Citizens across the Driftless Region counties of Crawford, Vernon and Richland continue to leave no stone unturned in their fight against the two sections of the proposed 765 kV transmission lines – MariBell and BECI.
Following a meeting held by No 765 Line organizers in Richland Center on July 16, concerned citizens from Richland County thronged the meeting of the county board room on Tuesday, July 21 to make their voices heard. The board meeting room was standing-room-only packed, and 24 citizens provided public input.
As a matter on the regular board agenda, which listed an ‘Update on 765 kV Transmission Line’ agenda item, several supervisors updated the board on the ‘why, when and what’ of a recent meeting with BECI 765 kV transmission line developer staff and subcontractors.
“At this point in time, the county has not received any official notification at all that this was happening. However, the company that is installing these lines or projected to install them reached out to the County Administrator and Highway Commissioner, and invited those two, along with the County Board Chair, and another supervisor, to attend a meeting to discuss what that possibility would be like,” Richland County Board Chair Kerry Severson told the board. “I was unable to attend, so I asked my vice chair, Larry Engel, to step in.”
Severson asked Engel to report about his experience attending that meeting.
“There were four representatives from the company - their corporate counsel, two project managers, and their marketing director. And essentially, what they said was that this line is the backbone of the regional power grid. That's the reason they were putting this in,” Engel told the board. “They showed us a map of the targeted region, and did not say that they had a specific plan yet in terms of exactly where the line would go. They just showed us the geographical space in which it would go, and they said there will be a notification of landowners in July and August, with an open meeting in August. They said that feedback received would be refined in following months, with another open forum in November. They said they plan to submit an application to Wisconsin Public Service Commission in February of 2027.”
Severson then noted that Supervisor Steve Carrow was also present at the meeting, and asked him to share his impressions. Carrow detailed that the Richland County Board of Supervisors, as recommended by their Natural Resources Committee, passed an Information Request Resolution at their March 2026 meeting, which was immediately sent to the developer.
“After that, we heard nothing. Out of the blue, we got an e-mail from Tess Heller from HDR Incorporated, Sultan Engineering, on June 17, with no explanation about why we hadn't heard from Transource,” Carrow detailed. “So, instead of Transource, it now appears that Midcontinent Grid Solutions is the company that's developing this line. By the way, MGS has only been in existence for a year - it's an LLC that was just created.”
Carrow detailed that HDR’s Tess Heller had sent the e-mail to the Richland County Highway Commissioner and Land Conservation Director.
“How they chose those two - who knows. We quickly got together to set up a meeting date, and on July 9, we met with those four people and had the resolution we'd sent in hand,” Carrow explained. “We handed it out so we could start discussing it, and the two people from Midcontinent Grid Solutions had not seen it. So, that tells me they're scrambling, or they're not being very professional.”
Carrow followed up with an e-mail the next day, asking them to confirm what they’d told the Richland County representatives. As of Tuesday, July 21, he’d not heard back from them.
“So, where we stand now is the need to craft and pass an Opposition Resolution that we're all talking about, but this is not the kind of thing that we can figure out tonight,” Carrow told the board and assembled citizens. “We're going to need to get the Natural Resources Committee to start wrestling with it, with help from Danielson and his volunteers. From there, it will go to the Executive and Finance Committee, and hopefully at the August board meeting, there will be something the board can vote on.”
“In my 40 years doing electric utility stuff, I've never seen a project so shabbily presented, and I think that even though we don't have a resolution ready to pass, and maybe it won't do any good. But I think it's extremely important that we do,” Supervisor Rod Perry stated. “I wasn't against it until I heard this testimony tonight, and I don't see how I can be in favor of it the way it's being presented, or not being presented.”
Crawford County
Crawford County Highway Commissioner Kyle Kozelka told the Independent-Scout before the Highway Committee meeting on Thursday, July 23, that he and Crawford County Land Conservation Director Dave Troester had received an e-mail from Tess Heller from HDR Incorporated, Sultan Engineering, asking to set up a meeting. He confirmed that the two were to meet with BECI developers and subcontractors later that day.
According to Kozelka, Troester had taken minutes of the meeting, and gathered the names and contact information of BECI representatives attending the meeting. Troester was out of the office the last week of July, and so could not confirm for the Independent-Scout any of the details of that meeting.
“The meeting was pretty informal, and they were looking for contact information for municipalities in the BECI development corridor,” Kozelka told the Independent-Scout. “They reported being aware of local citizen opposition to the MariBell and BECI transmission line proposals, and said they expect to come out with more detailed information for local citizens and municipalities in August.”
Richland input
Twenty-four citizens provided public input at the Richland County Board of Supervisors July 21 meeting. That input was as follows:
Janet Johnson of Dayton Township was the first to provide input.
I'm a potentially impacted landowner. Last winter, I sent a letter to the developer, and I got a delayed e-mail response back that was pretty much just fluff. It didn't tell us anything. There was no documentation, no maps, no timeline. They said they were too early in the project to really give me any concrete information,” Johnson told the board. “So, as we all know, July 9th, the developer showed up here. The clock is now ticking. I have not received any more notification from Transource or BECI. I've been here since 1983. I worked at our U.S. Postal Service right here in Richland Center for 31 years. I think I can call this home. I do not want to see our land devalued. I do not want to see our local economy with tourism be devalued. I am concerned about our health. By the way, it will take out my barn that I have been working in for the last 20 years. I breed Connemara ponies, and sell them all over the United States and Canada. I'm in my barn almost all of my waking hours, and my barn is too close to these high lines with their new easement.”
Johnson said she urged the County Board to pass the Opposition Resolution that citizens were circulating at the meeting.
How are they going to meet with each individual landowner and work out these siting situations? Because right down the hill from me is a house that is very close to the lines, and the line will be too close to live in that house. We've got a lot of people that are going to be displaced if these lines go through and they do not work with us. They need to do that. I ask that you support your community and your landowners on all levels,” Johnson concluded.
Rebecca Farrell of Richland Center was up next. She said she’d lived in the city for the last 30 years, and Richland County for most of her life.
“Our state and region have had a record four years for tourism, and people don't come to this county to stare at 200-foot-tall transmission lines. They come here because we have wineries, we have ridges, we have natural beauty, and that natural beauty allows the wildlife to come through. It allows for trout fishermen to come in. It allows for birders, campers, kayakers,” Farrell emphasized. “That's what's here, and we have set a four-year record for that. The Driftless Area alone contributed $980 million to Wisconsin revenue for tourism. So, I need you to think about what that would look like. Your dairy farmers, your people are going to be displaced. We already don't have enough houses for people. I also think counties should consider an impact assessment on the tourism and the property values, because it is proven that property values swamp dramatically when these things go in.”
Another resident from Akan Township, near Five Points Church, just outside of Boaz was the next to provide input.
“I operate 120-acre beef farm, raising 70 head of cattle and three children, ages nine to 13. The 765 kV transmission lines are anticipated to run along or through my property,” he explained. “Consider your favorite place and if it would still be your favorite, with towering lines, constant buzzing, and all of the potential hazardous transmission side effects affecting you, your family, and your animals. I ask that we, as a county, fight the 765 kV lines, and put forth and adopt a resolution to oppose these lines.”
Sarah Hundt from Dayton Township spoke next.
“I live on farmland that will be potentially impacted by these 765 kV lines. I'm asking that the board approve a resolution to support landowners' requests for information from this developer. I think that this is incredibly important because right now we are setting the tone for how these people can communicate with us, and right now I don't think we're off to a great start,” she said. “We haven't received the information that we have requested very clearly, and that we all have records of. And also, I don't think it's very respectful. We don't want to be a doormat to these people. That that's not the right way to go about this.”
Mary Webb, a county landowner, urged the board to support landowners.
Laura Hood from the Town of Dayton was up next.
“The developers haven't talked to anybody, which I think is just insulting - the disrespect for our county and community and residents. And then when you get looking at this, the harm that this does to our environment, the people, the animals - there is no positive,” Hood told the board. “They might say it's going to create jobs, but not that many jobs, and those jobs are all temporary. We have people come in to the locker. They're here on vacation, and tell us this area is beautiful, and they would like to move here. Guess what? They're trying to get away from those things, those 765 lights. So I would ask that the board put forth and adopt a resolution to oppose 765 transmission lines.”
Jody Sharp of Dayton Township asked the board to pass a formal resolution of opposition to the line, saying it would have no benefit for the community. She said the private, for-profit developers will earn a guaranteed rate of return on the line, while local ratepayers will be left to pay.
“The public information phase of seven months is an absolute ludicrous time frame, as it appears that many of our community members aren't even aware that this line is even being considered. The issues in need of evaluation prior to the consideration of this line's placement are too numerous to mention, but some of the more obvious ones include the ruining of a very unique geographical area, the detrimental effects for wildlife, farm, and domestic animals, and health issues to our human population, issues regarding property rights and eminent domain, concerns that the transmission lines will be used to power data centers, which raises its own set of issues and concerns,” Sharp stated. “The last thing is that we aren't making any more land, so let's preserve that which we have left. I'm asking that all county board supervisors do your due diligence, research, and consider how the installation of this line will impact us and our future.”
Sarah Graham, a landowner from Marshall Township, said she echoed what everyone else had already said.
“I ask the board also to put pressure on lawmakers and the developers to find out what happened to the earlier route that followed existing power lines north of the Driftless. Those earlier routes were just dropped with no explanation. There are maps that show in the MISO documents what those early maps were.” Graham said.
Tom Crofton, former Richland County Board Supervisor, spoke next.
“This group can be a leader. We can push back. We can also do things to change what we're doing here. There's farmers that can't sell their soybeans because of all this stuff happening on the national level, and yet can't afford the fuel either. We can make fuel off those soybeans. There's people making alcohol out of corn,” Crofton observed. “I would like the leadership of the county have its own vehicles work on local fuel. We have the ability to make our own electricity out of biomass. We could actually turn the revenue, the operating cost of mowing along a road into revenue. That's a fuel for biomass generation. There's all kinds of leadership things we can do. That's what we need the board to do - be a leader.”
Connie Champnoise from the Town of Akan was up next, and thanked the board for allowing the public to provide input.
“I ask that the Richland County Board request Transource to provide more than one route option for this line. Other options such as following the interstate highway, the existing railroad tracks, burying the line, or upgrading the current lines to carry more capacity should be considered,” Champnoise said. “The current proposed route will have a detrimental effect on agriculture, hunting, fishing, tourism, and properties.”
Debra Ruskamp from the Rockbridge area spoke next. She is a potentially impacted landowner, and pointed out that all the area streams are fed by groundwater. She expressed concern about the chemicals used to control vegetation in the easement, and pointed out that the towers themselves could be direct pathways to groundwater.
Rachel Parker and he husband Mark operate Parker Hill Century Farm in Forest Township. She said the family has farmed there for 156 years on their 600 acres of crops, pasture and forest, with 200 head of dairy cattle, beef cattle, hogs and sheep.
“Although we are not in the current proposed line of destruction, many farms and families like ours are. We are here to advocate for our neighbors and our community, and to speak to those who are not aware of this. We believe the last thing our county needs is the mega-rich building a near football field-sized swath along miles and miles of the backbone of our community,” Parker stated. “They're effectively moving our wealth, our land, our most primary resource into more wealth for themselves. We'll never profit off this. We'll just pay and pay and pay. What is next? They have a long-term strategic mission. We need a long-term strategy for our county to protect it. We may be one of the poorest counties in the state, and perhaps they think we are an easy target, but we are not called poor land - we are rich land, land we fight for. Demand due diligence to clearly identify short and long term risks to our unique landscape, our natural resources and our property values. How is this going to change all that? You spoke up about the locker. We take our hogs and our beef there. We’d hate to see that business go away. Identify how it affects human health and livestock health. We need due time. Please demand due time–time for local government, landowners, and public input. There is no better time for our county board and us as a community to gather over something that is so potentially damaging to us all.”
Rose Burkhold from Richland Center said she has a current electric line pole 30 feet in back of her house, and wonders what the developers are going to do for people like her.
“My house will be in a hazardous zone. What are they going to do? Are they going to buy us out? Are they going to give us a premium to relocate? What's going to happen to us? What's going to happen to this community? They're taking a lot of tax base out of here,” Burkhold observed. “They're putting in a line nobody wants. It's not going to benefit us. It's a hazard to everybody and everything. And I want the board to go on the record to really oppose the line. There is no benefit to Richland County from this line.”
The children of Erica and Scott Walter, from Sylvan Township, are the seventh generation from Scott’s family to live on their land.
“We are proud of our land, and we work hard. We started a business to bring more revenue to our community. We love Richland County. People can call it the poorest county. Look around. We are rich. We are highly educated and highly motivated. I'm here to ask the board to oppose straight out the 765 line. Why would we do something that would strip our land, our children's land, my grandchildren's land, who are the eighth generation. Why, why would we even consider it?” Erica Walter said.
“My ancestors settled on our farm in Sylvan Township just about 160 years ago, and we've been there ever since. It's been where I've spent my life. And recently, we learned that a daughter who went off into the great wide world to attend college and had options available somewhere else decided to move back home with her new husband and grow our on-farm maple syrup business,” Scott Walter told the board. “We'd like to see that continue. When I asked her why, she said the farm is where I want to be, and that's where I want to raise my kids. This proposed line threatens that. This line is completely different from the one that is currently there, and would go right across the edge of our lawn, and would make our house uninhabitable, and the line threatens the future of our business. Giving us seven months for review is insulting.”
Leo Jewett lives on a 95-acre farm near Rockbridge, and has a current Dairyland Power easement on his property. He pointed out that Dairyland has an 80-foot easement, and a year-and-a-half ago, they came in and cut a swath 146 feet wide, cutting 30-inch maples on a neighbor’s property that were nowhere near the line.
“They have already shown their irresponsibleness to the landowners here. I too would ask the board not to study, but directly oppose it and shut it off,” Jewett said.
