VICKBURG, MI (WKZO AM/FM) – An ugly public battle between Kalamazoo County and an extended local family over a prime piece of lakefront property has gone to settlement talks, but there is apparently a third side to the story.
The land sits on Gourdneck Lake inside Prairie View Park. The county has wanted it for 60 years but agreed with the original owners to wait until they had all passed. Part of the family is now fighting to keep it, while other members have just now stepped forward, siding with the county.
Loraine Talanda Goetting says a deal is a deal, and her parents Edmund and Dorothy Talanda were unwavering to their dying day that they were honor bound to abide by that agreement.
She says they were grateful to the county of letting them stay there as long as they did, but she claims her sister misled the Kalamazoo County Board of Commissioners by telling them the deal is no longer valid.
Her husband Mark Goetting says it’s not just the land. He says the County has issued dozens of keys to the family so they can get to the property, and it’s a big liability and security problem.
The Goettings say the other side of the family’s high-priced attorney and public relations firms have unfairly tried to portray the county as the bad guys, and that’s why they have stepped forward.
They both say it has torn their huge extended family apart, triggering legal action and threats of violence from other family members.
The land has been appraised at over $280,000. The county is offering $310,000.
Rather than initiate condemnation proceedings, the Kalamazoo County Board of Commissioners has asked the attorneys to sit down one more time to try and reach a settlement and will revisit the issue at their May 5, 2022 meeting.
(reporting from John McNeill)
