I just talked with Gina and then Mike Sullivan at DNRC and asked how the abandonment process is designed to work. They said that DNRC is trying to work on some way to help leaseholders if/when they need to abandon the property and can’t sell it. Currently, according to Mike, if we can’t pay/abandon the [...]

Even though we don’t understand all the legal jargons that you are all dealing with we want to encourage you continue to fight these large increases. We both have written letters to the DNRC voicing our concerns but other than that we can’t be of much help as we don’t understand all the U.S. legal [...]

Here is a comp that is on a state lease, in Lake County, on the Flathead Indian  Reservation and  is subject to all those restrictions that Flathead County fee property escapes. The sale price in August 2008 was $59999 for a 600 sf cabin with a lake view, marked down from $67500. That seems to be about replacement cost [...]

Email addresses for contacting the press about your thoughts on this issue FEEL FREE TO ADD MORE IN THE COMMENTS BELOW Lee Interprises owns the Helena Record, The Missoulian, the Great Falls tribune, and the MT Standard – so sending info here should hopefully have some impact  information@lee.net Helena Record The IR welcomes signed letters of all [...]

Hello Lessees! I wanted to give you an update of recent activity on our cabinsite situation. The Land Board is scheduled to take action at their next meeting. This is it, folks!  Please try to attend the meeting if you can- it is extremely important that we have a strong showing. The meeting will be [...]

(The text of the document can be read below or opened as a document from the attachment.) Dear Land Board Members and Interested Parties, I am writing to offer a rebuttal on behalf of the lessees to the comments made by Greg Munro at the September 21, 2009 Land Board Meeting.  Mr. Munro, spoke on [...]

We hope that the DNRC and DoR can propose a long term solution that is acceptable to the School Lands Trust and protects the improvements made by long term leaseholders.  For comparison, the Lake County Assessor has increased the market value of my improvements by 45% over the last 7.5 years. The tax value is unchanged from last year. [...]

The DNRC requested more detailed information about the financial accounting standard we are relying upon in the fair market value section of Alternative 4.  I’ve attempted to summarize the standard and present how it could apply to the cabin site lease situation.  Since their request is for a professional paper, I wrote this up more [...]

Here is the report the DNRC will use as evidence for why lease fees should be set in the current manner. They present information on each of the Alternatives, but are basically saying Alternative 1 is the only one that will bring “full market value” to the Trust. This is the testimony they will give [...]

I have a sister – in – law from Utah- who said her parent went through this kind of experience with their leased vacation property in Utah.  If I remember correctly, the lease holders made a group and were successful in not allowing the state to raise their lease fees.  I am not sure where [...]