Savor

Nostalgic Nod

World War II, female pilots are themes of taproom, winery

BY JULIE SMITH

Celebrating female pilots who served in World War II may seem like an unusual concept for a winery, but for Jeff Wescott it's been lucky.

A beer-making effort that began as a “little bit of a hobby” for Wescott became Lucky Girl Brewing Crossroads, a taproom and restaurant located at the crossroads of M-40 and M-43, between Paw Paw and Gobles, and then saw the addition of the B52 Winery next door.

In 2014, Wescott started Lucky Girl Brewing Co. by making beers to sell at local retail establishments. A bit of a military buff, he was enamored with the World War II generation and designed a label for his

A framed photograph of female pilots of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) program of World War II adorns a wall at the B52 Winery.

bottles celebrating the pin-up art of that era.

“World War II was the greatest generation. It’s when the country took off,” he says.

In 2017 Wescott decided to go bigger with his brewing efforts, teaming up with

Clockwise from below: Lucky Girl Brewing's decor pays homage to World War II; Lucky Girl and B52 Winery owner Jeff Wescott; the exterior of Lucky Girl Brewing Crossroads has a nostalgic look; and female pilots of the WASP program are featured on the winery's labels.

Brian Powers

Susquehanna Brewing Co. in Pittston, Pennsylvania, to brew and package beers and opening the Lucky Girl taproom and restaurant. While its decor reflected Wescott's nostalgic fascination with the World War II era, he also kept an eye on the future.

“When I was opening the brewery, it made sense also to get my winery license,” Wescott says. “There’s a fair amount of women who do not like beer or cider, and I needed to figure out how to offer wine.” Wine and women

In 2019, Wescott opened the B52 Winery. When it came to the winery's decor, Wescott wanted to keep a World War II theme but honor female pilots who served in the war as part of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) program. More than 1,000 women were WASP pilots, flying planes, including bombers, from factories to military bases as part of the war effort. The program was terminated shortly after the war.

WASP pilots adorn the labels on the B52 Winery's bottles, including Kalamazoo native and Air Zoo co-founder Suzanne “Suzie” Upjohn DeLano Parish and pilots from marginalized groups such as Native Americans and Asian Americans.

“They were all pin-up perfect,” but it was their stories and actions made these women pilots exceptional, Wescott says. One of the jobs that the WASPs performed was to tow targets for training missions.

“It makes a great label,” he says, showing the artwork. On the menu

In addition to the locally made libations, which include beers, ciders, meads and wines, Lucky Girl and B52 Winery also serve food.

Wescott describes the menu as “eclectic,” noting that it has grown and been adapted over time. “I started off my with own barbecue and rubs,” he says. “I soon realized that not everybody wants to eat barbecue every night.”

Wescott called on Chef Pedro Angel, a former Chicago-area partner, to come to Michigan to collaborate on the Lucky Girl menu. The result is a menu with a little of everything, from crabcakes to tacos and pizza.

With the success of Lucky Girl, Angel has plans to open his own taco and tequila bar down M-43 in Bangor. When that opens, both Angel’s establishment and Lucky Girl will feature a private-label Mexican-style beer that Wescott is currently working on.

Wescott is also collaborating with Kim Mandigo, a local home brewer for 25 years, to produce meads and ciders for Wescott's establishments.

The brewery and winery also offer opportunities for local musicians to perform.

Eight years after deciding to brew beer for a living, Wescott sees only the sky as the limit for his enterprises. He has ideas of showing outdoor movies during the summer and hosting a charging station for electric vehicles as he stands poised for takeoff.

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THE BUSINESS AND ESTATE PLANNING LAWYER

LAWYER

Please send your questions to: A.Sometimes. Although the best evidence of a Will is a document Michael J. Willis, drafted by a lawyer and signed in the presence of two disinterested Brian PowersAmong Synergy Health Center staff that work with Valarie Cunningham, far left, are, from left, Sonja Roseman, clinical director; Daja Johnson, digital marketer; and Mark Viel, therapist. witnesses and a separate notary, this is not necessary to complete a valid Will in Michigan. Michigan law allows handwritten documents to be admitted as Wills, although they must usually be dated and signed by the decedent. Michigan has also opened up a “Wild West” in answer to the question “what makes a Will?” and some will have success admitting electronic documents as a Will, or handwritten documents that aren’t dated or signed. Currently the law informs that if it might be a Will and it meets the decedent’s intent, it is worth offering it to the court. J.D., C.P.A. Willis Law 491 West South Street Kalamazoo, MI 49007 269.492.1040 www.willis.law Michael J. Willis is the Managing Partner of Willis Law, Attorneys and Counselors at Law, is licensed to practice law in Florida and Michigan, and is registered as a certified public accountant in the state of Illinois. Attorney Willis is rated as an A V -Preeminent Attorney by Martindale-Hubbell. This rating, according to Martindale, which has been rating lawyers for over a century, signifies that an attorney has reached the heights of professional excellence and is recognized for the highest levels of skill and integrity. He is listed in the Best Lawyers in America.

MICHAEL J. WILLIS, J.D., C.P.A., WILLIS LAW Please send your questions to: Q. My husband is going into a nursing home. I’ve been told it is Michael J. Willis, J.D., C.P.A. possible for me to create a trust and protect my assets from the spend Willis Law 491 West South Street down at the nursing home. Is that true? Kalamazoo, MI 49007 269.492.1040 www.willis.law A. Yes. Most often when folks talk on trust planning, they are referencing a revocable trust. In fact, that is the case probably more than 99% of the time. A revocable trust under Michigan law generally Please send your questions to: is set up only to avoid probate--that’s its only benefit. However, there Michael J. Willis, J.D., C.P.A. is an irrevocable trust for persons in your circumstances that can be established with your assets to the extent they exceed the protected Willis Law amount (which under Michigan law will cap at a little over $125,000). 491 West South Street Kalamazoo, MI 49007 269.492.1040 www.willis.law If the trust is irrevocable and the assets are effectively established in an annuity income stream back to you per the terms of the trust, then in such a circumstance the trust will no longer be considered a countable asset, but instead an income stream and thereby exempt for Medicaid purposes. This is a sophisticated planning technique, and I highly encourage you to seek counsel before implementing this technique or any other Medicaid planning. Michael J. Willis is the Managing Partner of Willis Law, Attorneys and Counselors at Law, is licensed to practice law in Florida and Michigan, and is registered as a certified public accountant in the state of Illinois. Attorney Willis is rated as an A V -Preeminent Attorney by Martindale-Hubbell. This rating, according to Martindale, which has been rating lawyers for over a century, signifies that an attorney has reached the heights of professional excellence and is recognized for the highest levels of skill and integrity. He is listed in the Best Lawyers in America. 9471992-01 Michael J. Willis is the Managing Partner of Willis Law, Attorneys and Counselors at Law, is licensed to practice law in Florida and Michigan, and is registered as a certified public accountant in the state of Illinois. Attorney Willis is rated as an A V -Preeminent Attorney by Martindale-Hubbell. This rating, according to Martindale, which has been rating lawyers for over a century, signifies that an attorney has reached the heights of professional excellence and is recognized for the highest levels of skill and integrity. He is listed in the Best Lawyers in America.

ASK THE BUSINESS AND ESTATE PLANNING LAWYER

MICHAEL J. WILLIS, J.D., C.P.A., WILLIS LAW Q. My husband is going into a nursing home. I’ve been told it is possible for me to create a trust and protect my assets from the spend down at the nursing home. Is that true? A. Yes. Most often when folks talk on trust planning, they are Please send your questions to: referencing a revocable trust. In fact, that is the case probably more than 99% of the time. A revocable trust under Michigan law generally Michael J. Willis, J.D., C.P.A. Willis Law is set up only to avoid probate--that’s its only benefit. However, there 491 West South Street is an irrevocable trust for persons in your circumstances that can be Kalamazoo, MI 49007 established with your assets to the extent they exceed the protected 269.492.1040 www.willis.law amount (which under Michigan law will cap at a little over $125,000). If the trust is irrevocable and the assets are effectively established in an annuity income stream back to you per the terms of the trust, then in such a circumstance the trust will no longer be considered a countable asset, but instead an income stream and thereby exempt for Medicaid purposes. This is a sophisticated planning technique, and I highly encourage you to seek counsel before implementing this technique or any other Medicaid planning. 9471992-01

Q. My uncle died

ASK THE BUSINESS AND ESTATE PLANNINGrecently. He left a

LAWYER handwritten note that MICHAEL J. WILLIS, J.D., C.P.A., WILLIS LAWappears to distribute Q. My husband is going into a nursing home. I’ve been told it is possible for me to create a trust and protect my assets from the spend his property to down at the nursing home. Is that true? A. Yes. Most often when folks talk on trust planning, they are family and friends. referencing a revocable trust. In fact, that is the case probably more than 99% of the time. A revocable trust under Michigan law generally is set up only to avoid probate--that’s its only benefit. However, there Is a handwritten is an irrevocable trust for persons in your circumstances that can be established with your assets to the extent they exceed the protected document a valid Will? amount (which under Michigan law will cap at a little over $125,000). If the trust is irrevocable and the assets are effectively established in an annuity income stream back to you per the terms of the trust, then in such a circumstance the trust will no longer be considered a countable asset, but instead an income stream and thereby exempt for Medicaid purposes. This is a sophisticated planning technique, and I highly encourage you to seek counsel before implementing this technique or any other Medicaid planning.

Healthy Lakes Again,

Brian Powers

EverBlue Lake Solutions' natural methods master muck to restore waterways large and small

You’ve likely experienced it: On a hot summer day, nothing sounds better than a dip in the cool water of a local lake. But when you step in to get a respite from the haze and humidity, you find your feet sinking into a thick, slimy mass of muck, and whatever ideas you had about spending the day in the water fade like the fiery tendrils of a Fourth of July firework.

John Tucci knows this all too well.

He and his wife purchased property on Sherman Lake in 2003, intent on fixing up an old cottage on it. It had a beautiful lakefront and a gravel shoreline that eased into clean, clear water. A few years later, after the cottage project was finished, Tucci took his family there one summer day and held his then-toddler daughter’s hand as they waded into the water.

Tucci's daughter emerged from the lake so dirty her swimsuit had to be thrown away.

“I didn’t buy lake property to not be able to swim,” he says. “My lake was dead.”

Chemicals had been used to kill the growing vegetation in the lake, especially the invasive Eurasian watermilfoil. The treatment works, but the end result is a thick layer of muck that develops as the plants decompose, choking the lake of oxygen, especially on the bottom.

“A lake whose bottom is out of oxygen virtually has no chance of improving. It only goes downhill from there,” Tucci says. “A lake bottom like that is fundamentally no different than a septic tank. If the first thing you think of when you leave the water is, ‘Man, I need a shower,’ then you’ve got an issue.”

The reason for explosive growth of invasive underwater plants is fertilizer runoff from lawns that ring a lake's shoreline, as well as runoff from area agricultural operations. The nitrogen and phosphorus leaching into a lake literally supercharge the growth of vegetation.

So Tucci, of Richland, got to work thinking of ways he could remedy the problem. He experimented in his garage with new aeration techniques that used tiny bubbles to draw low-oxygen water to the surface, where it’s oxygenated and then makes its way to the bottom through displacement, in a continuous cycle.

“You know those bubbles you see in an aquarium? It’s basically the same idea only much larger in scale,” Tucci says.

BY CHRIS KILLIAN

Above, John Tucci holds an Aerforce Microporous Ceramic Diffuser, which he patented. Left: Tucci checks the aeration system installed and running on Lake LeAnn in Somerset Township, Michigan.

From experiment to reality

After successful tests of the technology on small ponds in the area, Tucci created a company called Lake Savers LLC in 2007. He patented the process he developed, Aerforce Microporous Ceramic Diffuser Technology, and launched a part-time pilot program the next year. By 2009 he had quit his job as a senior leadership and management consultant to Fortune 500 companies to do lake restoration work full time. In 2015, Tucci changed the company name to EverBlue Lake Solutions, and he has worked to streamline the process of natural lake restoration to a science.

“Mother Nature does this twice a year. It’s called lake turnover — where more-dense, oxygen-rich water at the top sinks to the (lake) bottom and displaces the less-dense, low-oxygen water there, which rises to the top,” he says.

EverBlue's services are exclusively for inland lakes. So far, EverBlue has helped restore 50 lakes, including many across Michigan and as far away as Vermont, California, Missouri and North Carolina. Locally, EverBlue has provided services for Paw Paw and Maple lakes in Paw Paw, Austin Lake in Portage and Crooked Lake in Texas Township. At any given time, Tucci’s 20 employees are working on between 30 and 50 lakes, he says, mostly in the Midwest and Northeast.

Lakes from 50 acres to more than 1,000 acres are EverBlue’s sweet spot, with most of its projects involving lakes ranging from 100 to 500 acres in size.

The company’s technology, however, can be scaled up for even larger lakes. EverBlue has treated a 1,400-acre lake in Vermont and several even larger lakes, Tucci says. The company has even developed a design concept for Florida’s Lake Okeechobee, which is about the size of Rhode Island.

Despite the company’s ability to scaleup its work, doing so comes with challenges, Tucci says, including funding and regulatory challenges.

Brian Powers

Restoring a lake's health

Up to a year in advance of deployment of EverBlue’s system, workers take water-quality samples to determine clarity and oxygen levels and then create a depth profile of the lake in need of help. That data is used to create a custom plan for the lake to determine how best to reoxygenate the water, with calculations made for how many diffusers to use, where to place them and to what depth, creating a network that is fed by an air compressor on the shore. Tucci holds a patent on aspects of his proprietary technology, he says.

In addition to the aeration, EverBlue also offers other strategies to make a lake as healthy as possible, from harvesting phosphorus, which can later be repurposed as fertilizer, to employing what the

Left: Tucci talks to employees, Julie Gorlay, left, and Katie Murphy, right, as they prepare to treat a lake with the company's BioBlast. Above: Pools of BioBlast, a beneficial bacteria, await dispersal into the lake.

firm calls BioBlast, high-potency beneficial bacteria that help to clean lakes of algae blooms and other nuisance organic material.

But the company’s lake treatment is not just about creating a more pleasant swimming experience. It can be a money saver too, despite the cost of the treatment, which can last years. For every two feet of water clarity gained or lost, property values either rise or fall by 10 percent, Tucci says.

Lake associations usually sign on to a five-year leasing program for the treatment, Tucci says, so that they aren’t hit with a single large bill. The treatment, he says, can total hundreds of thousands of dollars, with each lake being different. He includes a free assessment and performance-based contracts, so that if restoration is not producing the results expected, rebates or other discounts can be applied.

Tucci admits that chemical treatments have their place but says they should be utilized sparingly. Other strategies, like drain and sewer improvements or installing vegetation buffers and addressing erosion issues, can go a long way toward keeping runoff from entering lakes, he says. Homeowners, too, have their part to play in maintaining a restored lake, by trying to reduce the use of fertilizers on their lawns.

“We all have to play our part in making our lakes healthier,” he says. “In the end, the costs of these treatments pay for themselves. In a way, I am trying to put myself out of business.”

But with so many lakes experiencing the same problems as the ones his firm has helped alleviate, the future of EverBlue seems anything but murky.