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Branson-based Missouri Partners Inc. has admitted to bulldozing part of Wilson's Creek National Battlefield in 2006, but President Steve Redford said the U.S. government's settlement offer was "absurd." Consequently, the government has filed a lawsuit against MPI in U.S. District Court.
The U.S. government is suing a Branson-based development firm that disturbed a portion of Wilson's Creek National Battlefield with one of its bulldozers in 2006, but the firm's defiant president said the government will have to prove its "frivolous" case in court.
The U.S. Attorney's Office filed the civil suit against Missouri Partners Inc. on behalf of the Department of the Interior and National Park Service in U.S. District Court last month. The government hopes to recover restoration costs and damages under the Park System Resources Protection Act.
According to the suit, an MPI employee operating a dozer near the battlefield in April 2006 trespassed on government property while clearing out a ravine for construction of a culvert. At the time, MPI was building an access road on a 200-foot strip of land bisecting property the firm sold the battlefield earlier that year.
An MPI supervisor notified battlefield staff of the incident that same day, court records show. Altogether, the operator allegedly bulldozed about a half-acre north of the access road site, removing varying amounts of topsoil in the process.
MPI President Steve Redford acknowledged that the dozer operator strayed onto battlefield property while clearing the ravine, but he said the act wasn't intentional. Redford also challenged the government's assertion that the area disturbed had any historical significance or that his company's actions damaged the battlefield - the site of the first major Civil War clash west of the Mississippi in August 1861.
"They have to prove there's damages. The burden of proof is on them. They can't just say, 'We've been damaged,'" Redford said during a face-to-face interview granted to Springfield Business Journal. "MPI has its right to have its day in court."
Redford has a contentious history with the battlefield and its superintendent, Ted Hillmer. For five years, MPI has been trying to develop more than 1,600 acres near the battlefield as a residential subdivision known as Terrell Creek. Hillmer publicly opposed the original plan and several incarnations since.
In hopes of gaining approval for Terrell Creek, Redford sold 157 acres to the Wilson's Creek National Battlefield Foundation in February 2006, court records show. The foundation then sold the property to the NPS for $1.2 million, but MPI retained ownership of a narrow strip of land for an access road.
Court records show that Hillmer sent a letter dated June 26, 2006, to MPI regarding the firm's potential liability under the Park System Resources Protection Act, but Redford said he did not have the letter in his files.
Don Ledford, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Kansas City, said the government and MPI had been negotiating an appropriate dollar amount to settle the case prior to the litigation, but he was prohibited from providing specifics.
"There's been a lot of discussion about what is an appropriate amount for damages, and we've reached a point where we need to bring the conversation to a resolution," he said. "Now it's up to the court to make the decision of what is an appropriate amount for damages."
Ledford did not know how long negotiations had been ongoing, but Redford said the case sat dormant until March, when MPI received a letter from a U.S. attorney in Denver notifying the firm of a potential civil enforcement action for the 2006 infraction. Redford said the time lapse is suspect.
"It seems pretty strange to me," he said. "Why would it take three years?"
Redford said MPI signed an agreement with the government to resolve the matter out of court but later received what he described as an "absurd" confidential settlement offer.
"The intrinsic land value we're talking about is $4,500, and what they wanted to suck out of us in penalties and restoration costs was almost 20 times that," he said. "I told them they hit their head somewhere along the road."
Redford believes Hillmer referred the case to the U.S. Attorney's Office earlier this year after learning that MPI was pursuing a plan to subdivide part of the Terrell Creek property into 53 five-acre tracts for single-family homes. The Christian County Planning & Zoning Commission is currently considering a related rezoning request.
"He's doing whatever it takes to stop the development of Terrell Creek," Redford said of Hillmer, who referred questions to Ledford.
While a civil suit seeking damages under the PRSPA is rare, the U.S. Attorney's Office has a responsibility to enforce the law, Ledford said.
"I think that our office ... has an obligation to follow the law and pursue the legal remedies that are required under the law. We will do our duty," he said.
Redford said the government will be hard-pressed to prove that the MPI dozer damaged part of Wire Road - a corridor that stretched from Jefferson City to Fort Smith, Ark., that was well-traveled by both Union and Confederate soldiers - or disturbed "historical artifacts" cited in the suit. He maintained that MPI won't pay more than the value of the land in question, which he estimates at about $4,500.
"In my estimation, (the Civil War battle is) an event that happened 140 years ago; they have 1,600 acres there already," Redford said. "You could argue that there's historical significance on every acre of land in the United States of America."
Branson-based Missouri Partners Inc. has admitted to bulldozing part of Wilson's Creek National Battlefield in 2006, but President Steve Redford said the U.S. government's settlement offer was "absurd." Consequently, the government has filed a lawsuit against MPI in U.S. District Court.
The U.S. government is suing a Branson-based development firm that disturbed a portion of Wilson's Creek National Battlefield with one of its bulldozers in 2006, but the firm's defiant president said the government will have to prove its "frivolous" case in court.
The U.S. Attorney's Office filed the civil suit against Missouri Partners Inc. on behalf of the Department of the Interior and National Park Service in U.S. District Court last month. The government hopes to recover restoration costs and damages under the Park System Resources Protection Act.
According to the suit, an MPI employee operating a dozer near the battlefield in April 2006 trespassed on government property while clearing out a ravine for construction of a culvert. At the time, MPI was building an access road on a 200-foot strip of land bisecting property the firm sold the battlefield earlier that year.
An MPI supervisor notified battlefield staff of the incident that same day, court records show. Altogether, the operator allegedly bulldozed about a half-acre north of the access road site, removing varying amounts of topsoil in the process.
MPI President Steve Redford acknowledged that the dozer operator strayed onto battlefield property while clearing the ravine, but he said the act wasn't intentional. Redford also challenged the government's assertion that the area disturbed had any historical significance or that his company's actions damaged the battlefield - the site of the first major Civil War clash west of the Mississippi in August 1861.
"They have to prove there's damages. The burden of proof is on them. They can't just say, 'We've been damaged,'" Redford said during a face-to-face interview granted to Springfield Business Journal. "MPI has its right to have its day in court."
Redford has a contentious history with the battlefield and its superintendent, Ted Hillmer. For five years, MPI has been trying to develop more than 1,600 acres near the battlefield as a residential subdivision known as Terrell Creek. Hillmer publicly opposed the original plan and several incarnations since.
In hopes of gaining approval for Terrell Creek, Redford sold 157 acres to the Wilson's Creek National Battlefield Foundation in February 2006, court records show. The foundation then sold the property to the NPS for $1.2 million, but MPI retained ownership of a narrow strip of land for an access road.
Court records show that Hillmer sent a letter dated June 26, 2006, to MPI regarding the firm's potential liability under the Park System Resources Protection Act, but Redford said he did not have the letter in his files.
Don Ledford, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Kansas City, said the government and MPI had been negotiating an appropriate dollar amount to settle the case prior to the litigation, but he was prohibited from providing specifics.
"There's been a lot of discussion about what is an appropriate amount for damages, and we've reached a point where we need to bring the conversation to a resolution," he said. "Now it's up to the court to make the decision of what is an appropriate amount for damages."
Ledford did not know how long negotiations had been ongoing, but Redford said the case sat dormant until March, when MPI received a letter from a U.S. attorney in Denver notifying the firm of a potential civil enforcement action for the 2006 infraction. Redford said the time lapse is suspect.
"It seems pretty strange to me," he said. "Why would it take three years?"
Redford said MPI signed an agreement with the government to resolve the matter out of court but later received what he described as an "absurd" confidential settlement offer.
"The intrinsic land value we're talking about is $4,500, and what they wanted to suck out of us in penalties and restoration costs was almost 20 times that," he said. "I told them they hit their head somewhere along the road."
Redford believes Hillmer referred the case to the U.S. Attorney's Office earlier this year after learning that MPI was pursuing a plan to subdivide part of the Terrell Creek property into 53 five-acre tracts for single-family homes. The Christian County Planning & Zoning Commission is currently considering a related rezoning request.
"He's doing whatever it takes to stop the development of Terrell Creek," Redford said of Hillmer, who referred questions to Ledford.
While a civil suit seeking damages under the PRSPA is rare, the U.S. Attorney's Office has a responsibility to enforce the law, Ledford said.
"I think that our office ... has an obligation to follow the law and pursue the legal remedies that are required under the law. We will do our duty," he said.
Redford said the government will be hard-pressed to prove that the MPI dozer damaged part of Wire Road - a corridor that stretched from Jefferson City to Fort Smith, Ark., that was well-traveled by both Union and Confederate soldiers - or disturbed "historical artifacts" cited in the suit. He maintained that MPI won't pay more than the value of the land in question, which he estimates at about $4,500.
"In my estimation, (the Civil War battle is) an event that happened 140 years ago; they have 1,600 acres there already," Redford said. "You could argue that there's historical significance on every acre of land in the United States of America."
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