By Shelby Stewart
Staff Writer
Ortonville-About 47 acres of village owed wooded property may soon be off limits to just about everything.
On Monday night, the council voted 4-3 to have an ordinance drafted for the Ortonville Preservation Park, that would make it not to be used for off-read vehicles, motor bikes, or developed bike or footpath trails, hunting, of any other activity other than to preserve, support and protect the habitat and the wildlife of the property.
Trustees Larry Hayden, Pat George, and president Tonja Brice voted against the motion.
“A year ago, this council as a whole decided to regulate the use of the park, not restrict it, it’s open to the public,” said Dan Eschmann, president pro tempore. “It’s a rustic hiking, open to the public area. Since that designation, there’s been wide-spread abuse.”
Eschmann stated he had observed cut-down trees, fire pits, bark pulled off of trees, tracks from motorcycles, alcohol bottles, sleeping bags and more. Last year, park boundaries were sought via a survey, but no ordinance was ever drafted.

According to local law enforcement, an ordinance is needed to enforce any restrictions.
“That property is open,” said trustee Mark Butzu. “As far as a trail goes at some point, maybe at some point down the road, maybe, but right now, tonight, anybody could go there, we could all go there. It’s a gem of a property in that it’s not developed, that’s about as rustic as you can get, and if you’re walking in there, like I have and some of us have, you can’t hear traffic, you can’t hear anything. That’s kind of what nature’s all about. It’s a nice place to be.”
Trustees agreed that the property is something special in the village, but the topic at question was if there should be foot paths through the park. Some trustees thought it would be safer with the trails.
“It’s open to everybody, but unfortunately the only easy access is by people who are immediate property owners around it, because they are the ones who’ve blazed trails into the park through the backs of their property,” said Hayden. “The people who are the property owners around there are the ones abusing this property so who are we trying to protect this from? All of us and the residents that don’t own property around it? I don’t get that. For me as a public person, if I don’t go across somebody’s property, I have to climb halfway up the hill to the public access place, push through some bushes, scramble up a little hill before I can get to those trails that those property owners have blazed through there. If we’re really saying that this is open to the public, we need to have a public entrance where people can get into it and access it easily and safely.”
Safety was brought up as an issue, both by the council and first responders.
“You can’t drive a fire truck back into a 47 acre swamp,” said Lt. Greg Glover, Oakland County Sheriff’s Office Brandon substation commander. “You have to have some type of a 4-wheel drive or some type of an ATV (all-terrain vehicle) to get back to that location to bring somebody out. It’d probably be easier with a trail.”
Brandon Fire Department Fire Chief David Kwapis echoed the same point.
“If we need to get in there and get somebody out, for whatever the reason, we’ve got to be able to get them out,” said Kwapis. “Walking them out is not going to be an option, so what we have to do is put them on some kind of a sled device, and we’ll have to hike them out, and that’s going to depend on where they’re located and how long that’s going to take us to get them out to the proper care. And to Lt. Glover’s point, it could all be done, the cost would be some kind of ATV that both fire and police could share, so that we have access, so that is the cost. Now if you put a path system in there that’s wide enough that we could get like a pickup truck or something like that, well we have that capability.”
Cost was also discussed, though there is not estimate, it was brought up that some of the projects could be volunteer for boy scout projects, high school volunteer hours, or other types of volunteer projects. About a dozen residents either voiced their opinions in favor of pathways at the meeting or via letter to council members, which were read at the meeting.