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		Points of View October 10, 2001 Guest Column © 2001 John Griffith, in agreement with Glen Tolksdorf Published with Permission

Property owners agree to expand public ownership of Gratiot River area

Last night at the Keweenaw County Board meeting, Glen Tolksdorf and I issued a joint statement as follows:

AGREEMENT

October 9, 2001

RE: Lands in Allouez Township, Michigan, T.57N. — R.33W.

Resolved:

The owners of Section 13 agree to grant an easement providing full unlimited access to the owners of Section 12 across Section 13, provided that

The owners of Section 12 sell their properties (at full, with-access appraised value) directly to a unit of government or to an intermediate buyer who will convey the properties to a unit of government, for use as a public park.

Upon completion of the sales, the owners of Section 12 will withdraw their request for an easement from Lake Superior Land Company / International Paper to access Section 12 from the south and across the Gratiot River.

Therefore, the sale of the Mouth of the Gratiot River as originally negotiated between Keweenaw County and Lake Superior Land Company may proceed.

The practical result of this agreement is:

1. The county will obtain the Mouth of the Gratiot River utilizing the Trust Fund (75%, $441,000) and NAWCA (25%, $147,000) grants.
    
2. There will be no bridge across the Gratiot River and no easement through the new park.
    
3. Section 12 (503 acres and nearly 5,000' of Lake Superior frontage) will be added to the park.

All other details remain to be ironed out.

Walt Arnold of Lake Superior Land Company was instrumental in helping achieve this solution. Thank you, Walt.

Our work has just begun -- we (the public, the township and county, conservancies, agencies, foundations) need to raise the money to buy Section 12. I expect the appraised value will be in the $300 - $350 per front foot range. We have 6 months.

It is likely that a bridge loan will be necessary to allow some time to apply for and receive grants. Please send me all your good ideas!

THANK YOU ALL for letting the county and LSLC/IP know that the easement through the park and bridge across the Gratiot was simply unacceptable. The obvious public sentiment in favor of the original deal helped produce this solution.

Thank you also to the Section 12 owners for giving up their dreams of lakefront cottages for the greater and perpetual good of creating a public park.

Learn more about the author of this guest column, John Griffith.

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Note: Views expressed by our guest columnists are not necessarily the views of Keweenaw Now.

Editor's note: Watch for the full story on events leading to this agreement, coming soon.