This blog was started over a year ago with this mission
statement, “This Mullett Township blog
is an independent, volunteer effort without political affiliations or
government participation.We will promote the preservation and
development of Mullett Township and encourage open local government.”
At the May 6th Board Meeting the Mullett Township
Board and Supervisor MaryAnne Gale’s continued her personal “agenda” to further
restrict the public access to Mullett Lake. Supervisor Gale is a lakeshore property
owner, a professed public supporter of the Topinabee Development Association
(TDA), and most likely a dues paying member of this association. The entire TDA Board and the majority of its members
are apparently either waterfront owners or relatives of waterfront property owners.
Brian and Pat Callaghan are apparently TDA members and as such received preferential
treatment by Supervisor Gale that was not afforded to them by the previous
Board.
Some simple background: The Callaghan’s “boat house”, a simple
shed by any legal definition, was an alleged 80 year squatter on the Sutherland
Road end defined as public property. The Callaghan’s, here-in-after referred to
as the trespasser’s, after purchasing the property in 1981, knowing the shed
was encroaching on public property, added a concrete floor and apron, further encroaching
on the public’s property in a blatant attempt to “affix” it’s position on
public property. All of this action was taken despite the trespassers knowledge
that Michigan Law prohibits the taking of public property by adverse possession.
This photo, taken two years ago when Mullett Township paid for a land survey
clearly shows the shed’s encroachment on the 47 foot public road end.
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47 Foot Public ROW to the Left of Pink Survey Flag
At the May 6, 2013 Board Meeting, with a simple letter from
an attorney representing the Callaghans position, Supervisor Gale, with absolutely
no public discussion or other input allowed, surrendered to this illegal threat
and “Quit-Claimed” or gifted to the trespassers the public’s interest in a sizable
fraction of the 47 foot Sutherland Road end.
Ask Supervisor MaryAnne Gale why she did not defend the
position of the majority stakeholders of Mullett Township who rely on this and
other road ends to access Mullett Lake.
You might also ask Supervisor MaryAnne Gale
why, while attending a Cheboygan County Road Commission (CCRC) meeting in
January, she asked the CCRC to remove the Public Access sign on the other side
of Mullett Lake at the Deveraux Lake Rd end. The CCRC Board refused to remove
the sign. Supervisor MaryAnne Gale has
now initiated action transferring Mullett Township’s road ends from CCRC
control to township control. Then, with a simple Mullett Township Board vote,
she will achieve that request and remove the public access sign. Watch for it
to happen.
