Priest found guilty of zoning violation
Father Stephen Solors has been found guilty of violating a Crow Wing County zoning ordinance relating to property he owns near Garrison.
Solors, 51, of Deer River, is a priest at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Ball Club in northern Minnesota. In 2006 he started constructing a Christian resource center, what he calls the Blessed Sacrament Center, in Garrison Township, but never obtained a stormwater permit from the state or a building permit from the county.
On June 16 he was sentenced for violating the county's zoning ordinance relating to the scope of work on his project and for failing to comply with a cease and desist order, both misdemeanors. For both charges he was sentenced to 30 days jail, all of which was stayed for one year with unsupervised probation. Solors also was fined a total of $270.
On Oct. 1 he was charged with violating the county's zoning ordinance and on Oct. 10 he was charged with violating a cease and desist order, both misdemeanors, after failing to apply for county permits.
Despite several orders and citations from county and state agencies to stop work until proper permits were obtained, Solors continued building on the property.
He also was charged in December of 2007 for violating a cease and desist order relating to the use of wetlands and public waters after he filled in a wetland to build a road, which is a misdemeanor.
On Jan. 12, Solors was ordered in the wetland case to pay fines and fees of $200 and sentenced to 90 days jail, which was stayed for one year if Solors fully complied with restitution as determined by probation and the DNR.
During court appearances, where he represented himself, and in court documents, Solors claimed no evidence had been presented to him showing his land was subject to Minnesota laws.
"I have no firsthand knowledge that the de jure Minnesota has ever ceded the land in question to the jurisdiction of the UNITED STATES or any of its instrumentalities, municipal corporations, associations, etc. ... and at this moment I can only consider your actions colorable," Solors wrote in response to one of several government notices that he stop work on his retreat until proper permits are obtained.
In December, a sign at an entrance to his property, next to DNR property on South Tower Road, states his land patent was granted by act of Congress and secured through the Enabling Act of 1857. It also states trespassers will be fined $1 million and that Solors will file criminal complaints.
MATT ERICKSON may be reached at matt.erickson@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5857.