September 17th, 2010
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Controversy over The Howard's Mill Region
Two residents of the Howard's Mill Region have raised issues with the involvement of the Howard's Mill Region preservation project..
Larry Rose of Howard's Mill rd claims, he has longtime ownership of the region and that his permission was needed to proceed in our efforts to conserve the area.. Mrs. Asselin who oversees the project asked the gentleman if he was interested in participating in the efforts and offered to meet with him or any one interested.
Subsequently to this conversation, the editor of The Mt Sterling Advocate received a visit of Mr. Rose stating that if the Newspaper did not back up his position, that this attempt was a an illegitimate scam, he would take action to approach the Attorney General or other Government officials.
Judy Gurnee a caterer living at former Bitter Farm B&B on Haper's Ridge Road, also called the project and claimed similar ownership to the region. She expressed her concerned about the owner Margaret Balley and the legitimacy of the project and demanded names and backup information. She claimed that in the past Mrs Balley of Heavenly View Farm Inn had taken her name and displayed food that carried her name.
Mrs. Balley, who has been very ill in the past three years, was contacted. Her husband, John Balley reported that she denied any such wrong doing. He explained that they indeed had wanted to assist the caterer in her business. They had offered her to partner with the Inn to offer her services to the clients who had approached them. He affirm that this was probably a misunderstanding, and that Ms Gurnee had been some what difficult to deal with. They had dismissed it to the fact that Mrs. Gurnee had suffered some significant recent losses.
Mr. Balley expressed some serious concerns at the attempt to defame their efforts to save the Inn. He stated: "We have been trying to do something good. It has not been easy. We have encountered a lot of dishonesty from people we entrusted with our efforts. In some way we are glad to hear about these things, but fears that these concerns could only be more of what is ahead. We have no intention to start any legal battle and war, we only wanted to do a good thing. "
Mrs. Asselin shared also her discouragement and concerns with the nature of the concerns. She stated: "When we decide to fund a project like this, we check people's credentials and background thoroughly. Our Organization could not effort to bring in any shady light to our benevolent investments. If our efforts are also questionned we may need to review our goals for this project. Unless we receive some positive feedback, we will give up.
The company who is presently in charge of the renovation was chosen because of his solid reputation in Mt Sterling. If there are other people who would benefit from similar preservation efforts, we will gladly help them obtain funding.. However, following the recent experience with Mr. Rose and Ms. Gurnee, we may use a very different approach. We do not like controversy and difficult projects. We want the grants to be spent on good citizen who do good work for others..not on attorney's fees. We feel that the Balley's have done that with Heavenly View Farm Inn. We dealt recently with a gentleman in the area who was less than honorable and do not want to repeat that. We are not interested in helping ex-convict do another scam."
Matching grants are offered usually to find out if there is an interest from other local citizen or organization. In this case it seems to be causing controversy. (Information about this grant can be viewed at: CorpWell.org)
Marion Stahl, Staff Writer
