dec 27, 2004

River Bluffs: One man's battle for good government Editor's note: This is the second in a series of profiles of people involved in the River Bluffs development controversy in McGregor, Iowa.
Greg Koether's life embodies two important American traditions: participation in government and a healthy suspicion of it. That is part of the reason he finds himself at the heart of three active lawsuits that have now developed out of the River Bluffs controversy. The first case is currently under appeal to the Iowa Supreme Court in which Koether is a plaintiff along with three other men involved with the Concerned Citizens, a group that opposes county involvement in the River Bluff development near McGregor. Koether has also been named as one of the defendants in developer Jim Daughtry's suit against the Concerned Citizens, which claims that the group is illegally blocking the development through their actions. Recently Koether and the other defendants filed a counter suit in response to Daughtry's claim. That's a lot of suits for a man who wears jeans and raises beef cattle. Koether, 52, was raised in Clayton County and has lived there nearly all of his life. He never expected to find himself tied up in a legal spider's web. He just never felt that Clayton County handled the River Bluffs proposal with much insight or concern for the taxpayer, right from the beginning. Back when the county was first getting on board with River Bluffs, Koether was serving on the Clayton County Development Board as a representative for agriculture. He had been involved in developing cooperatives for value-added products for beef and timber. He recalled a meeting the development group had with the Board of Supervisors about River Bluffs. He said they couldn't really answer many of the questions the members of the development group raised. "They didn't have a clue what they'd really gotten themselves involved in," he said. Koether says that at that point, Clayton County was planning on owning the proposed golf course at River Bluffs, and they were going to sell several million more in bonds for the project than the golf course was going to be worth when it was completed. The other members of the development group supported the plan despite the lack of information provided by the Supervisors. When the chair of the development group asked Koether to support the idea, he declined. Koether says he was then removed from the development board because he would not support River Bluffs. When that happened, "I knew I was probably right," he said with a smile. But Koether denies being against any development, period. "I was and still am pro-development, but I really couldn't see how this was going to play out," he said. Koether's suspicion of this develop-now-and-ask-questions-later attitude he says the County Board expressed, is at the heart of why he's remained involved in this controversy. He just doesn't buy it. "The Supervisor's have relied totally on Daughtry's word. "They've never done any studies, they've never hired anyone [to evaluate the feasibility of this plan]," he said. Koether says this attitude persisted, even though substantial questions were raised about the reliability of the developers of River Bluffs, Jim Daughtry, and formerly Conrad Seymour. A due diligence investigation and report was issued on the two men's business dealings in 2002 by the Iowa Department of Economic Development at the request of the Vision Iowa Board. At that time, Vision Iowa, a state development fund, was proposing to offer significant funding towards the proposed golf course, hotel/waterpark and housing development at River Bluffs. "We offered the Supervisor's a copy of the due diligence report and expressed all our concerns to them. They could care less," said Koether. Koether says that in a deposition of one of the Supervisors (conducted by his group's attorney for their suit against the Supervisors) the man did not express a thorough understanding of the bonding issue for the project, or the reasoning behind the $20 million TIF bond figure. Some may wonder what Koether's stake in this battle is, and in some ways it's personal. Koether's farm is about two miles from the proposed development site, but not directly adjacent to it. There would be no direct impact on his land from the development, except that his property taxes could go up. But Koether's farm has been in the family since 1853 and his children have an interest in taking up the business for themselves. He has two sons who will soon graduate from college and a daughter in high school. He says that he could make a lot of money by selling his land if the development went in. "If I was just looking at the bottom line for myself personally, then I should go for it, [sell out]. I don't have any intention of doing that." Koether has paid a price for sticking his neck out on this issue, and the Marquette McGregor community has been changed by it. Some friendships and acquaintances have been dissolved in the conflict. "I was surprised how the possibility of making a quick dollar could draw a line between old friends," he said. He and the other men active in the lawsuits, Harlan Dettman, Ron Kleinow and Tim Mason, have come under a certain amount of personal attack. There's even a new acronym circulating for the group ‹ C.A.V.E. ‹ Citizens' Against Virtually Everything. And while he says this is regrettable, he notes that new friends and unexpected support has come to him too. He mentioned how an older woman he knows approached him recently at a school function and told him she believed in what he was doing, and asked him not to back down. "When you get that kind of support, it makes you feel like you're on the right track," he said.

The countdown to the Droppin' of the Carp has begun There are only five more days until Lucky the Carp makes his New Year's splash! Here is the confirmed schedule for Droppin of the Carp events: 9 p.m. - Bonfires will be lit. Hot chocolate, popcorn and S'Mores will be available. There will be a couple warmer tents stocked with smoked carp donated by Valley Fish Shop. T-shirts and Carp Family Memberships will be available to purchase at that time and throughout the night. 11 p.m. - Breaking of the Carp Pinata for the children that get to stay up late. 11:15 p.m. - On stage - Welcome, Larry and the Carpettes, Crowning of the Carp King and Carp Queen. At 20 minutes and .04 seconds before midnight the clock will be started for the count down. It will be checked somehow with the Atomic Clock in Boulder, Colo. Or we will just go with Central Carp Time. 11:59 p.m - Countdown The crowd has to help as we are getting older and we tend to mix our numbers. 12 Midnight - the Droppin of the Carp, Auld Lang Syne, Pledge of Allegiance, God Bless America, Fireworks. 12:15 - Carp Plunge - The plunge will be held near Old Will's Bait Shop. Be sure to check in with the Plunge Master. And remember to pick up your souvenir towel to commemorate your bravery. We hope for warmer weather this year, but snow or shine, wind or calm, we will be there and hope you will too. Happy New Year.

Crawford County man shares historical, international insights about wild hog hunting
Several Crawford County residents met at the Satter Building Dec. 9 to discuss the wild hog problem that has developed in the county over the past two or three years. A combination of trapping and hunting was mentioned as likely the best method to eradicate the animals. His interest piqued by an article about the problem that appeared in the Courier Press, another Crawford County man has now weighed in on the hunting aspect of the issue. Don Teter, who resides in the southwestern part of the county, has an international connection concerning wild hog hunting and offers an historical perspective as well. Teter, who grew up in the "hog country" of Blackhawk County, Iowa, says he remembers when Blackhawk County developed a wild hog problem during the years of World War II. It was a common practice to put metal rings in the noses of domestic hogs, Teter said, in order to prevent the hogs from rooting under or going through fences. Because metal was needed for the war effort, farmers no longer used metal nose rings and a good number of hogs escaped and became wild, Teter said. Adding to the problem was the fact that able-bodied men and ammunition were also scarce during the war years. Thus, the hogs literally ran wild. Following the war, the wild hogs needed to be eliminated. Teter, who was born in 1938, remembers an effort whereby large groups of men (some drivers, others shooters) drove the hogs to the Cedar River and shot them. Teter said that the hog hunting effort continued for quite some time, but eventually, the wild hogs were eradicated. Teter grew up to become an avid hunter and also worked in law enforcement for about 20 years. For several of those years, Teter was a Blackhawk County Sheriff's deputy working in ballistics. In more recent years, Teter and his wife Ginette, who was born in France, have become friends with a French couple who hunt wild hogs in the Ardennes region of France. The Ardennes is a heavily forested area where wild hog hunting has been a sport for numerous generations. Hog hunting in the Ardennes, which Teter says has a very similar topography to that of Crawford County, is done by using dogs and by driving. Several "beaters" walk along carrying long sticks that are used to beat the brush and drive the hogs. The hogs are then killed by the shooters. By using this method, Teter says that hunters in France can kill numerous hogs in one day. Teter said that since hunting hogs is so new to Crawford County, area hunters are not used to it yet. He reasoned, however, that because the use of dogs and large groups of hunters works so well in the Ardennes, the method would work just as well here in Crawford County as an efficient and effective way to eradicate the animals. Judging by the size and reputed toughness and ferocity of wild hogs in Crawford County, Teter said that he would use nothing less than a 300 grain rifle slug and a 44 or 45-caliber rifle if he were to go hog hunting. He said that shotgun slugs would also probably be quite effective. "It takes a tremendous amount of lead to stop them," said Teter, who noted that the best shot would be through the hog's shoulder at about a 45-degree angle. In fact, to be most efficient in an eradication process, Teter said he would use a 45-caliber 300 grain hollow point. Teter noted that a 44 or 45-caliber rifle can kill any animal in North America and most big game species in Africa. "The heavy slug and slower velocity causes much more radial damage," said Teter, who explained that the slug does not go completely through the animal, but rather stays in the animal and produces a "100 percent shock factor." It all adds up to a much cleaner, faster kill whereby the animal drops almost immediately if shot in the vital organs, says Teter. Nobody knows for certain the makeup and origin of the wild hogs in Crawford County, but Teter suspects that the vast majority are domestic hogs that escaped from the farm. He also said that it is possible that there are wild boars that escaped from game farms. "I think they are feral hogs," he said. "A hog will go wild faster than any other animal in the barnyard. Even domesticated hogs can be dangerous." Wild hogs reproduce with great alacrity and create a great deal of crop and terrain damage. They also pose quite a threat for the spread of disease, not only to domesticated animals but potentially to humans. In addition, wild hogs eat anything and everything, which leaves little or no food base for other species. For all of these reasons, Teter said that he would like to help in any way he can in the eradication of wild hogs from Crawford County. Several county residents continue to work with Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources personnel in order have the state set up an eradication program.

December 29, 2004

December 27, 2004