad spirits or some malarkey or something like that.
Maybe I don't know. This isn't the Deep South, and I don't know
anything about that. But why are there any birds on the ceiling of the
Grand Hotel? And I'll tell you, and I speak from experience, as
my company spent fifteen years doing all the painting and wallpaper fork Grand Hotel.
The reason there aren't any birds is twofold First. Every year, a product
called roost Off is applied to every ledge, every sprinkler, pipe, and
crevasse that a bird might consider landing on and taking roost. This product comes
in a calking tube style cartridge and you use a calking gun and you apply
it just like you would cocking. It has a consistency of liquid fly paper
or really thick syrup, maybe toothpaste. It's about as thick as toothpaste.
It's clear, and so you don't see it, and when a bird lands
on it, they feel the stickiness on their feet and they immediately leave.
The other bird prevention device is on the front of the hotel and it runs
from pillar to pillar. You can't really see it, or maybe you have,
but the the hotel maintenance department runs fishing line. They run it from
pillar to pillar and they run several rows of it, probably about six,
six or eight rows of it. A lot of restaurants do the same thing
that have open air seating or patio seating. They run it across the top
so the seagulls don't bombard you. You know, when the hotel is having
those functions, those weddings and those cocktail parties, you can't have birds above
you doing what birds above you tend to do, if you know what I
mean. So they take great care and interest in preventing birds from hanging out
on the porch. So I know you heard it on a carriage tour,
you heard someone else talk about it, or you read it on Facebook,
so it must be true. But listen, the reason the porch is blue
is because the decorator said painted blue. One time, I was standing next
to Carlton and he looked at some of the balconies on the front of the
porch and he said, the bottom of those should be Jefferson blue as well,
And just like that, we turned them Jefferson blue. So, you
know, it was funny. When I was still working there, I used
to get calls and always i'd be on the fourth floor on the far west
end, and I would come over the work radio, you know, Jason
Saint, and you have a call in maintenance. Oh Jesus, it's you
know, it's about a five to ten minute walk. I used to call
it a two and a half hour drive to go from the west top floor
all the way down to maintenance, which is in the far east basement,
So you walk all the way down there, and invariably i'd pick up the
phone and I'd say, you know, hi, this is Jason, and
the voice on the other end it'd usually be some gentlemen saying, hey,
you know, I'm I'm gonna be painting my porch. And I understand you
guys use a certain blue to keep the birds away, and I'd like to
mimic that if you don't mind giving me the formula, and I would.
I would tell these folks, you know, to save them the hassle and
the money and perhaps the embarrassment when it doesn't work, that you know,
that's not why we paint it blue. And invariably these guys would argue with
me, Oh no, I heard it on a carriage to Oh no,
I was told, I know, I read it on the internet. And
after the fourth or fifth time of me trying to help people into not doing
this for birds, I mean, if you want to do it for aesthetic
reasons, have that. It does look nice and it, you know,
gives a nice little glow when the light's hitting it in a certain time of
day. But you would think they would say, oh, really, hey,
thanks a lot. No, no, no, these these these folks
want to argue with the guy who actually puts it on. And so after
about the fourth or fifth time I'd pick up the phone, I'd say,
hello, this is Jason, and the guy would say, listen, I'm
thinking about painting my ceiling. The colors due kiss the colors due kiss d
E W Kiss from Pittsburgh Paint and it's flat. Thank you, have a
great day, Good luck with your project. So I guess you could say
I'm partially responsible for the pervasive use of Folks who have visited the island saw
that blue ceiling on the porch and then and then took the same thing home
with them. So sorry about that, everybody. I just got tired of
arguing. So okay, folks, we've got a great treat for you.
Now. We're having our first ever guest on the podcast. As you may
have heard me say in previous podcasts, mack And Island is an actual working
town, all the same municipal services you would see in any small town,
and that includes a police department. Joining me today on the podcast is our
current chief of Police, Doug Tapolski. Chief. Welcome to the podcast.
Oh thanks Jason, thanks for having me. I'm glad you're here. I
hope you're able to glean a little bit from our discussions we've been having.
Well, I've been listening and I didn't realize about the blue paint at the
grand I thought it was to keep the hats away. Oh right, right,
Jefferson Blue the do kiss. Yeah. As a matter of fact,
anyone who wants to check my math on that, if you'll just take a
glance at somewhere in time, which was released in nineteen eighty, By god,
you'd see that that ceiling was white. Then. So anyway, Chief,
can you give us a history slash background? How did you end up
the chief of police in Macleland. Take us through your career if you would
sure. I joined the Detroit Police Department back in nineteen eighty six when I
was twenty years old. I basically wanted to get out of the house while
I still knew everything. And I worked there for four years, and then
I went to the Dearborn Police Department, where I retired after twenty six years
as a lieutenant detective Bureau. And then I moved up to Manistee and I
worked a summer driving boats for Sheriff Chim m Cole on Lake Michigan. And
you know, I was a little bored. I went back to school.
I took a job at the University of Michigan as a police officer, and
I finished my bachelor's degree and started on my master's and to be honest,
I really didn't enjoy working there that much in the higher education environment. So
the job on mcn Island came open and I wanted to try something different that
was still in Michigan. So here I am cool, very cool. So
Chief, I'm sure you get this question a lot. What is the difference
in a day at the MIPD in July versus a day at the MIPD in
January. Well, in the winter time, our service that we provide most
is transportation for people that can't get around, either because there's no snow or
because of age or infirmity. And also we're required to escort a lot of
the construction vehicles that come over. I don't know that most people know that
all of the construction of Manco Island takes place during the winter, So we
escort the vehicles so they don't cause any trouble with kids going to school or
you know, other pedestrians, and you know, the population is way down
in the winter, but we do get contractors here as you know, all
winter long. So that's how we expend most of our resources during the winter.
In the summertime, you know, same thing as any other resort type
location. We provide a lot of police presence downtown and we also administer and
police the e bike situation, which as you know, has grown over here.
So e bike issues take up a lot of our time in the summer
as well as just providing a police presence downtown, right right, certainly,
Chief, we sometimes are on the same frequency fire and police. And I
know you get a lot of lost lost child calls that usually end in about
five to ten minutes with unification with their parents. After all these years,
have we ever not found a missing kid on mcan Island? No, we
never lost a child or an adult. I found them all. Okay,
what's your favorite part of the job, not just in law enforcement, but
being the chief here on Mcin Island. You know, I think it's the
same as my other law enforcement jobs, and that would be meeting interesting people
and hearing their stories. You know. For example, here in the island,
we've got everyone from literally billionaires to the working class, and everybody's got
a story, you know. I know you've mentioned Dale before, Gallagher,
who's former chief, and he's just a fascinating guy, you know, at
his age, he's still working every day. Was he about almost ninety and
I think he's ninety one or ninety two now wow. And you know,
one of my first summer, first or second summer here, he came down
to register his e bike and I wasn't quite sure who he was, but
you know, he introduced himself and he sends transition to a mobility type card.
Although he's still working. But when he came to see me the first
time, he had an e bike that was something out of World War two.
It was just ancient and it didn't quite fit any of the classes we
had. But you know, I gave him an e bike permit and somebody
saw him riding around and asked me, you know, how come you know
he gets an e bike permit for that thing? And I told him,
well, you know, Dale's leg was blown up in Korea fighting communists.
You know, if you can tell me that, you can have one.
So yeah, And it's it's just, you know, people like hearing their
stories what brought him here to the island, whether they grew up here or
moved here, or even seasonal residents. I enjoyed talking to a lot of
the seasonal, you know, international workers on the work basis here, whether
it's the Jamaicans or Eastern European people. I I, you know, made
friends with people from Translvant. Yeah. I asked them if they'd ever been
the Dracula Castle, Dracula's Castle. Of course, everyone's been the Dracula Castle.
That's great, you know. I we're hopeful to get dal on the
show sooner than he's a great guy. Stories to tell. I bet it'd
be about a six hour podcast, just to scrape the beginning. You know,
A central theme folks are probably going to pick up on the folks that
live on the island is it's the people. So many people are going to
come on this podcast and tell you they just really like the people. Uh.
What challenges do you face that maybe other majority of other police departments don't
face. You know, I think the biggest challenge, and it would probably
it's got to do with just the nature of the island is finding people who
are a good fit to work here. And as you probably know, there's
a hiring crisis right now in law enforcement. I don't know about the fire
service, emergency services across the board, so you know, it's it's it
was, and it was getting like that. Before I retired out of Dearborn,
I was involved in the hiring process there and that was pre COVID and
now post COVID. It's just, I mean, it's it's very very difficult
to get qualified applicants, and on the island it's even you know, it's
compounded by the remote location, the desire to live maybe in housing that you
don't own. You know, it works for it works better for you know,
single people. But we are lucky to get Mic roots here with you
know, with his kids. So it's just a man of getting out there.
Social media has been a great benefit in recruiting because it gets you know,
really gets the word out there and we look for anyone from new recruits
out of the academy who can find a job anywhere. Now, I mean,
it's just so easy to get a job all the way up to retirees
who were you know, still able to work and for our seasonals. But
we've been very fortunate. We just hired Officer Mitchanowski from Claire County and the
council was was gracious enough to allow us to hire them full time. So
you know, now it's it's a situation where when you find some of the
fits, you kind of got to grab them. Sure. Sure, and
Midge is a great guy. Shout out to Midge. Yeah, you know,
I'm sure when you're you're traveling, you must get a lot of raised
eyebrows when folks here where you're from or where you work, and maybe some
ribbon about being the chief of police on Mac Island. What is your favorite
story or maybe anecdote you like to tell about your job here? Wow,
you know, there's there's so many. I mean, it's uh, it's
it's a unique environment, which is what I was looking for. And you
know, we get the Mayberry jokes. You know, do you carry as
a lot of people know I still carry here on the island my forty five
Smith and Wesson revolver. So the old timers love that in the retired cops,
but you know, I get the Mayby Mayberry jokes. And uh,
one of my favorite stories though is you know, my my former coworkers ask
me what's going on up here, and you know there's I'm not going to
say their name, but there's some pretty well off people up here and they
take us out on their you know, seventy some foot motoriat and I said,
oh, I'm just on. You know, so and so is a
well known name, you know, Motriat and Missus. You know, Smith
is cooking us a turkey and on the boat and so, you know,
get them a little jealous. So, you know, just just a wonderful
people out here. I don't know if I should tell you the story about
the roofers, remember that, because I think we might I might segue from
that story into the last time we saw a service revolver pulled. Okay,
so you know when I first got here, I think I was here for
two weeks and I hadn't even met all the officers yet. And I went
down to UH. I went down to the Mustang, which is you know,
is the only place open. And I walked in and there was a
kerfuffle starting between the locals and a rough and ready roofing crew that was here.
And so regardless of how the fight started, it started, and we
were able to get everybody outside and kind of separate, and I was in
the middle and commenced the roofers to go home, except for a loan holdout
who pulled the claw hammer in the middle of the street. And I've been
playing clothes and well, I, you know, I'm not going to get
hit with a clawhammer. So I pulled my pistol on and you know,
there was alcohol flowing, and they decided discretion was a better part of valor,
and they left and we went to their hotel to you know, finish
our report, and they wanted to know who I was. I said,
I'm the chief of police, and they said, well, what's your badge
number. I don't have a badge number, so we have to have a
badge number. That's the law. And so we've got the roofers quoting me
the law. And I tossed them my chief's badge and I said, you
know, what's the number on there? And I guess there is no number,
and you know, we started talking and they were from Detroit, and
I told him I used to work for Detroit and you know, I didn't
survived my time there by not pulling my gun. Was somebody you know,
pull a clawhammer. I mean and Berner Highway. Oh you're from Detroit,
and you know there tomb kind of change a little bit. So I was
wondering, what did I get myself into here? You know, But that
was the only time you know that was gosh going on four years ago.
Now, yeah, that I remember that happened. That story went around like
wild. That's another one of my favorite island stories. You know that this
is kind of like an everyday thing in Detroit or you know, Dearborn or
wherever down there, but up here it's kind of unique because I was talking
to somebody who spends the winters in Florida after they came back, and somebody
mentioned it and he said, yeah, I heard that story the next day
in Florida. So I'm like, geez, that reminds me. And you
know folks who always said we're going to tell stories and old time stuff here.
Now let me speaking of a police officer pulling their weapon. Let me
tell this story. Now. I wasn't there. I don't even know if
I was born yet. It was in the early nineteen seventies. The chief
of police at the time was a guy by named Otto Wandry. And the
best way most people describe Outo Wandery was he used a big sob. In
fact, when he was riding the horse, he looked like Mongol riding the
cow and Blason sad coming down the street. I've seen the pictures. Of
course, Otto was retired from the Detroit Fire Department. He had decorated several
times. He'd been in some real bad situations. He also was I believe
he was sunk in the Pacific and World War two, so yeah, quite
a guy. Anyway, a bachelor party had come to the island and they
were whooping it up, and they were tearing up the bars, and they
were out of line and out of control, and the local police officer went
down to kind of bring some peace and they ended up beating him up unconscious.
And I don't know if Margaret was the mayor then or Bud Emmons,
but anyway, they called Auto down. They said you better get down here.
Your your deputy's unconscious. So Otto had to, you know, put
his gun belt on at seven o'clock, eight o'clock at night. It's not
what he wanted to do, and comes marching down to town and he costs
these gentlemen down by the starline doc where it is now. And apparently,
again I wasn't here. This is mac and a lore, but I like
it, and nobody's ever disputed it. Apparently they were going to surround Otto
and they said, your deputy He's laying there unconscious. What are you going
to do? And Otto pulled his pistol out, fired one shot into the
sidewalk. Bang, and he said, that's the last one I'm wasting.
Get on your boat and get out of here. They'll do it, and
uh, problem solved out of the spot. So so I think you and
Otto at least the only two stories I know. And it wasn't the is
Otto son Paul. Yeah, so Paul. Paul's got a couple of brothers
that are a Detroit police officer, right, yeah, yeah, and they
were. They were pretty well known. I found newspaper articles on them,
you know, detective detrictive stuff. And I've actually met one of his brothers
up here. Yeah, the Woundries are pretty well known in Detroit police and
fire. So anyway, you took a you took a gun to a hammer
fight, Good for you, exactly. So I gotta dig you a little
bit here, Chief. I see the emblem on the MI I PD logo
has a horse dead center and it's a focal point of the seal of your
cress. Chief, When is the last time you were on a horse?
Well, I think the badge has a canoe on it. I don't haven't
a canoe lately either, but a horse, uh gosh, probably thirty years
ago when I still lived in Detroit, we had the Detroit Mounted Stables were
right by my house on Joy Road, and after Detroit PD moved out,
the Buffalo Soldiers re enactment group moved in there. So I stopped ei there
once with my daughter, I believe, or by myself maybe, and they
let me ride a horse around up there. So that was the last time.
That's a long way of saying along about way of saying you don't ride
horses, Chief. You know, I was offered free horse riding lessons at
the Equestrian Center here, and I might do it this summer, But the
ground looks a lot farther away when you're sitting up there. You know,
It's true. In my age, I can't afford to be falling off of
horses, Chief, I haven't been on a horse since nineteen eighty one.
Oh wow, I might try it. We'll see the summer. I'll be
standing by Hey. Yeah, question for you, because I'm sure a lot
of your compadres down south would like to know this. Have you ever met
any famous people on the job here? On the island, or at least
famous to you, you know, a famous to me. The most famous
person I think I've met was Paul Keller, bass player, jazz guy from
Detroit. And I'm sure there's been more famous people, but you know,
I'm sure they're incognito when they come up here. But I was walking down
the street and I used to love to hear Paul in this group play in
Detroit. And there's Paul getting off the ball and I said, oh my
gosh, it's Paul Paul Kellery. He said, how do you know?
I seeing Detroit all the time. So he was up here to play at
the at the Grand, at the Jackey Club. He comes up twice a
year for the Jazz Festival, and so it was great to see him.
Oh cool, Not who I would have expected, you would have said.
But like I said, famous to you, Jeev, I'm gonna I'm gonna
pry you a little bit here too. You talked about Paul Keller, but
I think you held back. I believe you met your all time crush up
here. Oh that's right, your favorite bond girl. Tell us about it.
Jane Seymour. I guess she comes up every three years. Or so
for somewhere in time weekend, and so I was able to meet miss Seymour
and get a picture of her and picture with her actually, and she's quite
lovely. And I've got a picture framed in a Mackinawe Island Grand Hotel frames
that a friend of mine from downstate sent me. So I've I've got a
frame picture of her and Jack Webb is Joe Friday on my final cabinet in
the office. And I tell the youngsters that come in that that's my mom
and dad and they believe me. Yeah, that's how old we're. Hey,
I got I got a celebrity voicemail message for voicemail one here, sure,
all right, and I will tell you whoever can identify the celebrity voicemail
reader, I will send them the first one that identifies them, I'll send
them a Macina Island Police horse patch and let's see, you're someone's going to
recognize them pretty quick, I think. Let me pull it up right here,
But on the horse patch will not be a picture of you riding that.
No, not this one. Okay, here we go. Hello,
you've reached the mackinaw Island Police Department. If you have an emergency dial nine
one one. We are not able to take your call right now, but
if you leave your name, number and a brief message, someone will return
your call as soon as possible. I don't call the police department to hear
that again because I don't have it up in the voicemail yet. With our
new phones, I haven't figured it out. But whichever one of your listeners
can identify that celebrity voice, I will send them one of our patches.
Sounds good to me, Chief, I'm stumped. Last question for you,
Chief, who is on Facebook more the police chief or the fire chief on
mac and Island? Oh gosh. You know. I don't keep stats,
but I think between you and I we probably run up the city's band with
Bill. You know, I'm on there quite a bit, you know,
because you know, we're all about people up here, and people seem to
like it. I go to the association meetings and they have an idea what's
going on with the police department, and that's another fun part of the job.
Hey, thanks for being here. I appreciate it. I know you're
a busy guy, and I was able to carve out some time from you
and I appreciate that absolutely, and folks listening, thanks long, thanks again
for coming along on the podcast. We want to once again thank our sponsor,
the mac and Island Tourism Bureau. Your trip begins at Mackinac Island dot
org. I'm Jason Saint Andre and this has been the Macina Island Moments podcast.
Good day,