Dear Supervisor - September 25, 2004

December 1, 2004

Dear Supervisor,

On November 1, the 5-Supervisor Sauk County Communications Infrastructure Committee (CIC) voted to ask the Board of Supervisors to approve two items at their December meeting: 1) the lease/purchase of the Thuli Road tower site property, 2) exempt the CIC from the permitting process in the Sauk County Tower Siting Ordinance Chapter 23. I ask you to please vote against these proposals for two reasons. First, there still is not a report by a registered engineer for the tower project. Second, the rights of landowners within the Lower Wisconsin Riverway will be violated by the Thuli Road tower.

The CIC’s 9-tower, multi-million dollar communications project continues to progress without a report by a qualified engineer. Instead of hiring an engineer to produce a report on the system design, the CIC is asking the Board of Supervisors to exempt them from Chapter 23 of the Sauk County Ordinances. This ordinance requires a "report stamped and signed by a professional engineer registered in the State of Wisconsin". Please vote against exempting the Thuli Road tower from this ordinance. You should not be asked to approve the acquisition of a tower site without an accompanying report from a registered engineer.

Opponents to the CIC’s “tower-by-the-river” plan, as well as the Leonard J. Koehnen Report, the most recent county engineering report, have suggested the use of the Spring Green water tower which is within eyesight of the Thuli Road site. The CIC wants to be exempt from Chapter 23 which requires that "No new tower shall be permitted unless the applicant demonstrates by reasonable and credible evidence that no existing tower or structure can accommodate the applicant's proposed antenna." Please vote against exempting the Thuli Road tower from this ordinance. Require the CIC to present its reasonable and credible evidence at the proper public hearings.

Under Chapter 23, the CIC would be required to "Minimize adverse visual effects of wireless communication facilities through careful siting and design standards". Since the Thuli Road site adversely impacts the Lower Wisconsin Riverway, the CIC wants to be exempt from this county requirement as well. Chapter 23 also requires the CIC to “Maximize the use of existing and approved towers and structures to accommodate new wireless communication antennas, to reduce the number of towers needed to serve the industry.” Please vote against exempting the Thuli Road tower from this ordinance. Chapter 23 provides a set of safeguards to protect the interests of the public involving tower siting. Please do not short-circuit these safeguards now when they are needed.

The CIC plan for Thuli Road will also violate the rights of every property owner within the Lower Wisconsin Riverway boundary. This year the Lower Wisconsin Riverway Act is celebrating its fifteenth year in existence and hopefully it will continue to protect the river for many generations. Mark Cupp the Executive Director of the LWSRB has stated, "This proposed tower exploits a weakness in the law. Sauk County can build it without any permit or compliance with our performance standards”. For the past fifteen years state law required all owners of property within the Lower Wisconsin Riverway to apply for permits from the Lower Wisconsin State Riverway Board (LWSRB) before constructing buildings or harvesting timber within sight of the Wisconsin River.

Hundreds of landowners have had to compromise their personal plans to obtain LWSRB permits. By sacrificing their views of the river, these citizens have provided the general public with natural views from the river that are not visually impacted by man-made structures or activities. If the county builds a 250 foot tower next to the river then the county will have directly damaged the view from the river that so many have already sacrificed to preserve. Is the county ready to monetarily compensate all the landowners who currently own property in the riverway? Due to a loophole it may be legal for the county to build this tower, but the landowners also have legal standing to demand compensation for the damage to the view. Elected officials have a fiduciary duty to protect the public trust. They do not have a license to disregard commitments that came before them.

How does the LWSRB effectively continue to enforce its rules on landowners to preserve the unobstructed views from the river when the view for many miles will have been destroyed by the actions of the county? The entire public will suffer a loss because the river will be grossly visually impacted by this huge tower. The area surrounding the Village of Spring Green will forever become the marker on the Wisconsin River that was not protected. Please vote against this tower site in order to protect the integrity of the Lower Wisconsin Riverway Act, not only in Spring Green, but down to the Mississippi River, not only now but forever into the future.

The CIC wants the full Board of Supervisors to change the rules governing the Thuli Road tower permit process. The public wants a solution that preserves the riverway. The public should be able to participate in the normal lawful hearings as defined in the existing ordinances. You can change the rules for future projects, but is it ethical to change the rules for the current CIC tower project which has been the subject of continuous public debate for many months? Please vote against the CIC requests and send a message to the public that the laws will not be tampered with and the voices of public opposition to the CIC will be allowed to participate in the public approval process.

Please vote to send this issue back to the CIC for proper resolution. It makes more sense to move the tower before it is built rather than after it is built.

Respectfully,

Mark Culverhouse
Spring Green WI 53588
Mark.Culverhouse@Highway60.com
www.highway60.com/movethetower