Response to Paul and Judy Nevin regarding our article “takeover” of Lake Ninevah Paul and Judy charged us with inaccurate complaints. (We prefer concerns). We can document everything in our article. We addressed the positive things the Foundation has done for the lake and surrounding area. We know nothing about the Farm&Wilderness and made no accusations against them. Our article was about Lake Ninevah only as that is where we own land and pay taxes. The history in our article regarding the three camps is correct and documented. The statements made by Paul and Judy are not. We were both Outdoor Adverture Educators and know the values of these programs. The town and state are entrusted to protect their valuable accesses. Three years of extensive research has left us with many questions. We have had problems trying to find records. The Foundation has received several Vermont grants envolving a great deal of money. Regulations are required for those receiving funds. Non-profit, tax-exempt, charitable organizations are required to prove they are providing all benefits to those they have chosen to serve. We hope that the town, state and/or grant agencies and non-profit are requiring records. We do not feel that our local and area residents and Vermont State residents are receiving the benefits they deserve. Probably the most obvious is that the Foundation has denied access to the lake. This is addressed in our article. The fact that the public and even non-members like us on the lake have no place to swim needs to be addressed. We respect and welcome others opinions. The choice of Paul and Judy to attack us has resulted in defamation of character. We quote: “Finally, we believe you should know the Gages have raised their ‘grievances’ in this public manner largely out of anger that last year they had to abandon a lawsuit they initiated against the Foundation after the case proved to be groundless.” It is hard to comprehend why Paul would make this statement as he knew the Foundation charged us with encroachment in March 2015 and filed it with the town. Our deeds were worthless so we hired a lawyer to go to Court with us for Adverse Possession. When we would not accept the encroachments, covenants and even the offer to buy our property the Foundation filed a lawsuit. They used a survey we paid for which was wrong. We never had it stamped or filed. We had to go to court to fire our lawyer. At the hearing the Judge had us sign a paper from the Foundation lawyer stating they had dropped their lawsuit. A new survey showed we were 5’ short of reaching the far side of the maple tree. We offered to buy the land which was probably 0.00065 of an acre. Paul took our offer to Foundation. It was $500 and we pay closing costs. An officer of the Foundation who was now their lawyer sent us a 4-page affidavit and added the charge their lawyer costs for our dispute. We had no lawyer. We refused. We received a scathing letter from the Foundation lawyer. He concluded, we guess for defending our property, that we, our family, our relatives and friends were not to step one foot on the 3,300 acres own by the Foundation. We tore down our retaining wall, tore up our cement foundation and moved our shed down the road to the other side of our camp. We were a lot poorer but still have complete control of our little piece of land. That is the Ninevah Foundation. Art has called Paul and when he received no reply he went to his house. He asked to meet. I wanted the see the information they had on the Gage lawsuit. We still await their reply.
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