Several citizens opposed to the sand plant spoke at the County Board meeting on January 14, 2009. Connie Russell talked about the lack of representation the citizens living outside the city limits have had as well as the lack of a public hearing when land was rezoned from agricultural to heavy industrial and annexed to the city. The Herald Telegram had a small notice on the rezoning, sent no letters to nearby residents, and gave no end use for the property even though they obviously knew who was going to purchase or had already purchased the land. Nan Coubal spoke about the impact this sand plant, which would be 3-5 times larger than the Dunn County plant, would have on the area. Roads which had been resurfaced in 2007 in Dunn County are already being patched and are in bad condition. Pat Sneen talked about the impact on property values and the fact that their house would be unsaleable.
Ken Schmidt rebutted an inflammatory letter sent by Mel Bollom to the County Board members. Richard Schoch, Board Chairman, had copied the letter again and given it to the members. It contained many misconceptions and/or lies. First of all, a competitive sand company is not paying for the Concerned Chippewa Citizens’ attorney. Secondly, Mel Bollom, in spite of his assertions, has formed a company to explore sites for sand mines and plants. Schoch didn’t appear happy about citizens speaking at this meeting. He interrupted both Coubal and Schmidt asking them to finish up and tried to defend himself against Schmidt’s accusations. Schmidt told Schoch he should have checked out the information in the letter before passing it on to the County Board members. Another citizen from the Town of Howard spoke against the sand mining industry coming to northern Wisconsin.
Connie