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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. |
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