Rebuttal to Meshkin Letter of May 16, 2002, in Holland Sentinel    Like Albert Meshkin, Laketown Township Manager, I feel the need to respond when I read "drivel" in the paper. I haven’t seen a better example of the genre than his letter of Thursday, May 16, in the Sentinel’s Opinions section.    He begins by asking "on who’s list the protection of the Saugatuck Dunes State Park is a top priority?", referring to Laketown Township’s proposal to build a water treatment plant there. How about the list of the 400 plus members of Concerned Citizens for Saugatuck Dunes State Park, ten other organizations, their members, and the DNR, all who oppose the construction of a water treatment plant in the park, Mr. Meshkin?    He asks why we are hearing only from the "naysayers". Good question. Could it be that even those folks without good water in Allegan county recognize there are more suitable places to get it? Most of the county’s 105,000 residents have no need of a major new water source anyhow, although hopes for extensive development may be dampened somewhat without it.    Meshkin once again trots out his claim the filtration plant would be "located on 10 acres outside the 1,000-acre park." The last time I looked at the proposal it still had a 35 acre plant site located directly on top the current park entrance road, completely within the boundaries of what is actually about 850 acres of park land.    He says that Laketown Township is "proposing to use an existing 40-foot-wide easement through the park". I don’t know the width of the easement, but I know the main trail to the beach runs down it and is 10 feet wide at most, the widest it has been since the dunes rose on the shore.    Laketown is proposing a 50 foot by 50 foot pumping station on a 200 by 200 foot easement at the most popular beach area. "Near the location of an existing building", Meshkin states. This "existing building" is an ancient squat structure, perhaps 8 by 12, anonymously crouching into the inland slope of a dune.    "I'm a little tired of hearing about the ‘wilderness experience’ of the park", says Meshkin, and I’ll bet he is. It’s been seriously gumming up the works of his water treatment plant proposal. Now, I’ll be the first to confess the park isn’t the best wilderness I’ve seen, but it’s certainly the finest within many hours drive of here. As for the Alaskan alternative he so glibly refers to, unless they’ve moved it closer, or he knows of a substantial shortcut, it’s a bit much for a mid week after work respite. Chuck Gustafson Douglas, MI Note: The Commercial Record in Allegan County printed a more complete version of this letter in their May 23, 2002 edition, which included the web address for this site. Return to Concerned Citizens for Saugatuck Dunes State Park Resources & Reference page.