To the editor:

My family and I have called Eagle Harbor our ancestral home since 1861 when the General Store was founded by our relatives fresh off the boat from Ireland. To this day, I can still walk the streets and name the owners of each cabin, detail its history, and recount stories from the multiple generations that have inhabited the town.

Sure we can have our differences and conflicts – as all small communities do – but I know the hearts of the people of this town and I can say without reservation that they come from a place of neighborly love and respect. It is a community worth protecting.

I am also a STR owner in Eagle Harbor Village. We purchased our property for one reason and one reason only: so that my children would have the opportunity to enjoy this community as my family has done for the better part of 150 years. Just as my Mother did for me. And Her parents before her, and so on.

It does not make a profit. It is not run for profit. I have no desire to “block competition” as some have alleged.

I simply want to protect the community I love with a reasonable STR ordinance to prevent what has happened in other idyllic small communities where STRs remain unregulated.

A lot of the coverage, both in Letters to the Editor as well as news reports, has been decidedly disappointing. There is not and never was a “stealth” agenda regarding the STR ordinance proposal.

All meetings of the township, as required, are public and notices and minutes can be found very easily on the township website.

Individuals I have known all my life, who have served the community with integrity, have seen their reputations maligned by individuals who don’t like the direction of the proposal.

Lastly, I was on the township special meeting that the Gazette references as being overwhelmingly in opposition to the STR, and that is not at all the case. A large proportion of the people on that meeting, including STR owners, favor reasonable restrictions on STRs – even though those restrictions would add effort and cost – so that our children will have the opportunity to experience Eagle Harbor as we have.

Respectfully,