LAKE STEVENS – A lease dispute at a Lake Stevens Bible camp has old ladies crying and a well-known preacher steaming.
The future of the Cedar Springs Bible Camp has people who have built homes there – many of them retired ministers – at odds with the Rev. Joe Fuiten, who leads the camp’s board of directors and Cedar Park Church in Bothell.
The dispute has escalated into legal warfare, with lawyers, a civil lawsuit, name-calling and threats of eviction.
While people on both sides follow the teachings of the Assemblies of God, their bonds seem to end there.
“You don’t sue fellow Christians,” Fuiten, 57, said. “The Bible is quite clear on that.”
Fuiten is seen by some as a lightning rod for his outspoken views, including opposition to same-sex marriage. He is active in political campaigns and is quoted in local and national media.
Fuiten said camp residents are trying to leverage his notoriety to win a more favorable lease.
“We got ourselves a high-tech shakedown going on,” he said. “If I wasn’t involved in this, there’d be no story.”
Some residents, including the Rev. Loraine Cohrs-Thackwell, 80, a retired children’s minister, said Fuiten’s involvement is what hurts the most.
“I feel crushed inside,” she said, “being a minister to have another minister doing what he’s doing to other ministers, I feel so crushed.”
The camp has existed since 1965. Some people have lived on camp land for decades.
They say they were promised an affordable place to retire. They built small homes on a portion of the camp located off Highway 92 between Lake Stevens and Granite Falls.
The lease lots were included at the camp to better connect people to the camp and the ministry, and to gather volunteer labor for the camp’s building projects, according to a lawsuit filed by some camp residents.
The camp reportedly was having financial problems. In September 2005, at the request of the former camp managers, Fuiten and members of his church assumed control.
The camp residents who filed suit contend the new managers are trying to force them to pay more or leave.
Camp managers tell a different story. They say the residents are taking advantage of the camp’s nonprofit status to live on valuable land at rents well below market value.
When officials from the church took over the camp’s management, they evaluated the entire operation, including the 20 leased lots.
“For about 10 years the camp has struggled financially,” said Ben Waggoner, the camp’s executive director and an attorney for Cedar Park Church.
They went to the residents with a new lease.
The lease dispute involves owners of nine homes. Owners of five homes reached a deal, and the camp already owned six other homes.
Historically, rents have been low and the leases have automatically renewed.
Now, camp managers want to charge $225 a month for rent, up from $150. Over the three-year term of the lease, monthly rent would increase to $275. Lease renewal is not guaranteed.
Not promising to renew the lease is a deal breaker, resident Jim West said. Along with the Rev. Jim Foster, he’s leading the residents’ fight.
Without a renewal clause, it would be difficult to ever sell the privately owned homes at the camp, West, 61, said.
People living at Cedar Springs face some of the same problems confronted by other homeowners on leased land, including those at mobile home parks. If they can’t renew a lease, they are faced with moving their home or losing equity.
The camp needs more time to fully assess costs that might be associated with the leased lots, Waggoner said. That’s why he’s asking for three-year leases. The plan is to renegotiate later, he said.
Critics also are ignoring some important truths, Waggoner said. If a home is sold, the new buyer would have to negotiate a new lease. The camp has the first right to buy the homes on camp land.
West contends the camp officials are acting in bad faith.
“They’re trying to erase the historical aspect of how the camp was operated,” West said.
Evelyn Kroeze, 85, has lived on camp property for nearly three decades. She moved with her husband to become caretakers and then bought a home there.
She tells stories of a time gone by when friends would gather for prayer in a tabernacle with sawdust on the ground.
Now she faces an uncertain future.
“How much should we pay for them having attended these services?” Fuiten asked. “You think that’s something worth quite a bit that we should pay?”
In exchange for their rent, tenants have use of the land, well water, roads and garbage collection, and have the tax on their land paid, Fuiten said.
For tenants, it all adds up to a subsidy from Cedar Springs camp, he said.
“Their complaint is that the subsidy isn’t big enough,” Fuiten said.
Some of the residents, such as Cohrs-Thackwell, live on fixed incomes and can’t afford higher rents, said her daughter Irene Jorgensen, also a resident.
The church is willing to offer lower rents to residents in need, Fuiten said.
“That’s part of what fries me about these yahoos out there when they accuse us of not being interested in the poor,” Fuiten said. “We bless them with an inexpensive place to stay and they call us all kinds of names in the media.”
Some of the camp residents complaining now were in lease negotiations as early as 2003, before Cedar Park took control, Waggoner said.
The dispute then was over who qualified to be a tenant, he said.
The arguments have changed, but not the residents bringing the complaints, Waggoner said.
He said he’s been willing to meet with residents time and again to discuss the lease.
But in the spring, tenants refused to pay higher rent. Waggoner threatened court action – a legal battle over $75 a month.
The tenants decided to file their lawsuit when attempts at mediation failed, West said.
“I thought when all this started we could sit down with Christian brothers, that they would care and listen to us,” Jorgenson, 56, said. “We’ve been ignored. There’s been no response. It’s frustrating. It’s unsettling. Where does it go from here?”
Lawyers for the camp earlier sent the residents a letter threatening eviction if lease agreements weren’t reached by Nov. 1. No eviction proceedings have begun and the camp remains willing to negotiate, Waggoner said.
For many residents, the uncertainty is painful. They are praying for a resolution.
Fuiten said he’s praying for resolution, too.
Fuiten said he wants West and Foster to join him in prayer for six weeks, teach Sunday school classes and schedule lunch so the men can pray for each other.
“That’s how this is going to end favorably,” Fuiten said.
West called Fuiten’s plan “ridiculous and twisted.”
He questioned whether Fuiten embraces the same faith.
“We pray for those that are so callous not to follow the teachings of Christ,” he said. “Obviously, they’ve gone astray.”
Reporter Jackson Holtz: 425-339-3437 or jholtz@heraldnet.com.
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