“No High School in the City of Benton Harbor. No KitchenAid Senior PGA Tournament in the City of Benton Harbor (2020, 2022, 2024) #WhitmerGetUp #redistrubutethepain #education1st”
That Facebook post by Benton Harbor Mayor Marcus Muhammad has escalated the city’s battle with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer over the State of Michigan’s proposed plan to suspend operations at Benton Harbor High School.
The Mayor, who was not at the Governor’s Town Hall Meeting last night at the Brotherhood of All Nations Church on Emery Street in the city, is clearly not pleased with Whitmer or the state and those proposed plans which originally had a deadline of tomorrow, June 7th, but were extended by a week last night when the Governor capitulated to requests for more time to formulate a response, and provide a plan from the Benton Harbor School Board and the city’s residents. That deadline has been extended to June 14th.
I reached out early this afternoon to the Mayor asking for clarification and explanation on his post, but he has not responded as yet. He has, however, responded to The Herald-Palladium Newspaper who shared his follow up on Facebook themselves, quoting Muhammad as saying (in part), “The Facebook post is exactly what it says. If there’s no support to keep Benton Harbor High School in the city of Benton Harbor, then there’s no support for the Senior PGA, a Steelhead Triathlon or any other grand excursion where people want to come and turn Benton Harbor into a haven for the rich and powerful while the children in the community wallow in hell.” He added, “As an airplane pilot would say, keep your seatbelt on because there will be turbulence.”
Here is a screen shot of the Mayor’s post late this morning:
Jeff Noel, Corporate Vice President of Communications & Public Affairs at Whirlpool Corporation, major sponsor of the Championship issued a statement this evening on the situation saying, “Given we are not, nor should we be a part of the discussions taking place over the future of the Benton Harbor Area Schools, we can’t speculate on the resolution of those discussions and thus comment on the statement made by the Mayor.” He adds, “The KitchenAid Sr. PGA Championship, the 1500 community volunteers who make it a world-class event, the countless folks who visit the area to attend the Championship, the hundreds of media and the world’s best senior golfers all look forward to visiting Michigan’s Great Southwest every other year and we look forward to welcoming them here in 2020.”
I have also reached out to Championship Director Ryan Ogle from the PGA of America, but have yet to hear back from him. Stay tuned.
The photo accompanying this story on Moody on the Market shows Mayor Muhammad distributing free holiday turkeys with Championship Director Ryan Ogle in 2017.
