I find it very interesting, and revealing that this article was written in 2003, and for all the hoopla of the Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear, a environmental conservation group, which as such, shouldn’t have any say at all, they have now returned to sleeping. What does maintaining the Day Farm have to do with the environment, anyway? Absolutely nothing.
The fact that Mr. Lewis owns this property, is apparently paying the taxes and paying costs of maintaining it, should be reason enough to not snore too loudly. It seems that he, in good faith, entered an agreement with the NPS, and under the auspices of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, and as such, has been compliant with the exception of doing some work that made a few people bristle. He seems to be a man of reason, realizing that the only way to properly maintain a property of this nature, is to put the money into it to try and keep it historically accurate while at the same time, making it a working farm and a future residence. As long as he isn’t painting it “orange” leave the man alone. These governmental agencies like having their long arm of governmental over-reach, and they have enjoyed having the farm on its rolls, but at Mr. Lewis’ expense. Sounds quite convenient to me. Any mention of forcing Mr. Lewis to relinquish the property should be stifled promptly. He’s already provided blueprints of his intentions, and while it is obvious to photographers that the house is falling into serious disrepair on the exterior, Mr. Lewis only intends to do what is necessary to restore it to looking like it always has, with the majority of alterations being to the inside of the house, with modern appliances, etc. Again, since he owns it, and plans to live there, is paying for the work, while paying the taxes, it looks to me like all these organizations/government agencies are getting one heck of a deal, and ought not to look a gift horse in the mouth. Besides money, the NPS affirmed that Mr. Lewis has “put 10’s of thousands of work hours into the renovating.”
It is this kind of governmental bullying that make people like me furious. These agencies should be utterly ashamed, for I believe if anyone betrays the hopes Mr. Day had for the farm, it is the NPS, the SBDNL , and PHSB. Any “concern” people have (and I seriously doubt it was the local people who had an issues, but rather PHSB Project Coordinator Michael Watts, and Jennifer Puntenneny, who is nothing more than a former seasonal park ranger, who really should have next to nothing to say and even less power to do anything. Watt’s comment about his agency wanting to ensure that, “the Category III agreement is enforced to the fullest extent of the law,” and Puntenneny’s comment that “this is an important test,” both sound like threats, such that if Mr. Lewis does not comply to their demands (remember they don’t own or pay taxes on the property), then they see no problem with proceeding to take the property away from Mr. Lewis. Good grief. Did we, as Americans, really hand to these people this much power? if so, shame on us. If not, then shame on the administration under whom they were hired. They ought to remember they work for the taxpayers (like Mr. Lewis) and not the other way around.