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Knimrod
01-16-2006, 01:47 AM
Relatives of land donor want gun club site used as public park
1/15/2006
The Associated Press

ELK RAPIDS TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — Grandchildren of a woman who died in 1948 and donated her land to the township for a public use want to evict a gun club that has been on the site for more than 50 years.

The grandchildren of Mina Wilcox want the land used by the Elk Rapids Sportsman's Club converted to a public park. But local officials are worried about who might pay for likely lead contamination at the Antrim County site.

Officials haven't yet done an environmental assessment, but it is practically inevitable that the property is laced with significant amounts of lead, township supervisor Bill White said.

"We know it's going to be an issue, but we really don't know how big," White told the Traverse City Record-Eagle for a Sunday story.

Lead contamination can occur in different ways at gun clubs. In pistol and short-firing ranges, shooters fire at targets backed by an earthen berm that catches the bullets. Skeet and trap shooting ranges deposit lead over a wider area. The gun club has both.

Township officials balked at evicting the gun club, and Wilcox's descendants sued to force the club from the property. Her surviving grandchildren say the township's $1-per-year lease with the gun club violates the public use agreement.

Local and state appellate judges ruled against the township and the case has been appealed to the Michigan Supreme Court.

Phil Schrantz, who heads the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality's Remediation and Redevelopment office in Lansing, said shooting ranges typically are responsible for conditions like lead contamination.

But White worries that taxpayers might have to foot the bill.

Club spokesman Brian Kroll said the club hired an environmental consultant to study the property in 2004. He declined to release the resulting report, citing advice from the club's attorney.

"We don't have running water nearby. We don't have immediate concerns," Kroll said.


Link to story (http://www.mlive.com/newsflash/regional/index.ssf?/base/news-31/1137346747216160.xml&storylist=newsmichigan)

Smokepole
01-22-2006, 09:14 AM
For the most part, my quotes were accurately printed, but then, as they say:"Here's the rest of the story"
...The same woman who donated the land to the Township in her will, (Mina Gates Wilcox), also actually created the club!
During my recent tenure first as Vice Chairman, and later, Chairman of the Club, I had to do a lot of reading and research on the Club's history.
The Club was actually formed on December 13th, 1937 by "Doc" Kelly, and a handful of other locals in Elk Rapids.
Almost immediately, "Doc" approached Mina, and secured an initial lease for the property for the exclusive use of the new Club. That lease was for one dollar for ten years, plus two free annual passes to the club for Mina. That lease lasted from 1938 until May 1948. The point here being that Mina was alive for almost the entire term of this lease and obviously consented to the existence of the club with favored terms.
To protect the club after her death, Mina executed a codicil to her will just days before her death, giving the Township the deed to the property for use by the Club , "until it was needed for some other purpose".
Mina died in February 1948.
In August 1948, her son, Paul Harlan Wilcox, a doctor in Traverse City, conveyed the property to the Township as executor for his mother's estate.
Then in 1957, when U.S. 31 was constructed, and sliced the Club in half, and forced it to move to it's present location, the three surviving heirs, including Paul Harlan Wilcox, and his two sisters, cooperated for the benefit of the club by exchanging land for the new road down to the club.
Then again in 1968, additional real estate was added to the original footprint by one of the daughters of Mina Gates Wilcox.
The point here is that the club was created under favorable terms by the benefactor, and that for decades after her death her surviving heirs continued to help the club by additional land transfers and accommodations.
The use and control of the land was given to the Township.
The person leading the effort to shut the club is the grand daughter of the original donor, who grew up in Ann Arbor, and only moved to Elk Rapids when she inherited the Resort on Elk Lake, only about three quarters of a mile from the club.
Make no mistake, she wants the club gone because of the noise, and because she fears that the club might expand further.
This fight is not about a park.
There are plenty of parks already in existence that nobody uses.
She wants to push for a park so that she gets rid of the club!

goldwing2000
01-22-2006, 09:14 PM
The person leading the effort to shut the club is the grand daughter of the original donor, who grew up in Ann Arbor...

That pretty much says it all, right there. :roll: