April 2, 2007
Wisconsin
Wisconsin
A formerly uncontested race for town of Glenmore chairman picked up another candidate after a meeting last week in which the Town Board approved a conditional-use permit to put eight wind turbines on land in the town.
Incumbent chairman Don Kittell now faces a challenge from Lee Gossen, who decided to run after last week’s meeting when the three-member Town Board unanimously approved a conditional-use permit for Emerging Energies/Shirley Wind LLC of Hubertus to put eight 2.75-megawatt, 492-foot turbines on land owned by four families.
Gossen said he didn’t feel the board listened to the concerns of residents at the meeting regarding wind turbines.
“Nobody was listened to,” Gossen said. “The Town Board appeared to just roll over and accepted the provisions of the wind power company. The people around here feel like this got jammed down their throat, they just wanted at the very least debate on it, their questions answered.”
Gossen, a 39-year-old dairy farmer who said he ran for the chairman’s seat in the past, said he was one of the people who attended Monday’s meeting.
The Green Bay Press-Gazette was unable to reach Kittell for comment.
“I started the write-in campaign to see if my feelings about what is going on are right,” Gossen said Saturday afternoon. “If Wednesday morning I wake up and Don is town chairman, then I guess I’m wrong. But if I get the votes “¦ things are going to change, these people are going to get listened to and they’re going to have their say.”
He said he went to the meeting with no real issue with the turbines, but the board’s actions spurred him to consider a bid for office.
“There was no dialogue, they didn’t want to listen,” he said. “It’s not a vengeful thing, I just want people to have a choice.”
By Nathan Phelps
2 April 2007
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2007/04/02/wind-turbine-debate-widens-glenmore-race/