Chippewa Lake: A Community in Search of an Identity

7. Contested Identities

109 CHAPTER 7 Contested identities With all the out-of-towners moving into the area, Chippewa Lake is not as private as it used to be years ago. The old blood for the most part is gone. Now we have people with a different mentality who sever the ways of the old Chippewa Lake. —peTeR NeLLiS, LiFeTiMe ReSiDeNT OF Chippewa TOwNShip Chippewa Township is like a microcosm of a city, with intriguing dramas playing out in an area of 36 square miles. Critical points of contention that crosscut the occupational and geographical axes of Chippewa Township can be dramatized by examining two local debates. These debates exemplify the complexity of issues and opinions in this community, but also bring into focus the underlying differences in worldviews that shape the discourse of the divergent interest groups. The first debate, on chemical treatments recommended for the lake, is one that primarily pits the seasonal and permanent lake residents against each other, but has ramifications for all township residents; the second debate took place at a “Meet the Candidates Night” during the summer of 2004. During the second debate, several issues arose that highlight the conflicting discourses surrounding rural life. The aXeS OF CONFLiCT in this section, i would like to outline three axes of tension in the township that define various loci of contested interests and ideas of community 110| Chapter 7 that emerged in the last two chapters: lake residents versus other township residents; transient and seasonal residents versus permanent residents; and newcomers and retirees versus longtime residents. These categories of residents are not mutually exclusive, as permanent lake residents and longtime residents share ambivalence toward the seasonal and transient residents, and these axes are crosscut further by such demographic factors as township versus village, generation, and animosities that exist between organizations and social groups. These three axes, however, will allow us to examine the most important arenas within which contested identities are acted out. Lake Residents vs. Other Township Residents This locus has several dimensions. The first centers on the uses of the lake itself and its designation as a sports lake. The lines between lake residents on this issue are not clearly drawn, but generally, lake residents prefer the lake to remain an “all-sports lake,” while longtime township residents would prefer regulations, such as wake laws, that would protect the lake for fishing interests. The second dimension exemplifies the complexity of the issues that divide the community, exposing the raw biases of social class and suburban ideas of orderliness and appearance. Lake residents, especially newcomers and retirees who have invested substantial time and money in their new homes and upgraded cottages, are critical of those whose cottages and mobile homes clutter up the landscape and threaten their property values. Those who complain are frustrated to find that nothing can be done locally to ameliorate these conditions because the village is not incorporated, nor does it have a zoning board that could restrict the placement of mobile homes among other homes and designate areas for rental and residential properties.These concerns pit the fulltime and retired lake residents against the township and the seasonal residents. Third, while the lake residents lament that their interests are not being adequately served by the township governance, the village and township residents often complain that township board meetings are dominated by issues regarding the lake, instead of issues that would benefit the township as a whole. Transients vs. Permanent Residents in our survey, when we asked what respondents liked least about living in Chippewa Lake, all residents named the summer vacationers as what they liked least. Because the summer vacationers were not interviewed for this project, their opinions have not been formally documented. evidence of Contested Identities| 111 their perspectives often crystallizes at township and other meetings conducted to discuss such issues as the proposal for the campground, the lake, and tax assessments. Unlike permanent lake residents, seasonal residents are maintaining two homes; increases in taxes, increased maintenance costs of the sewer system, and the health of the lake affect them critically. a second population of transients includes those who rent mobile homes in the village or on the lake, or apartments in the community’s only apartment building. Because of inexpensive rents, college students, newly separated or divorced singles, and other low-income families relocate here from other small towns. Fairly or unfairly, this population is often blamed for the...