Angry anti-wind crowd intimidates town board to change vote

From an article by Tony Walter in the Green Bay Press-Gazette:

GLENMORE — The Glenmore Town Board voted Monday to wait 60 days before voting on a permit request to have seven wind turbines built in the town.

In an emotion-filled meeting that at one point had Town Chairman Don Kittell call in police officers when residents began chanting and shouting, the board reversed an earlier vote to approve the permits.

Mark Dick of Cenergy, a subsidiary of Pennsylvania-based CG Power Solutions that is seeking to erect the turbines, said the board's delay on a decision was based on emotion and opinion, not law.

"You're asking the Town Board to violate law," Dick told the more than 100 residents who crowded into the Glenmore Community Center. "You might as well as ask them to outlaw smoking."

The board voted quickly at the meeting's outset to approve the permits, with Kittell and Supervisor Kriss Schmidt supporting it and Supervisor Ron Nowak opposing it. Kittell argued that the board was simply following the law that required it to honor a conditional use permit that went into effect before the town changed its wind turbine ordinance last year.

But residents reacted angrily, chanting, "No permits," then "change your vote," prompting Kittell to call for police support.

"The people are trying to get out of hand," Kittell said on his cell phone. One Wisconsin State Patrol officer and two Brown County Sheriff's Department officers showed up 15 minutes later.

And from a story on Green Bay Fox 11 News: :

TOWN OF GLENMORE - An emotional outburst from some Brown County residents causes a town board to go against an original vote on a wind project.

The town of Glenmore board met Monday night and voted on the building permit proposed by CG Power Solutions to build seven turbines.

The board initially voted 2 to 1 in favor of the permits.
About 75 residents were at the meeting and then voiced their opinion.

After the outcry, the board chairman called for police assistance and briefly closed the meeting.

He later reopened it, and held an open forum.

Glenmore residents and officials from the wind turbine company spoke.

The board then voted to delay the vote on the permits for 60 days until it can be further reviewed by the state.

Posted in: Wind