Beach Town Board Battle

Owners of a Frankfort surfboard store believe they’re getting a raw deal

By Patrick Sullivan | May 6, 2017

The first inkling Frankfort surf shop owner Larry Bordine had that he was in trouble — for an incident involving an employee on a skateboard last July — was when a city police officer removed him, in front of customers, from his store, then handcuffed him and took him to jail.

The Frankfort police officer polite was polite, almost apologetic, Bordine said, and agreed to arrest Bordine’s wife, Nancy, the next day, so that the couple’s store could remain open. On the day of her arrest, July 17, Nancy dressed in her best Sunday school teacher clothes and brought along her needlepoint set. Larry and Nancy were each processed and released within a couple hours of their arrests.

For the Bordines, the arrests marked a low point in a simmering dispute between them and another paddle board rental business in Frankfort. City officials contend the arrests had nothing to do with the other business and were simply about an employer putting its employees in danger.

PADDLE BOARDS ARRIVE UP NORTH
The Bordines opened Beach Nut Surf Shop on Frankfort’s Main Street, a mile from the water, in 2010. They were pioneers of stand-up paddle boards in northern Michigan; Larry started making them in 2004, buying from Home Depot slabs of Styrofoam, which he’d glue together, shape into boards and wrap in fiberglass.

The Traverse City couple chose to open their shop in Frankfort because the hydrology of Lake Michigan in that area makes it one of the best surfing spots in the state. 

Crystal Lake Adventure Sports previously had been located in Frankfort but had moved to Beulah before Beach Nut opened. In 2011, Crystal returned to Frankfort, moving into a kiosk on American Legion property. The move irked Larry Bordine because it meant Beach Nut had to face a competitor who was closer to the beach and didn’t have the overhead of a brick-and-mortar store.

“They came back. And they had that little garden shed that they operated out of,” Larry Bordine said. “When they first started, they had that, and they parked their trailer on the street and just rented off that. And we kind of complained to the city — like, is that legal? Can you do that? That doesn’t seem fair.”

The city told the owner of Crystal Lake Adventure Sports to get rid of its trailer, but the Bordines were still upset that the competitor didn’t have to pay the transient business fee that’s on Frankfort’s books.

A COMPETITION HEATS UP
The two paddle sports businesses competed over the years, and as each season went by, bad feelings seemed to ratchet up.

The owner of Crystal Lake Adventure Sports, Randall Newbold, did not return a message seeking comment. 

Over the years, the Bordines said they complained to the city about other things they felt gave their competition unfair advantage. They complained about an annual end-of-season sale Newbold held at his house between Frankfort and Elberta because it took place in the city limits and, under city code, seemed to be an illegal yard sale.
 
Later, Frankfort’s city council debated food trucks and decided to discourage them in order to protect established restaurants.
The Bordines said they didn’t understand why the same rationale wasn’t applied to paddle-board rental businesses.
“We asked them, if we can’t do food trucks, and there are no vendors, how does Crystal Lake Adventure Sports get away with what they’re doing? Isn’t that the same thing?” Larry Bordine said. “And then they started backpedaling and said, ‘Oh, well, they’re grandfathered.’”

The Bordines said the city offered to “level the playing field,” offering the Bordines the chance to operate out of a beach kiosk for the 2016 season. While they didn’t necessarily want to do business that way, the couple feared that if they didn’t do it, someone else might.

The Bordines said they originally were told that, because they were a brick-and-mortar business, they would have the right of first refusal. Later, they learned the spot would go up for a bid. The kiosk was awarded to Crystal in a special meeting called 10 days after the Bordines’ arrest.

“We were arrested, and then right away they went to decide on that kiosk down at the beach and they awarded it to them,” Larry Bordine said. “When you look at it all, you think, are they really out to get us? I mean, is that pointed at us? And then you think, well, that really can’t be. But then more and more stuff goes on, and you’re like, yeah.”

“NOBODY’S TARGETING ANYBODY”
Frankfort Superintendent Joshua Mills said he and other officials have not used their positions to help Crystal and hurt Beach Nut.

“Competition’s a tough thing,” Mills said. “I think these accusations against the city couldn’t be further from the truth. Nobody’s targeting anybody.”

He said Newbold negotiated a deal for the American Legion property, paid that organization rent, and Crystal was deemed exempt from the city’s transient business fee because Newbold is a veteran.

“Our vending policy is pretty gray — it mainly deals with private property, commercial property,” Mills said. “It was determined to not impose a fee from the city at that time because he was a veteran.”

Mills said Crystal pays between $1,200 to $1,500 in rent to the American Legion per summer, and that money is used for scholarships, a fact that was also taken into account.

Mills said the arrangement was not viewed as creating a competitive disadvantage for Beach Nut because the Bordines themselves had once rented space, at Harbor Lights Resort, next to the beach.

“Of course, we didn’t impose any fees on that,” Mills said.

Mills said the Bordines weren’t offered the first chance at the beach kiosk, but he said they were given special consideration because they were an existing business.

Mills said the criminal charges against the Bordines “clouded up the situation” and then, days later, when the city council awarded the contract for the beach kiosk to Crystal, it was because that business was better prepared and the Bordines had failed to respond to a request for more data. 

Also, Mills said, Nancy Bordine further hurt Beach Nut’s chances when she became angry at a meeting about the kiosk.

“When you compared the two, side by side, the Crystal Lake Adventure Sports submittal exceeded all our guidelines,” Mills said. “Honestly, at the end of the day, if she would have kept her cool, she would have been given that kiosk. That was just my impression.”

THE INCIDENT ON MAIN STREET
At the center of the saga is the manner in which Beach Nut gets paddle boards to its customers on the beach.

For the past three seasons, employees as young as 14 used motorized electric skateboards to haul surfboard-hauling trailers from the store to the beach. The employees are trained to operate the skateboards, and their parents must sign off.

On July 7, 2016, a 3-year-old girl who was crossing Main Street with her family ran into one of the trailers. The incident occurred near Crystal Lake Adventure Sports and Newbold witnessed it. Frankfort police investigated the incident, and Benzie County Prosecutor Sara Swanson decided to charge the Bordines with contributing to the delinquency of a minor, a misdemeanor that carries up to 90 days in jail.

According to the police report, the girl was shaken up but not injured.

“It was a non-event until Randy Newbold came screaming across the road yelling negligence, got on his cell phone and said, ‘Hey, it’s Randy, send some vehicles and some ambulances down here right away,’” Nancy Bordine said.

Frankfort Police Department Chief Robert Lozowski was unavailable for comment.

Mills said the investigation was not part of a conspiracy against the Bordines.

“I know the Beach Nut folks think that Randy Newbold is in collusion in all of this, but it’s not true. Nothing’s further from the truth,” Mills said. “He was already on his phone with a sheriff’s deputy. Randy Newbold didn’t pick up the phone and say, ‘Hey, I just witnessed this happen, go nail them.’”

Swanson said she read the police report and determined the Bordines should be charged because they put a minor employee in a situation where he could have been charged with a crime himself — for carelessly operating a motor vehicle without a license.

Swanson said she didn’t know the arrests occurred amid a bitter business dispute.

“I had no idea that we would still be talking about this a year later,” Swanson said. “I thought this was a pretty insignificant case at the time.”

A MOTORIZED SKATEBOARD BAN
The charges were quickly dismissed in exchange for an agreement that the Bordines would no longer allow unlicensed riders on electric skateboards. Following that, Lozowski sent the Bordines a cease and desist order on Aug. 2, citing unspecified state and local law against electric skateboards. Next, Frankfort officials set out to create an ordinance to regulate all skateboards, a move officials said was not meant to target the Bordines or their business.

Nancy Bordine noted that the proposed skateboard ban has been narrowed so that it would apply only between Memorial Day and Labor Day, only on Main Street, and only during daylight hours.

“It’s only during the time that we’re open,” Nancy Bordine said. “It’s like, you couldn’t have targeted us more.”

The skateboard regulations have been tabled until September, but the motorized skateboard ban is on the agenda for a meeting in May. 

Mills said the purpose of regulating skateboards is for public safety.

“What if we allow cars out there with no brakes? I mean, where do we draw the line out there in terms of public safety?” Mills said. “Nobody wants to ruin fun for a group people, but also, we’ve got to be mindful that our streets are primarily for vehicles.”

An electric skateboard ban might prove unnecessary because city officials already have determined those devices to be illegal based on their interpretation of state law, though electric skateboards are so new they are not yet explicitly addressed by state law.

City Attorney Ross Hammersley said he was asked to review the prosecutor and police chief’s determination that electric skateboards were not allowed on public streets, and he agreed with their conclusion.

Hammersley said a 2015 Michigan Court of Appeals opinion spells out that any motorized vehicle on a public road must comply with state law. The opinion stems from People vs. William Shaw Lyon, a Grand Traverse County case in which the court reinstated drunk driving charges against a disabled man who drove his mobility scooter down South Airport Road while intoxicated.

Hammersley said the Lyon opinion spells out that if a motorized vehicle is on the public roadway, then it has to follow the laws of the road, which means it has to be registered and insured, have brakes, and have other features that a motorized skateboard lacks.

“The operators of the motorized skateboards do not currently fit the bill of fulfilling these requirements,” Hammersley said. “Anybody who is operating any sort of vehicle in a public roadway has to do so in compliance with the law.”

A DEDICATED EMPLOYEE
Beach Nut employee Alex Thayer has spent four summers at Beach Nut and said it’s a great place to work.

“It’s a fun job. You get outside a lot, and you can’t beat hanging out on the beach in the summer,” said Thayer, a high school student who studies engineering and robotics at the Manufacturers Technology Academy at the TBAISD Career-Tech Center in Traverse City.
Thayer’s mother, Caroline Thayer, said she believes Beach Nut is a good place for kids to work and that the Bordines care about their employees.

“Larry and Nancy have hired youth in our community and have been great mentors and good employers of our son and, I believe, of others,” she said.

Alex Thayer believes Frankfort officials set out to discourage skateboards and that they’ve tried to make life difficult for the Bordines.

Thayer said police in Frankfort have been stopping him on his skateboard for two years and threatening to take away his skateboard based on laws and ordinances that don’t exist. He made the same complaint in a public comment at a city council public safety committee meeting in April.

At the meeting, Lozowski, Frankfort police chief, said he would look into complaints about officers harassing skateboarders but didn’t believe his officers had threatened to take away anyone’s skateboard.

Thayer said he disagrees with the determination by Frankfort officials that electric skateboards are illegal. 

He said he called the Secretary of State to ask if he could register his motorized skateboard. He said he was told that since it doesn’t meet their definitions of a motor vehicle, it can’t be registered and that he needs to abide by local laws. Since there is no local law that pertains to electric skateboards in Frankfort, he plans to continue riding his.

“I think the biggest issue is that there’s a bad stigma around them,” Thayer said, referring to skateboards in general.

Thayer said if he gets arrested, or if the board gets confiscated, he’ll fight the case. 
“I don’t know that this’ll be resolved without legal action,” he said. “I guess we’ll see how far the city is planning on taking this; I certainly have no intention of just letting go of this.”

MEANWHILE, LOOK OUT FOR BOARDS
This year, there will be no beach kiosk, and the transient business policy has been updated so that transient businesses will have to pay $1,000 for the season to the city, or $100 per week or $50 per day. Brick-and-mortar businesses would have to pay half that for a transient license. 
Mills said Nancy Bordine was involved in drafting the new transient business guidelines.

“I hope Beach Nut comes back and has a positive experience,” Mills said.

The Bordines plan to return to the streets of Frankfort his summer “by the letter of the law.” They believe motorized skateboards should be considered “low-speed vehicles” under Michigan law. They will even equip the skateboards with tiny headlights, rear mirrors and reflectors as required by the law, even if those accessories might not be truly useful on skateboards.

Mills noted that the Bordines could still deliver paddle boards to the beach the way they used to, on trailers towed by bikes.

“Here’s the situation: They used to deliver surfboards by bike. Never a problem,” Mills said.
Larry Bordine said he doesn’t want to do that because it’s slower, and he believes the visual effect of teenagers using skateboards to deliver boards is good advertising for his business.

Frankfort resident Jim Barnes, who has attended some of the meetings when skateboards have been on the agenda, said he hopes the city doesn’t send the wrong message.

“Frankfort’s kind of developed itself into a really cool northern Michigan lake town, and it might even be one of the best surf towns in the Midwest,” he said. “If you start regulating skateboarding, you start dampening the morale of all those people who participate in a sport that has a board associated with it.”