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Last week the Michigan Court of Appeals granted our motion to expedite the briefing schedule in connection with Heron Cove Association’s (HCA) Claim of Appeal. Under the Michigan appellate court rules, HCA must submit its appellate brief by September 5. FLTF will only have 14 days to file our response brief (which would have been 21 days if we hadn’t filed the motion to expedite). HCA will then have an opportunity to file a reply to our response, but that must be filed within seven days after we file our response brief.
Construction Suspension
Based on this timing, there will not be a resolution to the appeal by the end of September. Consequently, we will suspend work on the three remaining dams under construction:
- Secord will be suspended in October
- Smallwood will be suspended in September
- Edenville construction was suspended in June
- Sanford will be suspended in January
Construction suspension dates are based on the contractor’s crews' ability to get the dams to stable suspension points that adhere to dam safety requirements of the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy. Funding for this work relies on the remaining funds from the $200 million state grant and Michigan Treasury’s release of those funds.
FLTF Continues to Push Forward
HCA has used every legal opportunity to delay the process required to restore the lakes, and their legal actions have and will continue to delay dam safety upgrades and environmental mitigation, as well as increase costs to property owners. To date, HCA has presented no feasible alternative, and one can only assume HCA intends to completely stop the project which if successful, will result in the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in property values.
Hopefully, HCA’s appeal and their lawsuits currently pending in federal court, will be resolved before the end of the year so FLTF can move forward with financing the final phase of construction in early 2025. Even so, this delay will add an estimated cost of $10 to $20 million to the project. This year's construction work was impacted and will push back the restoration of the lakes. If we are not able to start early in 2025, another year would likely be added to the table below.
We understand the frustration of all those in the community with these delays. If construction cannot start in the spring then FLTF has the funds to maintain operations and manage all matters through 2025 until construction can begin.
The FLTF Board appreciates the continued support of the lakes' restoration.
Dave Kepler
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