When attorney Bill White of the Michael Best and Friedrich LLP law firm wrote to Elmwood officials early in May to withdraw permit applications for a proposed massive Glacier Bay water park to be built by Wilderness Development Inc., many officials and observers expressed surprise. The real surprise for Elmwood Township officials at this point however is the fact that the letter of withdrawal is the last communication received from Michael Best, while the escrow account established to pay for analysis of the application, and to be funded by the applicants, is (according to Elmwood officials) $22,323.74 in arrears.

Bill Swanson, township Planner acknowledged that, "To be honest, it looks like we're going to have to eat some of this." in addressing the fund shortfall. Swanson explained that the account was established to hold funds provided by the applicants to be used to pay bills incurred by the township in consulting with various experts in review of the Glacier Bay project. Attorneys for Wilderness Development had made several payments during the review process to the account to cover invoices submitted by Elmwood's attorney and a consulting planning firm, LSL Associates of Grand Rapids.

Under terms set forth by the township and agreed to by Michael Best and Friedrich, the escrow account balance was to be maintained at all times at a minimum of $10,000. Records obtained from Elmwood Clerk Connie Preston indicate that the account balance dipped as low as -$18,508.90 in the months prior to the withdrawal of the Wilderness Development applications. On at least one occasion during the planning commission review process work was stopped on Township Attorney Jim Young's advice that the escrow account was underfunded.

Clerk Preston acknowledged that monitoring of the status of the account was "Up to me." and that unless other township officials were to look expressly for the information, the status of the account would not have been accessible. Preston noted that information regarding payments being made by the township to consultants would have been included in regular expense reports submitted to the Elmwood Board of Trustees.

Preston notes that the final communication submitted by attorney White ending the review process included statements indicating the applicant's intention to settle all accounts.

Applicant's attorney White did not return a call requesting comment before the publication of this story.