Wilderness Club Lawsuit
Well the local paper published the amount the jury awarded so I will do so here.
Keep in mind folks that the attornies most likely got at lease 40% and these folks lost the value of their home and 2 years worth of intense stress. The award was for 1.35 Million, and the lawsuit from the other neighbors is still pending. My guess is that some of this will go on for years. There are wells in the neighborhood that were sucking air last summer.
The amount of water use for the golf course may drop the levels of the nearby lakes and wells. Some say that Carpenter Lake fluxuates with the seasonal levels of Lake Koocanusa, the water table in that area (according to my sources) and in my opinion cannot handle a golf course of this magnitude. What a Waste of fresh clean montana water to keep fields green for seasonal visitors.
Water is valuable and this golf course, in that area is not a good thing for the local water table. It is not good for the lakes, fisheries our our local recreational values.
It seems the Wilderness Club wants us to believe that they did not act with malice and that they did not know they were doing anything wrong. They act like others were violating the covenants so it was ok that they did. They still claim that the landowner gave permission to cut down their trees. Why would anyone let this amount of trees come down, get no money for them, and ruin their privacy forever. It makes no sense.
Apparantly the jury decided that cutting the trees down was not trespassing but that the landowners were due the value of the trees. With this I would have to assume that it was proven that the wilderness club had legal easement and therefore had the right to cut the trees.
If you look at the Google Earth map, which seems to show the old county roads, you see that there is an old county road that runs through the wilderness club resort. Can we, the public, open up this road for our use. Or can only big business like the wilderness club and tungsten holdings force these roads open but we the taxpayers of the county cannot have these roads opened for our use.
It seems as if the Wilderness Club developers were advised a number of times not to use the 3rd access through a local neighborhood and they ignored this. The rumor mill has plenty of stories of the wilderness club and their real estate broker saying they will do what they want because they can.
What this all boils down to is that though the Wilderness Club was VERY wrong and lost this lawsuit, this is just the cost of doing business to them and the Resort will keep moving forward.
The long term issues will continue to come up due to the fact that the Wilderness Club Golf resort has forced their way into to an area that may have not been the right choice for their project. I feel that not enough accurate testing was done on the water table. I feel that the chemicals to keep the lawns green will end up in lake koocanusa and this will hurt fisheries and in turn all of us. I feel that the water table will weaken and the neighborhood will suffer even more.
It is claimed that the Developers are Honest - Above Board and Open in all phases of Development.... The Rumor Mill suggests and is most often accurate, that this is in No Way True.
The wilderness club claims No Trespass, the photos I have show yellow caution tape tied to the trees of the neighbors. These trees were on private property and did not tie the tape on themselves. The photos also show a gate and post removed that was not on WC property.
The photos show private property caving in due to Trespass of machinery as well as trees marked up where machinery trespassed. There was even an old road that had been used as a horse trail that had been caved in - Again Trespass on Private Property. And not to mention the giant mound of dirt and dust ,the deliberate jake braking of commercial trucks and the Rumors that SO MANY have agreed is true with the shooting of dogs and the break in. It was like some sort of a war zone over there.
The wilderness club still claims they had permission to open up the road in question, its simply not true. They have had easement, but not permission. If you have an easement you don't have the right to steal trees, rip out gates and disrespect all involved along the way.
Apparantley the private life and relationship between husband and wife was questioned by the council for the Wilderness Club. This is Shocking, what a last straw grasp, who cares, what could this possibly have to do with whether the Wilderness Club broke the law or not, Come On.
The Wilderness Club claims that their GIANT building, dusty roads, tree removal, noise pollution, fertilizer use and heavy commercial traffic actually enhanced the neighbors land values. NO WAY. I don't want to live there - do you? Your life would be trucks all day everyday picking up with traffic as the development gets buyers for the homes. The commercial building is an industrial building with workers coming and going with vehicles and machinery ALL DAY. The road brings up a LOT of dust. There is loud heaters and machinery that runs 24 hours a day. There is to be an 8 foot fence with barbed tops.
And this according to Frampton - council for the WC is an enhancement to their property. Not for ANY of my Clients.
I am not opposed to development necessarily or to big business. I have no grudge of any kind, I simply wish the Wilderness Club would have done the right thing in the first place. My personal experience is that they do not ask questions or seek answers they just throw the biggest stone they have and hope they take you down enough that you will simply Shut Your Mouth.
Look back through www.WildernessClubSubdivision.com and you will see what my run in with the Wilderness Club was. I had a blog with positive community news about the wilderness club.
I deliberately kept this blog positive and YET the Wilderness Club had legal council send me a Demand Letter to stop talking about them on my blog. It was simply community interest. But because I get internet marketing and came up higher in the search engines than they did at the time - they were mad and instead of calling to advertise on my site or even meeting with me they simply got the legal system involved - WHY ?
Back than I would have been more than happy to work with them for the good of all. But they Could Not Simply Do the Right Thing.
We will continue our Eye on the Wilderness Club and we sincerely hope that things get better for all involved.
Be Well Folks, Have a Great Spring and Summer and Watch Your Neighbors back.
Just Do The Right Thing and everything else will work out.
Missoulian Article on the Lawsuit at
http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2008/04/14/news/local/news02.txt
I am not Sure if the Daily Interlake even Did an Article..
