FREE! TAKE ONE Decatur Lakes and Mill Race
Independent Register 608•897•2193
•
SHOPPING NEWS
922 W. EXCHANGE STREET, BRODHEAD, WI 53520
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 17, 2019
PRSRT STD U.S. Postage Paid The IndependentRegister
Brodhead
**ecrwss Postal Customer
1 • Wednesday, April 17, 2019 - The Independent-Register
meeting set..........................................2 Spring Spruce Up.......................6-8 Pickle Ball............................................14 Livestock weigh-in........................20
Township conflicts and controversy linger after April 2 vote By Tony Ends
CORRESPONDENT
Ballots may have been cast in Green County’s April 2 elections, yet contentious issues cloud horizons for residents in two townships near Brodhead. Printed campaign ads and mailed flyers that failed to follow state election law have compounded conflict over hot voter issues in both the towns of Jefferson and Sylvester. District Attorney Craig Nolen sent out warnings April 3 addressing campaign finance and registration violations after citizens turned in copies of an errant ad and the flyer. “Most elections, we don’t have this problem,” Nolen said in a phone interview with the Independent Register last Friday. “Often, incumbents don’t even face opposition. “My biggest concern is to educate people. I don’t think they’re acting unscrupulously. We need involvement of citizens in elections; it’s good to see people running for office, but you still have to comply with the law,” Nolen said. An advertisement clipped from one Green County publication and delivered to Nolen’s office, read “VOTE Dan Moehn Sylvester Town Chairman April 2nd.” With no statement of who paid for the ad, whether it was authorized, and whether the expenditure complied with Candidate Committee financing requirements, Nolen said, the ad violates state law. “Each violation of any provision of Chapter 11, for example, can result in civil forfeiture of up to $500,” Nolen’s warning letter to Moehn read. An intentional violation of Wisconsin’s election laws is a Class I felony. Nolen has since sent Green County Clerk Mike Doyle a 16-page packet of Wisconsin Elections Commission guidelines about state statute provisions, which all candidates for elected office must follow. Nolen said last week that he had asked Doyle to distribute the packet on campaign finance and registration rules to all 16 of Green County’s town clerks to share future in elections.
Nolen said he is not pursuing civil forfeiture or investigating the infractions. “I understand that running a local campaign is difficult and the myriad of provisions contained within Chapters 7 to 12 of the Wisconsin Statutes can cause significant confusion,” he told Moehn by letter, “but it is a candidate’s responsibility to comply with such provisions.” Wisconsin Ethics Commission and Wisconsin Elections Commission staff compiled manuals available on line to guide people who want to run for any office, anywhere in the state. For 76 seats serving Green County’s 16 town boards that were up for election April 2, there were only eight contested races. Four of those races for town supervisor or chairman appeared on ballots in Jefferson and Sylvester townships. The contested races took place in a climate of controversy in the Brodhead-Juda area of eastern Green County. Town of Jefferson incumbents turned back opposition despite local conflict in recent months over a wind energy farm proposal. Rick Nusbaum, Supervisor No. 2, defeated both Rudy Ammon and a sizable write-in vote. However, votes for Ammon, whose name appeared on the ballot, and the write-in votes together tallied 197 votes to Nusbaum’s 193. Jefferson voters also returned their incumbent chairman, Harvey Mandel, to office. With no opponent on the ballot, Mandel garnered 221 votes of 376 cast, yet election judges counted 155 write-in votes against Mandel. Outgoing town board member Lyle Samson recused himself from participating in Town of Jefferson decisions over the Sugar River Wind Project because he has already signed a lease with the proposed project’s owner, EDF. Samson also chose not to run for re-election April 2. New Supervisor 1 for Jefferson Kurt Jordan’s 346 votes prevailed over Douglas Mayer’s 39 votes to replace Samson. Election judges reported only 2 write-in votes in that contest.
Road trippin’ with Albany Area Chamber to The Fireside has room for more Albany Area Chamber Of Commerce members are planning a trip to The Fireside in Fort Atkinson, Sunday, June 9, for their new live band revue “That’s What I Call Rock ‘N Roll.” The Fireside is presenting a brand new, live musical celebration featuring the Fireside Band led by Fireside favorite Steve Watts. The trip will also feature a cast of talented singers in the ultimate rock and roll party. The Fireside will be rockin’ with the music of the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s, paying tribute to some of the biggest rock superstars of all time, such as Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Jefferson Airplane, Dusty Springfield, Stevie Wonder, Earth, Wind, and Fire, Michael Jackson, Prince, Led Zeppelin, Billy Joel, Van Halen, Queen and Bruce Springsteen. Anyone who wants to accompany this outing to the Fireside is invited to attend along with friends from the Albany Area Chamber of Commerce. The group will be departing from Albany Village Hall at 9:30 a.m. and will return at approximately 5 p.m. The cost per person is $100. This includes a complete dinner, professional theatre performance with reserved seating, and transportation by Abracadabra Limo Service. For more information, contact Joyce Chrisbaum at 608-346-3228. Reservations need to be made by Sunday, May 5.
Sugar River Wind LLC is a subsidiary of EDF Renewables North America. EDF, in turn, is an independent power producer and service provider with 30 years’ renewable energy experience. The company delivers grid-scale power as a subsidiary itself of the “Electricite de France Energies Nouvelles,” which operates primarily in Europe and North America. Sugar River Wind farm, proposed in an application to Green County Jan. 29, met almost immediate resistance in Jefferson township from at least nine landowners. Vocal opposition subsequently rallied others in the rural area around the Juda community. “Roughly two-thirds of eligible neighbors signed agreements or verbally committed to signing,” according to Sugar River Wind’s Green County application. Yet 12 more neighbors (in addition to the nine abject refusals) have been mulling participation, instead of readily agreeing to participate in the project. Plans are to erect 24 turbines standing more than 275 feet tall across 5,870 acres around rural Twin Grove south of Juda. Residents say first 30, then 50 or 60, then 80 people turned out for contentious town meetings over whether and how to regulate the wind farm. Northeast of Juda and Brodhead, in the Town of Sylvester, incumbents Anna Anderson and Terry Reed did not withstand opposition April 2. It was their first ballot opposition in 18 years in office. Since summer 2015, Sylvester has faced Green County’s first application and permitting of a concentrat-
ed animal feeding operation of more than 5,000 dairy cows. Of only four CAFOs Green County previously permitted, the largest has 2,500 dairy cows. By state law enacted in 2004, no town or county can deny a livestock facility conditional use permit to a CAFO, but local governments can adopt their own versions of state standards. They can also press proven science-based measures to protect health and safety. Facing its first and the county’s largest CAFO yet, Sylvester’s town board brought together a 10-person volunteer science team to advise them and make recommendations as to environmental human health and safety risks. Advising the team were five more individuals, including two medical doctors. The result was a 125-page report with 14 pages of maps, 24 recommendations, and 31 pages of citations presented Jan. 7, 2016. The town used the document with input from experienced legal counsel to draft new protective ordinances. All this took place during a temporary moratorium on CAFO permitting in the town. However, not everyone in the Town of Sylvester has been happy with town action on CAFOs, and board decisions over fire district representation also stirred opposition to Anderson and Reed. On April 2, Moehn defeated Anderson, 168 votes to 127. Mike Witt defeated Reed, 163 to 124, with 8 fewer votes cast in that contest for Town of Sylvester Supervisor 1. Incumbent David Schenck coasted to victory unopposed, with 235 votes
against only 6 write-ins, with 50 fewer voters casting votes in Schenck’s re-election. Schenck thus will remain on the town board set to install its officers this Tuesday, April 16. Yet Town of Sylvester’s ongoing efforts to protect health and safety issues over Pinnacle Dairy’s state waste permit were scheduled to begin preliminary discussions the next day. Just before the election, the Independent Register reported a citizen and Sylvester township petition contesting a state pollution discharge permit to Pinnacle Dairy headed to a prehearing conference this Wednesday, April 17. State administrative Law Judge Kristine M. Kerig announced the prehearing conference date earlier this month. At issue are eight disputed permitting matters related to the 5,800-cow dairy now operating about 9 miles northwest of Brodhead. Town Supervisor Schenk told the Independent Register that the hearing this week was really only a scheduling of multiple meetings between the two parties to exchange information and try to reach an agreement without going to court. “This is not something that will shut down the big dairy. It at best will provide additional protection for the residents of the township. This process will take some time to resolve,” Schenk told the paper for print in late March. Schenk with the Town of Sylvester, Anderson, Lynn Lokken, Karla Albright, Ron Albright, Jodie Zimmerman, and Steve Zimmerman filed
See CONFLICTS, Page 17
April is
Community Banking Month
April 15 -30 th
th
FOOD DRIVE
Please bring any non-perishable food items to any of our branch locations, through April 30th. Help us to make a difference for those in need in Green County. New Glarus Brodhead Belleville 2006 1st Center Ave 12 North Shore Drive 1101 Highway 69 Monroe Juda 250 N. 18th Ave W2903 Main Street
343337