NEWARK – Ohio’s statewide history organization filed eminent domain action Nov. 28 in Licking County Common Pleas Court, seeking to acquire control of Moundbuilders Country Club, operated as a golf course since 1910.
The aquisition would allow the Ohio History Connection to convert the property to a park for the Octagon Earthworks, which would then be part of the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks nomination for status on the World Heritage list of historic places.
The Ohio attorney general filed the petition on behalf of OHC, owner of the property, to buy back the lease. The entire property at 125 N. 33rd St., Newark, consists of 134 acres.
If successful, OHC would provide full public access to the 125-acre Octagon Earthworks. Moundbuilders allows complete public access at four open house days a year. The rest of the year, public access is restricted to a small portion of the site from an elevated viewing platform and a short walking path, according to OHC.
The Ohio History Connection stated it negotiated with Moundbuilders Country Club for five years to find options for ending the lease in exchange for fair compensation. On Aug. 28, OHC announced its plans and gave the country club 30 days to consider its offer.
“The lease prevents the Ohio History Connection from acting on its public duties, because the lease almost completely excludes the public from accessing the property,” the OHC petition stated. “If the property becomes a public park, the Ohio History Connection will be able to remove the golf course and restore and preserve the earthworks on the property.”
The petition seeks a judgement that OHC is entitled to take the property, and asks the court to instruct a jury to determine the value of the lease. An independent appraiser hired by OHC determined the value of the leasehold estate to be $800,000.
The Newark Earthworks, which includes remnants of the largest set of geometric earthworks ever known, received 9,580 visitors in 2016. The large geometric earthworks were built over a large part of Ohio about 2,000 years ago by American Indian people now called the Hopewell culture.
The country club and the Octagon State Memorial have co-existed on the property for 108 years, but the possibility of obtaining World Heritage inscription, prompted the Ohio History Connection to seek the change on land that includes prehistoric Native American earthworks.
“The Octagon Earthworks will not achieve World Heritage status if there is a lease on the property with Moundbuilders Country Club, and if there is a golf course on the property,” the OHC states in its petition.
David Kratoville, president of the Moundbuilders Country Club board of trustees, said the country club seeks to end the lease on fair financial terms that allows Moundbuilders to relocate or recreate its business, but the OHC wants to take the property without fair compensation.
“The OHC voluntarily and legally signed the lease,” Kratoville said. “They now want to break the lease because the OHC can’t get a World Heritage Site designation unless they control the lease. The OHC has never made a financial offer that would allow Moundbuilders to relocate or recreate its business.”
Kratoville said the OHC action would put out of business a 110 -year old central Ohio business with 100 employees and $1 million in annual wages.
“The current action being taken seems both heavy-handed and unfair,” Kratoville said. “This isn’t the way things should be done in America.”
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