The tiny meeting room at the township community building was filled with over 50 residents, many who opposed any effort to sell the roughly 65-by-25-feet parcel to an adjacent private property owner, and a few who supported the board’s efforts to research the sale.

The adjacent parcel, which is currently vacant, was sold to a Negaunee business owner in a private transaction July 25, according to a warranty deed obtained from the Marquette County Register of Deeds.

Residents opposed to the sale said if the property were sold, it would reduce public access to the lake and would set a precedent of the township selling public land, along with a host of other issues. Several residents mentioned that prior township boards had been approached with offers to buy the parcel, but none had considered it before now.

Roberta Frisk said she was surprised that the township would consider selling the property when other communities in Marquette County are purchasing land for public use.

Michigamme Township Clerk Neil Hanson speaks about the sale of the parcel during a Michigamme Township Board meeting on Monday. (Journal photo by Lisa Bowers)

“We didn’t have to pay a cent for that (parcel),” Frisk said. “I am sorry, but I think we have to think of it as something we can all go to and enjoy. Perhaps that was never designated a park, but the land was available to us, the land was available to our children. The gazebo is not a park. It’s the land. Whether or not it’s a park, it’s public land for the children and for the grown-ups, for all of us to enjoy, and once it’s gone, it’s gone forever. We will never get it back.”

Those supporting the township administration questioned the parcel’s designation as a park.

“I would like to know if the board ever voted and made that property a pocket park,” resident Marge Luke said. “We built a new home here in 1995, we have never, and I mean never, gotten any information about a pocket park or a park of any kind on the corner.”

While neither the pocket park itself nor the sale of the property was on the board’s agenda, a motion to hire land attorney Suzanne Larsen at $300 per hour to perform legal work associated with the sale passed unanimously contingent on two factors.

The first, township Supervisor William Seppanen said, would involve attending the Marquette County Road Commission meeting on Oct. 21 to ask that body if it would consider abandoning the parcel, which is currently part of the Lake Street right-of-way. If the MCRC would consider abandoning the property, then the township will enter into an agreement with Larsen. That agreement would hinge on if the attorney can complete the project in 10 work hours, which Seppanen said would be confirmed before she begins.

The Michigamme Township Board meeting is standing room only as residents gather to share their views about the potential sale of a small parcel some consider a pocket park. (Journal photo by Lisa Bowers)

“If the road commission doesn’t support it, it’ll be a done deal. Nothing will happen,” Seppanen said. “And before she (Larsen) proceeds, she is going to notify us if it is going to take more than 10 hours and we can say ‘no.'”

Seppanen said the purchaser of the property would ultimately pay for any of the legal work to prepare the parcel for sale, although there is no written agreement in place at this time.

A small group of concerned citizens began a “Save our Pocket Park” campaign in August, following a township board decision in July to investigate the sale. Members of the group, some of whom are members of the Michigamme Township Downtown Development Authority, have invested time, research and funds in an effort to prevent the sale, including circulating fliers about the issue and hiring an attorney.

Two residents read portions of a Sept. 25 letter sent from the group’s attorney to township attorney John Heikkila, which states that the 1872 dedicated plat of the village of Michigamme, owned then by the Michigamme Company, was dedicated for public use.

“The recorded dedication provides that ‘The Michigamme Company by us as its duly authorized officers dedicates for public use these streets and alleys as represented on the plat,” the letter states. “Based on the plat and the dedication language, the public’s right to this platted area is absolute. Respectfully, there should be no sale of this area to a private citizen.”

Township Clerk Neil Hanson said the township had noted the opposition of some residents, but stressed that board meetings are not the proper forum for “big discussions.”

“That would be an open forum, a public hearing, anything like that. And, again, until we have something specific to discuss, I am not going to do it, I am not going to attend one of those. It’s a waste of my time, it’s a waste of all your time. All we are doing is going back and forth,” Hanson said. “We still have to have an appraisal, we have to talk to the road commission, we have to do all these things. We don’t have any answers, we don’t have anything to discuss.”

Lisa Bowers can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 242. Her email address is lbowers@miningjournal.net.