By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
A long-running battle over whether "Garrett Road" or "Garret Road" is correct is being decided in favor of one "t" by computers.
But Bonnie Weaver doesn't want to go down without a fight.
She said recently she plans to take her case before the Cass County Road Commission Nov. 6.
"They made a mistake and they won't 'fess up to it," Weaver fumes. "It's been a long time. It's been on plat maps with one t quite a well. Signage on the road had two t's, so we the residents didn't know that back in somebody's file it was with one t. The Title Office always used two t's. Our taxes were sent Marie Huff with two t's, so when we'd see it on a plat book, we thought that was a mistake.
"Now, the IRS, the State of Michigan, your driver's license, everything has changed because of the Road Commission.
"Now Garrett Road with two t's doesn't exist, even though I can spit and hit Indian Lake Cemetery from my house" where members of the Garrett family are buried.
Weaver sent out 125 letters to Garrett Road residents trying to marshal support.
"I don't know how to get it done," she said Oct. 27 with evident frustration.
It's like trying to push a big snowball back up a hill which already gathered great girth.
"Every time they say, 'No, we're not going to do anything,' people let it go to the point where I want to sue them. They shouldn't be allowed to do this, but they don't care," Weaver said.
Since Edith Garrett, who died Jan. 7, 1942, was the only Bedford daughter and Kalamazoo librarian Kathryn Ann "Katie" Garrett Stedman was the only daughter of Eugene Stuart and Marion (Bryant) Garrett of 306 Spruce St., "There aren't a lot of them around to protest," Weaver said.
"They were teachers here their whole lives and we're doing them such a disservice."
Marion Garrett was born Feb. 11, 1915, in Dowagiac and died Dec. 26, 2001.
She taught elementary school for 32 years, including her last 17 at Patrick Hamilton School.
She served on the school board from 1951 to 1957, during the time Dowagiac's elementary schools were built.
On March 22, 1940, in Dowagiac, she married Eugene Garrett. Her husband preceded her in death Nov. 4, 1995.
Katie went to school with Bonnie's husband Dan's older brother, David.
Ten years ago, in October 1998, the issue wasn't how to spell Garrett Road.
Silver Creek Township residents filled their hall to capacity to oppose a plan to squeeze off Garrett Road at M-152 because it meant changes affecting the entire community for 12 months to benefit a lesser number of summer residents.
Twenty-two people – three for and 18 against – spoke out at a hearing to create a video record to refer to the county Road Commission along with "several" letters the township board received.
What was then a three-man road panel possessed the ultimate authority to determine whether the primary county road between Dewey and Cable lakes near Fitch Camp should be converted to a cul-de-sac.
Twenty-seven proponents of the change who signed petitions circulated over Memorial Day cited safety concerns, but the larger community, including two fire departments, said the plan would create new hazards by redirecting traffic south on Garrett Road off Dixon Street, where the township hall is.