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Communities must maintain their assets
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Thomas G. Pelz
Updated: Mar 25, 2016, 12:00 PM
Published: Mar 23, 2016, 4:49 PM

March 22, 2016

Boscobel, Wis.

Editor:

Communities have many assets and liabilities.   Boscobel is blessed with many outdoor activities such as trout fishing, kayaking/canoeing and bicycling.  We also are blessed with a hospital, an airport and great city parks.  Other assets we have are not as obvious, yet more valuable:  Our children.

Communities must maintain their assets.  This requires good schools.   Good schools require leaders.   The Boscobel school board has realized that the district has a number of problems which need correction.   Our past leaders have been found wanting and have been removed.   The school board believes it has found its solution with Mr. Bell.

Now the school board must proceed with other improvements that the district needs.  The proposed combination of all of the students into one building makes economic sense.  Once the construction is completed, the district will realize a significant savings with marked reduction in operating expenses.   It will provide our students with many benefits.

We all realize that a good school is a community asset.   If the cost of enabling us to be proud of our community and enabling it to continue to grow is that I have to pay an extra $1.75 per day, it will be worth it in the long run.

The current referendum will provide our students with more athletic opportunities, which was a concern expressed in prior letters to the Editor.   I hope that those individuals who sought these athletic areas, will support the referendum with their letters to the editor.

Thomas G. Pelz
County should extend CAFO Moratorium
More time needed for discussion
Cty Bd CAFO moratorium
ALMOST 80 citizens at-tended the Crawford County Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 17. The citizens were there to offer input to the board about whether the county should enact a one-year moratorium on CAFOs.
Published: Dec 14, 2020, 11:28 PM

                 Steuben

Editor,

As a concerned citizen and landowner in Crawford County, I am grateful that the Crawford County Board of Supervisors listened to the concerns of their constituents and passed the Moratorium on the Expansion and Creation of New Livestock Facility Siting Operations, a CAFO Moratorium, in December 2019. 

They recognized then, the importance of studying an issue that affects the health, safety, and welfare of all citizens and on Tuesday, they will once again have the opportunity to show support by voting to extend the CAFO Moratorium for one more year.  

As we all know, 2020 was an unprecedented year and due to COVID restrictions, the appointed CAFO study committee did not have the time to do their due diligence researching and learning about CAFO impacts, in depth water studies could not be completed as originally planned, and Board members have not had the necessary time to read, learn about and discuss County options concerning the siting and expansion of CAFOs in Crawford County. 

By extending the CAFO Moratorium, the CAFO Study Committee would have the time needed to thoroughly investigate the impacts that increased numbers of CAFOs within Crawford County may have on the County’s economy, environment, and citizens and it would give Board members adequate time to consider the information and how to best plan for the future of CAFOs in Crawford County.  

In the Crawford County Code of Ordinances, the responsibility of public office is stated as such: “Public officials and employees are agents of the public and hold office for the benefit of the public. They are bound to uphold…and carry out impartially the laws of the …County to observe in their official acts the highest standard of morality and to discharge faithfully the duties of their office regardless of personal considerations, recognizing that the public interest must be their prime concern.”

In the past months I have read many letters and articles from concerned citizens, township governing bodies, and local organizations like the Sterling-Crawford and the Vernon-Crawford chapter of the Wisconsin Farmers Union and the Coulee Region Chapter of Trout Unlimited, to name a few, that all feel that it would be in the best interest of Crawford County citizens to extend the moratorium.

I, as a concerned citizen, am appealing to all County Board Supervisors to “recognize that the public interests”, the public’s concerns about the health, economic, and environmental impacts that increased numbers of CAFOs in Crawford County could have, “must be their prime concern,” and urge them to vote to extend the moratorium.

Gina L. Holtz