AN OPEN LETTER OF THANKS TO ALL MEMBERS OF LOCAL TOWNSHIP GOVERNMENT FROM A FAMILY IN ROCK COUNTY 

     We never knew much about what you did, or how hard you worked or what went on at town hall meetings.

     We never knew how much we were taking for granted until our home was threatened.

     We live in a valley below the beautiful hills of Magnolia Township where wind developers want to put 67 turbines. There are real problems with these huge machines. The low frequency thudding noise they make at night has driven people from their homes.

     Sound really carries in our valley. We did enough research to realize that if the turbines were put in too close to where we live, we’d have to leave our home too.

    But how close is too close?
    Who decides this?
    Right now it’s our local government. 

    A few weeks ago, a bill came before the state senate that would have stripped local governments of this deciding power and handed it to the Public Service Commission.

    The PSC believes a wind turbine that is 40 stories tall and has a blade span wider than a 747 can be placed 1000 feet from my door. Township governments that have studied the issue disagree and have passed ordinances to protect their residents. If the bill had passed, those ordinances would have been invalidated.

    Why didn’t it pass? Because with less than 48 hours notice, Wisconsin town and county supervisors, chairpersons, clerks, planning and zoning board members, citizens appointed to study committees and other local officials came from all over the state to testify against the bill at the capitol and fight to retain local control.

 You sat in the hearing room for two long days listening to testimony from the PSC, the power companies, wind lobbyists and developers who said members of our local governments were inadequate, confused, uneducated and incapable of making intelligent decisions about regulating industry that would affect the residents you represented. We know this because we were there. Both days.
  But when you members of our local governments finally got a chance to step up and speak, boy did you prove all of those people wrong. Your testimony was intelligent, informed, powerful, and for us, deeply moving. Because every word you spoke helped to save our home.

    Without the testimony from local government officials like you, that bill would have become law and families like ours all over Wisconsin would have no idea what was about to hit them.

    We all owe you a huge debt of gratitude. You helped save our home and we will never forget it. We appreciate this opportunity to be able to thank you and let you know we will never take our local government for granted again.
    Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!

Lynda and Kevin Kawula
Spring Valley and Magnolia Township Line

A NOTE FROM THE BPRC RESEARCH NERD: Come to the Magnolia Township Annual Meeting April 8th, 7pm, at the Magnolia Town Hall (County Road A just west of 213) It's free! It's easy! It's fun! (Especially if you come!)