Marash (Mike) Nuculaj was going to name his restaurant at 146 High Street the Belleville Yacht Club and registered the name with the state on March 17, 2009.
But, he said, someone contacted his brother and said Nuculaj couldn’t use that name because someone else wanted to use it.
“I don’t like trouble and I didn’t want to fight with anyone in the community,” Nuculaj said Tuesday. “So, I named it Johnny’s Grill.”
But, Nuculaj still has the rights to the registered assumed name of Belleville Yacht Club and will until at least Dec. 31, 2014, according to documents at the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Growth, Bureau of Commercial Services.
A few months later, on July 23, 2009, a group of local men filed articles of incorporation with the state for a Domestic Nonprofit Corporation, with the name of Belleville Yacht Club.
That didn’t fly with the state because the name was taken, so the application was altered to read that the name requested was: BYC and it was to be a social club that would be financed with dues and initiation fees.
Scott Jones of Van Buren Township filed the incorporation paperwork, which was signed by him and four others on the Fourth of July, 2009.
Other signers were Steve Davenport, John Hughes, Dave Marvin, and Ted Mull.
In the Oct. 13, 2010 report to the state, Jones wrote: “We are a yacht club in Belleville, MI. We have grown to 30 members in our first year. We have conducted boaters safety for Van Buren township. We have participated in two parades for our Strawberry Festival and Winter Fest.”
Jones reported he is the president (commodore); Mull is secretary; Marvin is treasurer; and directors are Davenport, Hughes, and Jones.
Last fall, the BYC purchased lakeside property on North Liberty Street in the City of Belleville and put up a sign: “Future home of BYC.”
The BYC sponsored a free ice skating rink for the public during December’s Winter Fest in downtown Belleville and will bring the popular rink back to the Fourth Street Square for the weekend of March 11.
In November, Jones submitted a letter and plans to Van Buren Township announcing the group wants to put up a marina on the township shoreline in conjunction with a club house on city property.
Terry Carroll, Van Buren Township interim director of planning and economic development, said township officials have been discussing how to handle the request and have decided to treat it as a land-use request and have it go through the planning commission.
State records show that a “Belleville Yacht Club” also was incorporated March 30, 1990 by Carleton K. Rush and Gerald Butler, both of Bayshore Drive, with the most recent annual report filed for 1994. This club had automatic dissolution by the state on Oct. 1, 1997.