Wolters House may be home to refugee family

A refugee family from Afghanistan could soon be living in a Laketown Township-owned house at Wolters Woods Park after the township board on Wednesday, July 9, 2025, authorized the manager to move ahead with a rental contract.

The rental would be for no more than 6 months, giving the township time to gather information for the possible sale of the Wolters House, 6289 147^th Ave.

Supervisor Steven Ringelberg, who is also township manager, said he was approached by two separate church groups, each wanting to rent the house for a refugee family from Afghanistan. The refugees supported American troops in that country and face retribution from the current government.

The rent would be $1,600 a month, with the tenant paying for all utilities, which would cover about 70 percent of the $2,251.09 monthly loan payment on the site.

The township has been looking for a use for the 2.5-acres which includes the three-bedroom, three-bath 2,260-square-foot house since a school stopped renting it for outdoor programs.

The township bought the house from the estate of the Rev. Lloyd Wolters for $350,000 in 2022. Wolters and his family were instrumental in the creation in 1992 of the about 40-acre Wolters Woods Park that surrounds the house on three sides. The park has a playground, pavilion and walking trails. A creek runs close to the house and the township wants to make sure that it maintains control over it for drainage purposes.

On Wednesday, the board instructed Ringelberg to have the property surveyed with a goal of keeping as much land as possible for the park while selling the rest, to prepare a timeline for the ultimate sale of the property that would include the needed zoning changes and possible easements and to have the township attorney draft restrictive covenants for a possible sale that would, for example, make sure an owner would not be able to complain about living on land surrounded on three sides by a park.

In other business:

• The board instructed the manager to write a letter to cell phone carriers asking them to improve service in the township. The board directed the manager to ask the attorney to recommend changes to ordinances and other rules that would make it easier to locate a cell tower in the township. The board also asked for more information regarding two proposals to possibly locate cell towers in Farview Park, 6257 138^th Ave., and Sanctuary Woods Park, 4750 66^th St.
• Ringelberg announced the joint meeting between the township board and the planning commission to discuss short-term rentals is 6 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 13, at the township hall, 4338 Beeline Road. The township board enacted a six-month moratorium on free-standing short-term rentals effective May 19 in an effort to decrease complaints and preserve housing.