The Allegan County Dam Permit Joe Grilli posted 4 months ago

The Allegan County Dam Permit Joe Grilli posted 4 months ago

At the end of the 10-4-22 meeting last night their was mention of a conditional statement being on the Allegan County dam permit when the dam was originally built. I thought I heard that the county granted the Calkins dam permit to Consumers with a condition that the dam could never be removed once installed. If this is true the county should have great recourse to not allow Consumers to remove the dam without incurring substantial monatary penalties. If possible can the gentleman who mentioned this please post the copy of the recorded permit here. I know it is publically available to view on the county website but to save time for all involved I think this conditional statement on the permit can be a valuable piece of information to save our lake. Whether the dam remains operational or its converted to an overflow weir Consumers must be held responsible to this permit condition.

please indicate where this document may be found on the county website. Robert Speaker commented 3 months ago I'd like to read that, too if anyone can point to the recorded contract or document. Carol Doeringer commented 3 months ago My name is Ken Yonker and I am the person who presented this information at the end of the 10-4-2022 meeting. The document is available at the Allegan County Register of Deeds Liber 749 Page 69. The deed was written May 25, 1968 and recorded May 27,1968. On the front of the deed under CALKIN BRIDGE DAM AND SITE the deed states: The dam, being the so-called Calkin Bridge Dam, together with the building, general equipment, switchboard, turbine, wheels, gates and controls located in the NW of Section 15, T2N, R14W, including the dam permit,as amended and supplemented, granted by the County of Allegan to the City of Allegan for the construction and operation of said dam, and the lands hereafter more particularly described : Ken Yonker commented 3 months ago i hate to say this but it's a known fact that when deeds are written the language isn't always true. an attorney would have to review to validate that information. Katherine Dwyer commented 3 months ago Thank you Katherine, I believe Coco is an attorney and we will hope she can give us some direction on the "legalize" of this document. Patricia Miner commented 3 months ago yes but you may need an attorney who specializes in land issues and thats not Coco expertise. it depends on who's attorney wrote the deed, the buyer or the sellers. also there is a prominent legal case study on this sale to consumers. there was an action bought against the city of Allegan after this sale transpired by a group called the Citizens of Allegan. i will post shortly. Katherine Dwyer commented 3 months ago City of Allegan v. CONSUMERS'POWER CO., 71 F.2d 477 (6th Cir. 1934)Annotate this Case US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit - 71 F.2d 477 (6th Cir. 1934)June 6, 1934 71 F.2d 477 (1934) CITY OF ALLEGAN, MICH.,v.CONSUMERS' POWER CO. No. 6685. Circuit Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit. June 6, 1934. *478 J. C. Bills, of Detroit, Mich. (Clare E. Hoffman, Leo W. Hoffman, and Carl E. Hoffman, all of Allegan, Mich., on the brief), for appellants. the website is law.justia.com this isn't an answer to the deed question, it's background to the issues with the sale. Katherine Dwyer commented 3 months ago don't let my feedback dissuade anyone from chasing down any thing you're hearing or reading. this is how we educate ourselves and get the bigger picture. this is pregame analysis for whats to come. Katherine Dwyer commented 3 months ago Katherine, I read both (with a little difficulty) and find them both very interesting. I just went to the website and put in County of Allegan and Consumers Power and was amazed on the Court of Appeals 414 F.2d 1125 (D.C. Cir. 1965) Quit interesting! Patricia Miner commented 3 months ago i know none of this is easy to read but u can get the jest of things. keep exploring and keep us up on what you find. Katherine Dwyer commented 3 months ago With the documents, licenses and permits associated with the Calkin Hydro plant, it is important to remember the County of Allegan wrote a permit first, then the FPC (later namesd FERC) issued a federal license. The two documents are stand alone in how they must be addressed. In the federal court case, the Allegan citizens suggested that FERC did not have the authority to have the license transfer from the City of Allegan to CE. The judge disagreed stating all of the citizens concerns could be answered through the new CE federal license. This federal ruling has NOTHING to do with the Allegan County permit. I believe the citizens of Allegan made a huge mistake. The citizens should have taken the matter to a district court and used the wording in the county permit. Basically the county permit states there can be NO changes in the permit without the approval of the Allegan County Commissioners. When one looks over the county permit, the spillways are called out as to height, the ownership is called out, etc. I read this deed restriction on the CE Calkin deed about 10 years ago but I or no one could "find" the permit. After about 5 years of searching, I found it in the Allegan County Commissioners log books that were store in back rooms by Bob Genetski's office. I had the permit recorded. I believe in earlier days, no one could find the permit. Now we should make it work for us by having professionals review it and make suggestions and save Lake Allegan. Ken Yonker commented 3 months ago absolutely and if this requires money to hire the right lawyer we should plan to do this. after or before Consumers recommendation, Ken? Katherine Dwyer commented 3 months ago Comment deletedNo longer exists commented 3 months ago ken, do you have any info on who prepared/wrote the deed? Katherine Dwyer commented 3 months ago I do not know who wrote this deed up. I am not against asking CE details about this deed. The important thing here is CE is not following any of the requirements. A few years after the CE purchase, CE sold some of the land off from this hydro plant area to the DNR. This was not proper either. This needed Allegan County Commissioner approval. Now on the DNR new parcels, it states they too must comply with the County of Allegan permit. They are not doing this either. We need a good lawyer to address all these issues. Ken Yonker commented 3 months ago Good detective work Ken...isn't it strange that contracts would be mishandled?? I'm glad you pursued the contract. I'm sure we need to pursue this. Patricia Miner commented 3 months ago I really like #5 in the permit which states: Whereas, the County at large has a right and interest in the natural resources within its limits, so that some benefit should be derived by the County at large from the development of such resources. Another important point is #6 which reads: Whereas, the building of the dam and the development of hydro-electric power, as proposed by said City, appears desirable and advantageous, provided the rights and interest of the County and municipalities therein are properly safeguarded. a very important statement is also included in letter K which reads:Non-enforcement of any condition herein contained by said County shall never constitute a waiver of any condition herein contained. We need this permit as a tool to save our lake! Ken Yonker commented 3 months ago Ken, did you retrieve the deed online or did you have to request it in person from the county? Thanks for all your insights, which make me want to read it word-for-word myself. Carol Doeringer commented 3 months ago Hello Carol Doeringer, I know counties are working toward getting all the information on-line for the public to receive information. I don't believe Allegan County is that far along to-date. You could ask one of the Register of Deeds employees to print the deed giving them the number Liber 749 Page 69. This deed will be absolutely massive in volume. When the City of Allegan had to obtain all the lands that are now the bottom lands of Lake Allegan, there were many owners. They had to show all these parcels in their master Calkin deed. In addition, any flow agreements, special conditions and/ or easements needed also have to be included. When I first checked into the CE Calkin deed, I simply did a search with the Register of Deeds computers looking for anything involving CE in 1968. Ken Yonker commented 3 months ago Ken, thank you for that explanation. Getting a deed copy sounds daunting! Carol Doeringer commented 3 months ago Carol, it could be a simple matter if one just asked the employees for the first page of the deed. On the first/front page of the deed, the deed restriction is recorded. Ken Yonker commented 3 months ago ken, I found the document searching for "consumers power" between 01/01/1968 and 01/01/1969 on the Allegan county website. However, there is a large black rectangle covering portions of each page making reading the document impossible. I logged in under public. I tried two different browsers on my iPad and neither changed the readability. You were able to view it- how? Thanks in advance for any enlightenment. Robert Speaker commented 3 months ago Coco and Ken, your remarks at last night's County Commissioners meeting were excellent. Thank you both! The commissioners seemed surprised and quite interested in the deed information Ken provided. I hope the legal review they plan to request will be shared with the community. I believe the Board president said the meeting recording will be available online. I don't find any earlier meeting recordings on the county website, so I'm not sure where to look to find last night's recording. I'd like to send a link to some neighbors who were unable to attend either in person or via zoom. Can anyone point me to a county web page where the recording link will be posted? Carol Doeringer commented 3 months ago I found the meeting recorded on YouTube. I finally figured it out, but don't ask me now. I think you can go to YouTube and Allegan County Commissioners Meeting and find it there. I was eager to "listen" to it since I could not make out any of the Commissioner's dialog during the meeting. I was told by the Administrator it was because they had to turn the mics off because it was being recorded and they would get feedback. It is all clear on the recording. I agree with you that both Coco and Ken did a "great" job and I am anxious to see where the Commission will take us on this "journey". Patricia Miner commented 3 months ago Thank you, Pat! I just searched YouTube and here's the link to see last night's meeting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOEhOZWtZuw Carol Doeringer commented 3 months ago Thanks Carol. . . I'm sure others will be looking at this site! Patricia Miner commented 3 months ago Thanks to everyone who is working on digging into these old records. Thank you, thank you. Rick Dutkiewicz commented 3 months ago