LETTER TO THE

E DITOR Keep it local

To the editor: Members of the Clark County Board reviewed a proposed ordinance to regulate renewable energy systems at their meeting last week.

The proposed ordinance is based on a template provided by the state and is a classic example of how the state has stripped local control from local governmental bodies.

For example, the ordinance requires the company that owns the wind turbines to offer any non-participating resident within a half mile of a turbine $600, presumably for loss of landscape aesthetics.

The county can require a smaller payment, but the state prohibits the county from requiring a larger payment.

The ordinance template does not require companies to provide the county with financial assurance of its ability to decommission and remove what they refer to as “small wind energy systems.”

The county is not allowed to protect citizens by requiring financial assurance because it would be more strict.

Taxpayers are left with the potential inheritance of extremely high costs when the time comes to decommission and remove the structures.

There are well over one hundred examples of where the state limits local government’s ability to protect its citizens and/or environment.

They range from windmills to boat houses, CAFOs to lot sizes, and are all designed to give advantage to large corporations, or the wealthy, at the expense of the general public.

Candidates for the legislature often campaign as defenders of local control but vote to remove it once they arrive in Madison. It is important for people to know how their representative voted and to hold them accountable in November.

Bryce Luchterhand Unity

NOTABLE Q UOTE

“I am excited and nervous. I appreciate the work the hiring committee and board did.”

Steven Wozniak, Colby guidance counselor, referring to being hired as the next Colby High principal