Granville Township sued over lead contamination caused by McPeek Lodge shooting range
A Granville resident has filed a lawsuit against Granville Township, a local realtor and individual residents claiming the parties failed to disclose that a Raccoon Valley Road property adjacent to McPeek Lodge had lead contamination before it was purchased in 2017.
In a Licking County Common Pleas Court lawsuit filed April 21, Mary Flynn, of Granville, and her businesses, 3351 Raccoon Valley Road, LLC and Raccoon Creek Farms, LLC, allege fraud, negligence, private and public nuisance, and other claims related to underground lead contamination on 3351 Raccoon Valley Road caused by the shooting range that previously operated from the 1940s until 2015 at the neighboring McPeek Lodge.
Flynn filed the lawsuit against Granville Township; the Board of Granville Township Trustees; Raccoon Valley Conservation Club, Inc.; area realtor Lisa McKivergin and her agency; and the Funk Family Trust, Glen Funk, Sandra Krumm, June Funk, who were the previous owners of the Raccoon Valley Road property.
McPeek Lodge, located at 3447 Raccoon Valley Road, was purchased by Granville Township in 2005 and the shooting range continued to operate there for another 10 years. Granville Township Trustee Bryn Bird told the Advocate in September 2022 that the township has monitored the lead, which came from bullets used by the shooting range, since it purchased the land. She said at the time the land has been tested each year since 2018.
The shooting range company is now defunct, leaving the township as the party responsible for cleaning up the contamination, Bird said in September.
In October 2021, the township received a letter from the Environmental Protection Agency mandating that the township clean up the contaminated area. Granville Township Rob Schaadt said in an interview Thursday morning that as of now the township has fenced off about 80% of 4 acres of McPeek Lodge green space to contain the area with lead contamination.
The township's long-term plan is to clean up the lead eventually, Bird said in September.
According to the lawsuit, the township tested the McPeek Lodge site in 2015. After receiving the results, which showed high lead levels in the wooded area of the site, Granville began consulting with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and Licking County Health Department. The company that did the assessment recommended further testing, but the trustees declined that at the time.
On May 11, 2016, the Ohio EPA requested additional testing at 3351 Raccoon Valley Road, then owned by the Funks, and the township reached out to obtain consent. On May 20, 2016, the family set up the Funk Family Trust, according to the lawsuit.
In July 2016, the Funk family informed the township they were declining further testing on their property, "despite their own prior complaints about the lead contamination and shooting activities," according to a copy of the lawsuit obtained by The Advocate.
At about the same time, the Funk family retained McKivergin to serve as a real estate agent for the sale of the property, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit alleges the Funk family members and McKivergin "jointly decided to decline the requested soil testing on the Property in an effort to conceal or suppress the evidence of lead and environmental contamination on the Property," according to court documents.
The Funk family property was listed for sale in 2016, and Flynn entered into a purchase agreement in December 2016, the lawsuit states.
Flynn was "completely unaware of any lead or environmental contamination of the Property or McPeek Lodge," and she "received no disclosures or information" from any of the defendants named in the suit despite them all having knowledge of the contamination, the lawsuit alleges.
In a June 30, 2022 order from the U.S. EPA to Granville Township, the agency required the township to secure the contaminated area at McPeek Lodge in a manner to prevent public access and to address the contaminated area of Flynn's property by either containing it to prevent access or removing the contaminated soil. The order notes the township "shall adopt all reasonable measures to avoid or minimize any such delay," according to court documents.
"The Township Defendants must now finally take responsibility for — and clean-up — the contamination they caused that continues to present an 'imminent and substantial danger' as ordered by the U.S. EPA. Despite the Township Defendants confirming their 'irrevocable intent to comply with th[e] Order' and that it was ordered to 'avoid ... delay,' 295 days have elapsed since the June 30, 2022 Order and the Township Defendants have taken no meaningful steps to clean up their environmental mess. Nor has RVCC," the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit is seeking "an award or compensatory damages, punitive damages, attorney fees and costs, pre- and post-judgement interest, equitable relief, injunctive relief, and all other relief allowed by law or that this Court deems just and proper."
In an emailed statement provided by her attorneys, Flynn wrote she wants the township to comply with the EPA’s order and clean up the mess that has impacted her property.
"I want the property intact and free of hazardous materials. That’s what I thought I paid for when I purchased the property for my organic farm," she wrote via email.
McKivergin said in an interview Wednesday afternoon that assertions in the lawsuit that she knew about the contamination and that she encouraged the Funks to form a trust were false, as were claims that she knew about the contamination and allowed Flynn to purchase the property anyway.
"I think it's a real problem to have lead and it needs to be dealt with. But I believe that I had nothing to do with it any which way, but people can file bogus things if they want to," she said.
Members of the Funk family could not be reached as of publication time.
Schaadt said Thursday morning that the township approved hiring Columbus law firm Fishel Downey Albrecht & Riepenhoff LLP to represent the township in the case, but he declined to discuss the matter further.
mdevito@gannett.com
740-607-2175
Twitter: @MariaDeVito13
This article originally appeared on Newark Advocate: Granville Township sued over lead contamination
