Three different issues between the Gun Lake Tribe of Potowatmis and Hopkins Township Board continue to be subjects for negotiations.

The three areas of contention are fire protection, distribution of funds by a Revenue Sharing Board and a proposal by the Tribe to take a 130-acre parcel in Hopkins into a federal trust.

John Shagonaby, representing the Tribe, appeared at the Hopkins Township Board meeting Monday night to deliver a written response to Supervisor Mark Evans’ proposal on fire protection, but Evans was absent because of illness.

The Tribe has one property, the Jiajk Foundation Camp, and potentially another, located within the township, so some kind os arrangement is being sought to compensate the Hopkins Area Fire Authority, which includes Hopkins, Monterey and Watson townships, for firefighting services.

Tribe Chairman Bob Peters, in the letter, is suggesting a donation of $4,000 annually to the Fire Board, besides expenses incurred in fire incidents.

However, Evans, representing the Fire Board, last November, proposed the agreement be between the Tribe and Hopkins Township and payment of taxes to the township based on valuations of the land. Also proposed was establishing a “Land in Trust Use Board.”

Peters said the Tribe is opposed to all suggestions, particularly because insistence on taxation does not recognize the Tribe’s standing as a sovereign government.

Peters wrote, “Overall, the changes you submitted on behalf of Hopkins Township and the Fire Board are not relevant to the concept of fire services that the Tribe had initially contemplated… As you are aware, we have a very similar fire services agreement with the City of Wayland Fire Department that has worked quite well, in our opinion…”

Peters essentially said the Tribe seeks to donate an annual sum and pay for additional services to the Fire Board.

Evans and Allegan County Commissioner Gale Dugan recently attended a Casino Revenue Sharing Board meeting, maintaining the funding arrangements with local governments doesn’t square with the original local compact agreement. The Revenue Sharing Board came up with a plan to distribute 2.5% each of total Gun Lake Casino gaming revenue for Hopkins, Dorr, Leighton, Martin and Yankee Springs townships and the City of Wayland, 50% to Wayland Township, 25% to Allegan County, 8% to Wayland Union schools and 2% to the Allegan Area Educational Services Agency.

Evans and Dugan asserted the arrangement leaves out, for example, Henika Public Library in Wayland, which has taxing authority.

On another front, the Township Board last year hired Thaddeus E. Morgan of the Fraser Trebilcock firm in Lansing to do battle in court with the Gun Lake Tribe of Potawatomis over the 130-acre parcel of land the tribe wants to take into federal trust.

The Gun Lake Tribe 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.