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January 29, 2006Developer's father left a polluted site in EllsworthNow, condo project touted as eco-friendlyBOYNE CITY - A developer who touts his proposed Lake Charlevoix condominium project as environmentally friendly has family ties to an Ellsworth Superfund site where taxpayers paid millions to clean up after an abandoned steel plant.Fred Taylor, a Georgia businessman proposing a condo village and marina west of Boyne City, is the son of Maurice Taylor Sr., who founded and for decades ran the polluting Morweld Steel Corp. in Ellsworth. Memories of the family's legacy in Ellsworth are still fresh, and some in the village are skeptical of Fred Taylor's new $52 million venture only 20 miles away. Village president Hugh Campbell said Morweld's closure and environmental problems that followed were "like a death blow" to the town. "We're still struggling to get out of it," Campbell said. "Just because (Fred Taylor) was part of that in the past doesn't mean that he can't go in there (to Lake Charlevoix) and make a dollar. It's just too bad he didn't come to Ellsworth and do it earlier." Taylor said he doesn't condone his father's actions. "He made a mistake," Taylor said. "But what you're saying is, because my father was an alcoholic, that makes me an alcoholic? I'm a little disappointed that people need to bring that up." Founded on the shore of Ellsworth Lake in the 1950s, Morweld made various products over the years, including travel trailers and artillery shell casings. Fred Taylor worked there for four years, starting in 1972, at the age of 21. He left the family business in 1976, he said. Morweld, later known as International Disc Corp., closed its doors in the early 1980s. It left behind a mess, said Robert Wagner, who heads the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality's Gaylord offices. "When people drove into Ellsworth, they were greeted with this 20-acre eyesore ... like a trash heap when you entered town," Wagner said. The DEQ hauled away drums of hazardous waste and removed surface soils contaminated with PCBs, petroleum compounds and heavy metals. The cleanup initially was projected to cost up to $3 million. Wagner recalls the final tally being closer to $2 million, of which the state paid nearly all. The federal government sued the Taylors, including Fred, in 1990 for the cleanup costs. Fred Taylor was dismissed from the case, he said. A protracted legal battle ended in 1995 when a federal judge ruled that Taylor's parents were culpable but financially unable to pay. They were ordered to contribute a token $2. Fred Taylor hasn't lived in Ellsworth for decades, but still has area connections. He owns property on Ellsworth Lake overlooking the former plant site - today a park and garden. "I have no problem to say that my father made an error in judgment," he said. "I think my whole history of business has been to learn from the lessons of what my father did." Fred Taylor is paying $650,000 to clean up the property where he wants to build condos. A coal-burning power plant left the land polluted. He's marketing the development as environmentally sensitive with geothermal heating systems and energy-efficient concrete construction. The project is expected to go to Eveline Township officials sometime next month. Township Supervisor John Vrondran said he is familiar with Taylor's family history in Ellsworth. "He's been up front with everything that he tells us. What can I tell you?" Vrondran said. Said Township Clerk Don Hayden of Morweld: "That's all ancient history as far as some people are concerned." See related story:
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