Residents want school forest open for hunting

CLINTONVILLE – Several residents spoke at the June 9 Clintonville Board of Education meeting in favor of leaving a 70-acre piece of property owned by the district open to the public for hunting.
The residents said they were addressing the board because of recent discussions within the district about leasing the property to one or a small number of parties.
The first to address the board during the Public Comments portion of the meeting was James Gathier. He said he was concerned about discussions that would lead to the district leasing the land to a single party for hunting.
“I’ve hunted there for 49 years, including this year, and spent thousands of hours out there,” Gathier said. “Myself, I’ve taken over 100 deer. I’ve seen hundreds of others taken, too.”
He said since the land is along a highway, deer management is important.

“Leave it open for public hunting would be great,” Gathier said.
Gathier said more deer can be harvested if public hunting would continue on the land. He added that if the issue is the district trying to increase its revenue, he would pay $500 immediately if a fund drive were to be started.
Gerald Plum told the board he pays a lot of money in property taxes each year, but he has always had the opportunity to hunt on the school forest land. He also expressed concern about the district’s discussions about leasing the land to a single party.
“The most this thing is boiling down to is money,” Plum said. “Money is the root of what’s going on here.”
He added, “I pay taxes all my life and I pay them now, more than I ever have, and I don’t want to lose an opportunity that I have right now to use that property the way I’d like to because I’m an owner of that property. I am an owner of that property for paying taxes.”
Jim Schoenike, president of the Clintonville Bowhunters club, which owns the property adjoined to the district’s property, told the board he was concerned about the “No Trespassing” signs that were put up on the district’s property. He said it was his understanding that the property is public property, as it is owned by a public entity, so it should be public.
If the Clintonville Bowhunters club were to ever fold, Schoenike said the club’s property adjoined to the school district’s property would be given to the Clintonville School District.
“Depending on how things happen and shake out here, anything other than total public access of this property, we’re going to change our bylaws,” Schoenike said. “There’s no way I would have good conscious saying we should donate land to the Clintonville Public Schools if it not be accessible to the public.”
Schoenike said the club also applied for and received a grant for just under $100,000 to develop its property for a public archery range.
“Our property will be accessible for the public, while your property may not be,” Schoenike said. “I have a few concerns about that.”
Ross Bielema, who said he is an NRA firearms instructor and also teaches hunters safety, told the board he had a few concerns about the property.
“I think we all feel kind of like we’ve been blindsided,” Bielema said. “We didn’t hear anything about this.”
He said he was also told that the property is open to the public for hiking, but questioned how that was possible since there are No Trespassing signs on the property.
“The fact that this is taxpayer land, there’s a history of all the different groups that pitched in money to buy the land, I’d hate to see it go to a single person for a lease,” Bielema said. “If money is an issue, we can approach that subject separately.”

Kuhn interview

After the meeting, Clintonville Superintendent confirmed to the Clintonville Tribune-Gazette that current district policy for the property in question does not include leasing the property to one party, but there have been discussions within the district about moving in that direction.
Kuhn said the district’s Land Use Committee discussed how the district could generate revenue with the property. He said planting Christmas trees on the property was discussed, but that would leave stumps on the property after the trees were cut down. Renting it out for agriculture was also discussed, but Kuhn said the soil on the property has “proven that agriculture would not be 100% profitable.”
Just because the property has always been open to the public for hunting, Kuhn said that “doesn’t mean it should always be that way.”
“When I became superintendent it was a free for all up there,” Kuhn said. “I thought there were safety issues. I am a hunting safety instructor. I work directly with the wardens. I did a lot of research with the wardens and how many people should be on a certain area. We don’t have police officers out there. We don’t have people out there at any time saying you can’t do this.”
While Kuhn said the district would not be liable if someone were injured on the property, he said it wouldn’t look good for the district.
“I strategically did build a spreadsheet of there’s only certain hunters allowed out there during certain time periods,” Kuhn said.
If the district were to lease the property to one party for hunting, that would probably be the most profitable option for the district, Kuhn said.
“We know that probably the biggest lease would be to do a five- or 10-year lease,” Kuhn said.
Kuhn said that currently, there should be no hunting on the property unless permission is granted by the school district.
When asked about the No Trespassing signs placed on the property, Kuhn said the district did put those up, but added that “No Hunting” signs should have been put on the property, not No Trespassing. He said that would be corrected by the district.
At the June 23 board meeting, Kuhn told the board that when the district went to replace the No Trespassing signs with No Hunting signs, someone had already removed the No Trespassing signs.
“I’m not real happy about that, where we have public land, and now people are taking it upon themselves to make their own rules,” Kuhn said. “I’m very disheartened by that. We’re just trying to make decisions here on what’s best for the school, school-owned property, etc.”