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Public Hearing On Wednesday To Highlight Controversial Kohler Golf Proposal

Critics Worry About Water, Trees, Native Artifacts

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Musicians perform  at The Friends of the Black River Forest fundraiser in Sheboygan.
Chuck Quirmbach/WPR

A public hearing on Wednesday night in Sheboygan Falls will look at a controversial golf course the Kohler Co. wants to build along Lake Michigan, including in a state park.

Neighbors of the proposal continue to raise concerns, and they question a draft environmental impact statement that the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources recently released.

The nearly 250-acre course would be built on company lakefront property in the Town of Wilson, just south of Sheboygan, near a beach that is a popular place for locals to walk dogs and enjoy the water.

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Town resident Claudia Bricks co-founded the Friends of The Black River Forest, a group opposing the golf course. Bricks said she is concerned about protecting the lake and local groundwater, increased traffic and the removal of many trees.

“They want to bulldoze down at least 50 percent — our estimation is 60 percent — of the trees. And I’m wondering where is all the wildlife going to go? The Wisconsin Society of Ornithology has said don’t do that because that area is a major resting place for the birds, the flyways that come through this area,” she said.

Bricks also said the federal government has found thousands of Native American artifacts on the site. Bricks, who is white, said she doesn’t like the idea of disturbing Native American history.

“There’s a possibility of those Indian mounds or those artifacts or any of that to be unearthed or re-earthed, if I may use that word, I think I would really be upset about that,” said Bricks.

Kohler Co. Golf Group director Jim Richerson said his firm is working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the artifacts. He said the state’s recent Draft Environmental Impact Statement doesn’t put up a stop sign.

“As the draft EIS states, the archeological findings don’t prevent the development of the project. We’re very, very respectful of the archeological findings,” he said.

Richerson said a green light for the golf course would benefit the region.

“Well, it’s an opportunity first to open up private property that we’ve owned for 75 years and open that up to public use. The minimalist design of the golf course will really give an opportunity to enjoy that property,” he said.

Kohler also owns two other golf course complexes in the area, Whistling Straits and Blackwolf Run, which have hosted major championships. Richerson said he thinks there’s a market for another course, one that will create hundreds of construction and maintenance jobs. He said he doesn’t think tourism at nearby Kohler-Andrae State Park would suffer even though the course would require a four-acre easement into the public land.

“It’s in an area currently not used by the public — adjacent to an existing maintenance facility the park uses — and the existing trails that a lot of the local community uses, none of the trails would be impacted by the 4-acre easement,” said Richerson.

But the opposition group, the Friends of the Black River Forest, isn’t buying Kohler’s arguments. The group is even raising money for a potentially long legal fight.

At the Handlebar Saloon in Sheboygan a few weeks ago, more than 100 people paid their way in for booyah (soup) bands and to blast Kohler’s plans. Jean Zabrowski said she doesn’t know why the state has issued the draft environmental impact statement without seeing a formal proposal from the company.

“So, it’s hard for us to understand why we’re using our taxpayer dollars to investigate and research and look into this project when there’s nothing been officially proposed,” Zabrowski said.

DNR spokesman James Dick said his agency felt it best to go ahead with the environmental impact statement or EIS process, saying the DNR has legal authority to do so. Dick said the department will use public comments from the Wednesday night hearing in Sheboygan Falls, and other information, to prepare the final EIS. Permit reviews would come later. The Friends of the Black River Forest is urging a big turnout for the hearing.