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December 30, 2004Tondu charges violation, bias in power plant denialEditor's note: Northern Michigan provided the setting for many interesting news stories in 2004, tales of tragedy and triumph, of conflict and caring, of achievement and bureaucratic bungles. The Record-Eagle remembers some of the year's top stories in a continuing series on 2004 newsmakers. Today: A community rejects a plan for a huge coal-burning power plant.By Record-Eagle staff writer MANISTEE - A fight over a coal-fueled power plant proposed for the shore of Manistee lake has dragged on for more than a year and could stretch out another year as a lawsuit winds its way through federal court. Opponents say the company that proposed the plant wants to hold Manistee hostage and its demand for damages of $810 million in a federal lawsuit is absurd. Attorneys for Tondu Corp. argue the city's denial of a special use permit for the plant violates the company's constitutional rights and that a planning commission member who voted against it had a conflict of interest. The charges are the latest in a dispute that unfolded throughout 2004, first with a request in late 2003 by Tondu for a special use permit for a power plant, followed by a torrent of public opposition amid the discovery that the plant would be turned over to municipalities and a supposed tax windfall for Manistee would not come to pass. The city's planning commission rejected the permit request and a lawsuit from the company followed. Most recently, Ellen Carmody, federal magistrate judge for the U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids, denied a motion from the City of Manistee that sought to prevent two members of the planning commission to be deposed by Tondu's attorneys. Roger L. Myers, attorney for Tondu's Manistee Salt Works Development Corporation, said one of the planning commission members who voted against the plant had a conflict of interest because he is also a member of the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians. The Little River Band, along with a citizens group, intervened as defendants amid concerns that the city, if left alone, would settle with Tondu and allow the power plant after all. "The position taken by the tribe now is, their members' interest is so significant, it justified their intervention," Myers said. "If that's the case, then he should have recused himself."
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