Move The Tower Newsletter - October 5, 2005 - Latest News!
 

More Scandals in Sauk County Government - Sheriff and County Run Money-Losing "Business" Out of the County Jail!
It is time to start discussing the other financial scandals and questionable 'investments' being made by the Board of Supervisors.
 

August 6, 2005 - Sauk County's $3,000,000 fiber-optic cable is being buried from the Thuli Road tower site along Jones Road towards Highway 60 to Sauk City. The 96 fiber-optic strands in the cable can transmit the entire Library of Congress 100 times per second between Sauk City and a farm field on Jones Road, but the County will only be using the equivalent of 6 phones lines of bandwidth. No resident of Sauk County will be able to use this cable. A wireless broadband Internet system would have enabled the county to have a state-of-the-art emergency communications system and every resident would have had state-of-the-art, low-cost, high-speed access to the Internet. It is not surprising that Sauk County has no private companies signed up to lease any of this expensive and obsolete technology. $3,000,000 of taxpayer money is being buried with little benefit to anyone.
 

Pioneer Press Wed, Apr. 13, 2005 Cities ask: Why not Wi-Fi? - St. Paul, Minneapolis consider offering citywide wireless Net service and "all of it would come at no cost to the city".
Sauk County officials keep saying it can't be done. Read what cities and counties are saying in "the real world" where tax dollars benefit the taxpayers.
 

MoveTheTower Letter to the Editor - March 28, 2005 "Sauk County is replacing their obsolete, non-iteroperable communications system with a more obsolete, more expensive non-interoperable communications system."
 

Mar. 99 Sun-Times "Chicago Goes Wireless for $18,000,000". Sauk County Still "Disengaged".
"'Instead of having to go to a Starbucks coffee or another upscale coffee or sandwich shop to get wireless access for your laptop, it could be available throughout the city. Any police investigator could immediately log onto the Internet and be in receipt of a mug shot or criminal history anyplace in the jurisdiction,' said Finance Committee chairman Edward M. Burke (14th)."
 

Mar. 9 Forbes Magazine - U.S. Falls from 1st to 5th in Nations Using InformationTechnology. Singapore Takes Lead.
 

Feb. 28 - Update on Madison's Wireless Internet Project
 

Arizona County Goes Mobile Wireless with Homeland Security Grant
"the network is for public safety personnel (police, fire, ambulance and border patrol) first, with various community agencies, schools, business and local residents being added as the deployment expands beyond its targeted coverage areas."
"the world's first highway Wi-Fi mobile voice network has been successfully tested on a US interstate highway"
"using a Department of Homeland Security grant; the network is managed by the Arizona Telecommunications and Information Council. Get this: Wi-VOD claims it was able to make multi-party VoIP conference calls at speeds in excess of 130 kilometres per hour (80mph) sustained over the entire network."

February 20, 2005 MoveTheTower Newsletter What's New With The Tower Project?

Feb. 16 Spring Green Home News Article: Communications Expert Says Sauk County Tower Project is a "Travesty"! Link is to scanned image of the article (247K jpg).

Feb. 2 Gov. Doyle Signs Executive Order #87 Goal is to stop Wisconsin governments from deploying obsolete systems that do not interoperate like the one that Sauk County is currently building.

Wireless Internet: Sauk County "Expert" Tim Stieve Says It Can't Be Done, but Ken Schlager, Ph.D., P.E., President, Bioelectromagnetics, Inc. Says It Can! Who Do you Believe?
"Having the USDA-sponsored mesh wireless network county-wide will allow for major public sector initiatives in public safety (sheriff, fire fighting and emergency medical services), education and home health care using combined video, data and voice communications." 
(It's too bad Sauk County won't pay an engineer to design their $6,000,000+ network!)

February 7 2005 Newsletter - SWWRPC - Southwest Wisconsin Regional Economic Development Coalition is Looking for A County To Go Wireless Internet! Meeting Scheduled for Friday February 11, 2005 10:00 AM-Noon at Lone Rock Community Building 130 E. Liberty St. An excerpt:

"At this meeting, we want private and public sector entities to start the process that can lead to a successful partnership to implement this wireless technology. Mr. Schlager has identified funding sources that could make this a rare opportunity for a rural county to make a huge leap forward in community and economic development at a very affordable cost."

December 21 - Mark Cupp's Remarks to the Board of Supervisors Urging them to vote against the tower on the river. An excerpt:
-And then I thought of one of my favorite Wisconsin River quotes by Aldo Leopold, “Yet, there remains the river.  In some places, hardly changed since Paul Bunyan’s day.  At early dawn, one can still hear it singing in the wilderness.  Perhaps our grandsons, having never seen a river, will never miss the chance to set a canoe in its singing waters.”-

December 21 - Anti-Environmental Winds Blowing Strong in Sauk County, Wisconsin. As expected the Sauk County Board of Supervisors approved the Thuli Road Tower. The CIC and county counsel still maintain that they do not need 1) an engineer's review of their design or 2) a permit from the county to build the tower. The issue was left unresolved by the board.
Baraboo News Republic Story by Scott De Laruelle - Sauk County Approves Controversial Tower" - "County Corporation Counsel Todd Liebman hinted at possible legal action against the county if the board approved the Thuli Road site."

December 22 Newsletter - "Anti-Environmental Winds Blowing Strong in Sauk County"
 

How They Voted! - Here is a list of the supervisors and their vote to build a tower on the Wisconsin River. Let them know what you think about protecting our river..
 

December 20 - The Koehnen Report - A Shocking Look at the 'Sloppy' Maintenance of the Sauk County Emergency Wireless Network
CIC's Mission: "Saving Lives" or "Spending Money"? Are taxpayers building towers instead of maintaining them?
 

Political destruction of national treasures. Could it happen in Sauk County?

Timm Zumm - FLOW Co-chair - issues "Call To Action!"
Write Letters, Attend the Dec. 21 Board Meeting 6 PM Baraboo!
"I have NEVER before witnessed such hostility, rudeness and disrespect when dealing with elected officials." More...

Amazing Admission by Sauk County Corporate Counsel Todd "Loophole" Liebman
In a recent newspaper interview the county's counsel revealed the reason behind the strategy to exempt the CIC Spring Green tower project from the county tower siting ordinance that requires engineer-approval and public hearings. "Loophole" wants the supervisors to approve the tower location before getting a permit because then the CIC could argue that the board of adjustments cannot overrule the board's vote and deny the permit. Rather than get a permit first, the CIC is taking Loophole's advice. In Loophole's own words: "I realized the county board of adjustment could conceivably overturn a county board of supervisors decision. The board of adjustment has no authority to overturn a county board action". On December 21 we will find out if the Board of Supervisors will design communications networks in Sauk County instead of registered engineers.
 

Ex-Supervisor Bart Olson Goes Public: CIC "is out of control"!
"The county should not be exempted from its own ordinance; it should play by its own rules."
 

December 1 - Dear Supervisor: "Vote NO to CIC Request to Bypass Public Permit Hearings!"

Sign FLOW's Online Petition to Board of Supervisors Chairman William Wenzel - Goal = 10,000!

Downtown Seattle Goes WiMAX! "WiMax, which is short for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, is a relatively new technology that provides wireless Internet access over great distances. Unlike Wi-Fi, which is typically confined to a couple of hundred feet in coffee shops or bookstores, WiMax networks have a range of several miles."

Nov 1 CIC Meeting: "Mr. Hartje said that a legal challenge to the county's action at Thuli Rd. would have to be filed within 6 months."
"The committee voted to endorse amending the county's tower siting ordinance to exclude/exempt the county from the ordinance, thereby, bypassing the Board of Adjustment process.  Mr. Sinklair voted against because he said it didn't pass the 'smell test'." 

Latest CIC Shenanigans - They want to change the law to avoid dealing with tower opponents!!!

October 30 - Dear Supervisor: "Vote NO to Purchase Thuli Road Tower Property!"
"The area along the Wisconsin River between Sauk City and Spring Green is used by thousands of tourists and canoeists each year. This is a perfect area to deploy a public wireless “Hot Spot” to provide families enjoying the river with direct communications through the Internet using handheld devices. The public requires wireless communications to deal with emergencies in inaccessible areas."

Koehnen Engineering Report is Available!

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FCC Chairman Powell says VoIP will overtake landline phone services.

Oct 18 - Baraboo News Republic Committee OKs tower location