Monday, February 04, 2008

Development threatens Lake Michigan park

Monday, October 29, 2007

Ann Arbor News (also on this blog in Oct.)

We urge you to pay attention to the issue of Jean Klock Park on Lake Michigan, Benton Harbor. We are very concerned that this park is being quietly taken from public use by private corporate interest. The park was dedicated and given by the Klock family in 1917 to Benton Harbor and surrounding communities explicitly and forever as a public park and bathing beach and was dedicated "for the children.'' A proposed development that threatens this also threatens wetlands and delicate species.

Perhaps most troubling is that corporate interests can be allowed to take what was given forever to the public because they promise jobs. As the intended use is a golf course - what positions /jobs are they suggesting will be available for the good people of Benton Harbor: caddies? This is an outrage and our great lakes should NEVER be a bargaining point where jobs are concerned. Additionally, our fresh water Great Lakes will become, if they are not already, as or more valuable than oil, and should therefore be carefully managed and protected from any private or corporate encroachment.

The children of Benton Harbor and its surrounding communities deserve to have free and open access to the Lake Michigan shore. An excellent carefully prepared source for information can be found at savejeanklockpark.org.

Barbara A. Neri and Ralph O. Neri, Pinckney