SPARTA, Mich. — When Vice President-elect JD Vance rallied in Sparta on Sept. 17, it was held at a venue called Apple Valley Events. Now, Apple Valley Events is facing multiple violations of special land-use approval.
Tuesday night, the people who live in Sparta were fired up in response.
Chad Momber is the owner of Apple Valley Events, but he is now at risk of losing his special land license for violating more than one Sparta Township code, all centered around the event hosting JD Vance and the amount of people there, which was more than 500 people — a fire code limit.
Dale Bergman, Sparta Township supervisor, said, “Chad did violate some of the special-use requirements, but in the scope of the nature of things, it was very safe.”
Bergman says Chad was planning on having an open-air event, not inside his barn.
“What happened is he had to go inside. So it was kind of a last-minute decision,” Bergman said.
Now people are trying to blame the Secret Service, not Chad Momber.
“It really wasn't Chad's fault," Jim Lower, Sparta village manager, said. "It was probably, number one, Secret Service's fault in terms of moving the event inside."
Lower says those officials took control. “Chad really didn’t have any control during the event,” Lower said.
Dan Olney is the Village of Sparta fire chief and was at the JD Vance rally. “When the Secret Service walks in, they take control of the building. I'm at their mercy.”
Olney claims that the event was safe, and many in the community agree. “I don’t know how much safer that building could have been that day,” Olney said.
Chad Momber adds that he signed an agreement handing over control for the event that day.
“The Trump 47 committee and the Secret Service told me over and over there would be no more than 300 people there," Momber said. "Dan and the Secret Service made a determination of how many people could be in my building."
One community member stated that the Sparta Township Planning Commission is casting a dark cloud over a good thing. Many people are calling this a witch hunt.
“The vice president-elect coming to town was something that we were all very excited about, and I think it was unfortunate that it's turned into what we have here. But hopefully it'll get clarified and we'll be able to all move forward,” Lower said.
The Sparta Township Planning Commission motioned to table Tuesday night's meeting to further take into consideration what has been said.
Details of the violations the venue is facing can be read below:
Letter to Owner Apple Valley Events Items for Review by WXMI on Scribd
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