HURON TWP — Township officials are puzzled about a sign that reads: “Entering Indian Lands of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians All Sault Tribe Reservation Laws Strictly Enforced.”
“We’re asking questions and not getting answers,” township Supervisor Elke Doom said.
The sign is raising red flags for some township officials because questions surfaced last year regarding exactly how much land the tribe purchased from Post-It Stables of Jackson: seven acres or the entire 320-acre Pinnacle Race Course parcel.
Post-It owns Pinnacle, 18000 Vining Road.
Roger Martin, a tribe spokesman, said the tribe owns about seven acres and has made no additional land purchase on the Pinnacle property.
“The sign was put up in early January for two reasons: To let people know they are entering tribal land, and in the hopes of attracting the interest of developers who might want to partner with us on future business opportunities,” Joe McCoy, tribe chairman, said in a press release.
The sign is posted north of the race track entrance on Vining and sits back off the road.
That is Pinnacle property, not the seven acres the tribe purchased from Post-It Stables last year, Doom said.
The property the Chippewa Indians own is south of the entrance near the edge of the parking lot, Doom said.
If the sign was posted in the wrong location, it will be moved to the tribe’s land, Martin said.
Another issue the township is trying to resolve is taxes owed on the property. Post-It Stables owes $1.46 million in back taxes for 2009, and its 2010 taxes total more than $785,000. A portion of the 2010 taxes are due Monday and the remainder is due Feb. 14.
The 320 acres at Pennsylvania and Vining roads had been in a land bank until 2013, meaning the property owner — Wayne County — did not pay taxes on it.
Pinnacle Race Course opened in July 2008. It was the only Thoroughbred race course in the state.
Wayne County sold the land for $1 to Post-It Stables on Oct. 28, 2008. Once the property was sold by the county, it was supposed to come out of the land bank and Post-It would begin paying taxes on it, township officials said.
However, records did not reflect the sale and property taxes were not paid.
On April 28, Post-It sold about seven acres of its land to the tribe for $179,000. But, the land description of the parcel sold recorded at the Wayne County Register of Deeds Office included the entire 320-acre parcel.
When this surfaced last year, Doom said the description of the land purchase filed with the county had an incorrect legal description.
At the time, Martin wrote in an e-mail that the agreement was to purchase 6.94 acres.
It is not racing season and Pinnacle is closed. Its three listed telephone numbers were disconnected and its website was shut down as of yesterday. Its Facebook page still was active, but there was a notice for a Jan. 8 party at a Canton Township bar “for all the former Pinnacle employees and fans.”
In addition to not paying its taxes, Post-It Stables faced additional financial problems last year after former Gov. Jennifer Granholm cut the number of racing days at the track, drastically reducing its revenue potential.
Water at the race course was almost shut off in September because Pinnacle did not pay a $33,000 water bill. The Horseman’s Benevolent and Protective Association paid the bill.
In November, Post-It Stables suspended simulcast broadcasts at Pinnacle.
Attempts to reach Jerry Campbell, Post-It Stables’ owner, have been unsuccessful.
Regarding its $1.46 million tax bill for 2009, Post-It went to the township’s Board of Review last year to appeal and the request was declined, according to township officials. It then went to the Michigan Tax Tribunal to seek relief and was denied last month.
Taxes for 2010 also have not been paid, but are not overdue yet.
Post-It Stables owes more than $785,000 for its 2010 real property tax. It has until Monday to pay its summer tax bill, which is more than $598,000, according to township records. The remaining total of more than $187,000 is the winter tax bill and is due Feb. 14.
Post-It also owes more than $82,000 in personal property taxes for 2010.
Because Post-It Stables owes back taxes on the property, some have questioned whether the April 28 land sale is legal. That’s a question township officials said they haven’t been able to resolve.
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All Sault Tribe Reservation Laws Strictly Enforced.” with the exception of some on the Board of Directors who lie, cheat and bamboozle with the best of them. It wasn't 175,000 that was spent on 7 acres...it was more than 400,000 invested in a race track deal. If the decision to purchase was made with confidence and above board why lie consistently to the Sault Tribe citizens? After all, it is our money that is at risk once again, or so we thought. If the Sault Tribe Board of Directors can't see fit to tell us the truth for once than it is up to the average citizen to see that the laws of the Sault Tribe are strictly enforced.
Even our efforts to petition, as we have a right to, are being twarted. Over 200 signatures on a recent petition drive were invalidated by the election committee. By what authority does the election committee have to validate signatures when it is the registrars job? 200signatures invalidated...BULL! We are being walked on and laughed at. Laws Strictly enforced....what a joke....not here, not by the Sault Tribe authority.
6 comments:
Who is on the election committee? I know the petition
that I signed was sent back to me because of signature
problems. That tells me that someone is doing everything that they can to not let our voices be heard.
I have no respect for the Chairman or the BOD. They are working for their own selfish interests, not the Tribe. I guess the $60,000 paycheck is not enough.
Who is on the election committee?...a whole lot of McCoy's and their relatives.
Cathy Abramson is a mcCoy and her sisters are on the election committee. Mccoy's, Hoffmans, Pavlats are all on the election committee and board. Whats that tell you?
P.S. they are all related.
Bill Lawrence was a Native American as well as the editor and owner of the Native American Press/Ojibwe News. He believed that tribal members who opposed the corruption within their leadership and had no voice in their tribally owned newspaper needed a place where they could speak out and he provided that through publishing their voice in his newspaper.
During the course of his career Mr. Lawrence unearthed many wrong doings including corruption among tribal leaders. His journalism investigations helped send several corrupt tribal leaders to jail in spite of Tribal Sovereignty, but only by exposing their part in violating a federal law much like our own tribal police chief did.
In an excerpt from his final editorial before his death last March Mr. Lawrence wrote about members of a tribe that collected signatures and presented a lawful petition for the removal of their tribal officials. Mr. Lawrence stated: “Federal policy upholding Tribal sovereignty required petitioners to present the petition to the very officials they wanted to remove from office. Those officials accepted the petition and immediately, by majority vote declared it was without merit.”
Well now, doesn’t this sound familiar to the oppressed members of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe?
The only ones that are protected by our “Tribal Sovereignty” are the corrupt leaders of our tribe until they are exposed in the violation of a federal law.
It seems to me since our tribal civil rights are not protected by any governing body on the face of this earth that we are at a crossroad. Members who have knowledge about our leadership that meets the criteria of federal law violation need to speak out to the proper authorities, such as the FBI or we will have to continue trying each election to replace our corrupt leaders and chance electing, as Charles Forgrave stated in a previous post, political light weight thinkers with no governing education or experience who are easily lead and who, I might add, instead of reporting to the membership about the proceedings of the elected board, choose to tell the membership a story of no relevance and actually get paid to do it.
Our voices need to not only be heard, but to also be listened to.
The Election Committee doesn't verify or validate petitions regarding referedums. Legal, Enrollment, and the Board of Directors do. The Election Committee only gets involved once the Board validates because that is what is written in the Tribal Code.
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