ALLENDALE TOWNSHIP, Mich. — A settlement has been reached in the lawsuit filed against Allendale Charter Township, accusing them of improperly rejecting applications for a brick dedication fund raising program.
In 1999, the township launched a fundraising program for their Garden of Hope Veterans Memorial Park, allowing anyone interested to pay $50 to have a custom message inscribed onto a brick at the park.
According to township supervisor Adam Elenbaas, the program eventually went dormant for some time.
They revived the program in August of 2019.
Elenbaas says at that point, they decided to change the parameters of the brick program— going forward, messages would only be permitted to include a veteran's name, and details of their service.
In March 2021, a Navy veteran named Tony Miller, along with several other Ottawa County citizens, submitted an application for a brick message.
He asked to engrave a brick with the phrase, "BLACK LIVES MATTER TAKE IT DOWN! —TONY."
His message was in reference to one of the statues standing in the Garden of Hope Park.
Miller and his wife have been involved in protesting the Civil War statue which depicts a union soldier and a confederate soldier standing next to each other, with a young African American child at their feet.
"When that didn't come through or work out, they decided they wanted to apply to have bricks inscribed with racial justice, civil rights-oriented messages," Hannah Juge, a student attorney who worked on the case for the plaintiffs, told FOX 17 on Monday.
The township rejected these applications.
In turn, Miller and his wife, along with several others, filed a lawsuit against the township, arguing that they were violating their first amendment rights by denying their applications for bricks.
While supervisor Elenbaas says this is a situation of an application not falling within the parameters set out in 2019, plaintiffs believe the township never did change the rules.
“Our position throughout the lawsuit was that they didn't officially change those parameters,” Juge said.
In a statement to FOX 17 on Monday, Elenbaas explained, "In 2021, several applicants submitted applications to have new bricks installed in the Township’s Garden of Honor. The applications requested that messages such as 'Black Lives Matters' be engraved on the bricks. The applications were returned to the applicants as the text of the bricks did not comply with the conditions of the program when the new brick program was initiated in 2019."
Last week, plaintiffs and defendants settled the case out of court.
"During the legal process, the applicants updated the language on the applications," Elenbaas said Monday.
"The Township agreed to accept the new language as it aligns with the 2019 standards. The case was settled outside of court and a federal judge dismissed the case last week."
In the end, the township has agreed to place 14 bricks at the Garden of Honor on behalf of plaintiffs.
They will still pay the new donation fee of $75 for each brick. Installation is set for 2024, once the weather warms up.
This is what those 14 new bricks will say:
- Black Veterans Matter!
- Indigenous Veterans Matter!
- Tuskegee Airmen
- Indigenous Vets Matter! Don Gann
- Indigenous Vets Matter! Sgt A Cadreau
- Indigenous Vets Matter! Sgt J Cadreau
- Indigenous Vets Matter! Pvt. P. Wolfe
- Black Vets Matter! SSG Ben Jones
- Black Vets Matter! Pvt. Moses Hardy
- Black Vets Matter! RM2 Tony Miller
- Black Vets Matter! Sgt. M. Freeman
- Black Vets Matter! SSG Alornzo White
- Black Vets Matter! SFC Erykai Cage
"We're excited that he'll [Tony Miller] be able to take his kids to see the bricks commemorating their dad, other family members, and other black and indigenous veterans who've contributed,” Juge said Monday. “This has always been about more than bricks. This has been about recognition of people of color.”
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