PELLSTON -- The thrill is mostly gone over the prospect of a new private civil defense company's plan to build a $79 million facility in this economically challenged community.
The startup company, Sovereign Deed LLC, headquartered in the Chicago suburb of Vernon Hills, is tailored to prepare survival plans for the wealthy during times of natural and warlike disasters.
Subscribers to the company's program would be charged up to $50,000 to join and $15,000 a year thereafter. For their money, the company says it would provide customers with a disaster preparedness assessment, training to cope with disaster, satellite phones, and emergency packages of food, water, medicine and protective equipment.
Backers characterized the plans as a catalyst needed to energize the local economy. It was anticipated that a national response center here initially would provide about 40 jobs, with several hundred more in the future, and be an important first step toward establishment of an industrial park, as well as perk up activity at under-utilized Pellston Regional Airport.
Prior to the announcement, a package worth millions in tax abatements and state and federal grants for infrastructure improvements such as roads and water and sewer service had been put together with little public discussion.
Andy Hayes, president of the Boyne City-based Northern Lakes Economic Alliance, estimated the package contained benefits worth between $10 million and $15 million. The agency would be responsible for coordinating most of Sovereign Deed's applications for benefits with agencies of local, state and federal governments.
"It's all hypothetical at this point because they have not made the decision to proceed," Hayes said.
'Big day for northern Michigan'
Emmet County officials offered to lease 700 of the airport's 1,400 surplus acres to Sovereign at $75 an acre per year. There, the company could build a hangar, warehouses and training areas.
The company has not exercised the lease. The county also has had a $90,000 environmental impact study done.
A press release from State Sen. Jason Allen, R-Traverse City, in August said he was "thrilled" about Sovereign Deed's decision to locate in Pellston.
"This is a big day for northern Michigan," he said. "Sovereign Deed has the potential to bring many high-quality jobs to the region."
But since then, a group called "No Need for Sovereign Deed" that describes the company as a "house of cards" has become more vocal and media scrutiny has increased.
The result: less enthusiasm by Allen and state Rep. Gary McDowell, D-Rudyard, who, along with Allen, sponsored legislation to help the company.
"I'm certainly concerned about what's come out," Allen said last week.
"I'd still like to see it happen," McDowell said, "but we have some concerns."
And the chairman of the Emmet County Board of Commissioners, James Tamlyn, an early cheerleader for the project, said that while the process is not dead, "They have to answer some hard questions, and we do not have rose-colored glasses on."
An activist in the loosely knit No Need for Sovereign Deed group, Dale Scott, supervisor of Friendship Township, said it is too common for public officials to "just sign on the dotted line without looking at things."
"Sovereign Deed plans to provide its services to only a relatively few privileged people, and if we allow it, they will do so with public assets in hand," he said.
Sovereign Deed recently hired Gary Naeyaert, president of Naeyaert Advocacy Group in Lansing, as a company spokesman.
No timetable has been set for the project, he said.
"Plans haven't changed," he said. "We'll continue to talk to county officials. There's an ideological debate to have and we're not averse to having it."
Biography questioned
Much of the debate centers on Sovereign Deed's founder, Barrett Moore. Naeyaert said an interview with Moore could not be arranged "because he is traveling."
Moore, who is familiar with northern Michigan because his family has owned a vacation home on Burt Lake in Cheboygan County for decades, first approached county officials early last year. He demanded a promise of confidentiality, then laid out his plan.
The biography he presented was impressive. It said he had been active in a broad range of industry, ranging from manufacturing to professional services.
Before Sovereign Deed, it said, he founded a company called Triple Canopy, a forerunner in the private military contractor market. He left Triple Canopy in 2004. It also said he had served as an Army intelligence officer, though the biography recently was withdrawn from Sovereign Deed's Web site.
An online newspaper, the Michigan Messenger, recently questioned Moore's background, prompting a Sovereign Deed attorney to demand a retraction. Otherwise, the attorney threatened, he would "initiate all appropriate legal proceedings."
The Michigan Messenger reported, among other things, that Moore had been the target of several lawsuits, including one by former associates at Triple Canopy accusing him of "raiding the company's financial accounts," and that he declared bankruptcy in 1998.
The paper also questioned his claim that he'd served as an intelligence officer in the Army, saying that he only reached the rank of sergeant.
Mark Fisk, the publication's spokesman, said the paper stands by its story and will continue reporting on Sovereign Deed.
Naeyaert would not respond to the points raised in the Michigan Messenger's stories.
V.P. leaves
Another negative development for the company came this week, with word that Sovereign Deed's vice president, Ret. Brig. Gen. Richard W. Mills, resigned.
Mills retired from the Army after 32 years of service, which included 27 years with Special Forces and as head of one of five special operations commands in Korea. Among his assignments was as the deputy director of the Counterterrorism Center of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Mills said he was leaving Sovereign Deed for "personal reasons," but that he remains a supporter of the company.
It was Mills who last October represented Sovereign Deed at a community meeting at Pellston High School and defended the goal of creating what amounts to a private civil defense agency.
He likened a contract with Sovereign Deed to a "country club style membership" that was not for everyone but, rather, for those who could afford it.
"Every individual is responsible for preparing and supporting themselves," he said. "The government cannot be everywhere all the time."
Hayes, of the Northern Lake Economic Alliance, said the Sovereign Deed controversy has brought new attention to the need to develop an industrial park and that the potential infrastructure improvements could benefit other industries.
"The county has owned that property since the '30s," he said. "It's always been a dream to develop it as an industrial park."
Neither he nor any other official would hazard a guess as to whether the project would come to fruition.
McDowell, perhaps, best expressed local sentiment.
"Stay tuned," he said.
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