Hopkins citizen Bob Beck continues to be critical about how the township has handled disagreements with the Gun Lake Tribe and contends it’s been a waste of taxpayers’ money.
Beck provided a sort of Citizen’s Opposition 2.0 Monday night at the Hopkins Township Board meeting, pretty much an update of criticism he voiced the previous month.
Beck in the May meeting asserted, “The township government has spent at least $10,061.61 (in legal fees) contesting and appealing land being taken into trust by the Gun Lake Tribe. The Gun Lake Tribe has gifted Hopkins Township over $300,000 during this period.”
That figure now has climbed to $14,152 in legal fees for high-powered attorney Thaddeus E. Morgan of the Fraser Trebilcock firm in Lansing to do battle in court with the Gun Lake Tribe of Potawatomis over a 130-acre parcel of land the tribe wants to take into federal trust.
At issue is that the Gun Lake Tribe has filed a request with the U.S. Department of the Interior to take a 130-acre parcel into a trust for undisclosed purposes. The land, currently being used for agriculture, is zoned commercial. It is located near the corner of 129th Avenue and 12th Street in the township, across the expressway from the Gun Lake Casino.
Township officials have opposed the move on the basis it will remove the land from the tax rolls and cause hardship on Hopkins Township’s coffers.
Beck has singled out Trustees Gary Wamhoff and Bob Modreske, Supervisor Mark Evans and Clerk Sandra Morris for consistently voting to spend tax dollars on this legal matter.
Beck said in May, “Township taxes on the property being contested amount to $454.32 in 2019. About 25 years of taxes spent on an exercise in futility. A huge waste of taxpayer dollars by people who would rather fight with the Gun Lake Tribe than form a beneficial working relationship with the Gun Lake Tribe.”
The more than $10,000 figure ballooned to more than $14,000 as a result of two checks, one for $1,915.50 cut in May and another in June for $2,236.50 to the Fraser Trebilcock firm.
The township provided an information sheet that maintained the total tax property loss in 2018 alone is $106,206.73, including Hopkins Township, Hopkins Library, Hopkins Schools, Allegan County and Wayland Schools. But Beck said the figures include the non-profit Jijak Foundation property that was taken into trust after Mel Trotter Ministries vacated the non-taxable parcel.
The board’s objections to the taking of the non-gaming land into a trust essentially is about the loss of tax revenue. Land in trust is exempt from taxation. Further, there was concern expressed about the tribe using roads paid for by taxpayers without sharing their cost.
James Nye, public relations specialist for the tribe, told board members about a special Indian Roads Reservation program that was used in Wayland Township to rebuild and pave a road.
The Township Board also is in talks with the tribe about financial support for the Hopkins Area Fire Department when it responds to issues at the Jijak Foundation property, which also is tax exempt.
Evans said Monday night that township and tribal representatives are finalizing an agreement between the fire district and Gun Lake Tribe.
In other business, at Monday night’s meeting, the board:
• Was told the current township tax levies, with this year’s Headlee Amendment rollback, are 0.6443 mill for general operations, 0.9844 for fire and 1.87 for roads.
• Failed to make a motion to approve an estimated $500 cost for dust control on 22nd Street and 126th Avenue just before the July 4 fireworks display.