SHEBOYGAN COUNTY, Wisc. — Signs are scattered across the town of Mitchell and other neighboring municipalities. But they’re not political signs.
They’re encouraging people to join the fight against a substation and a power line installation and to fill the Sheboygan County courtroom.
That’s exactly what happened.
Dozens of locals took up every seat and more in court on Tuesday, opposing what’s known as the Plymouth Reliability Project.
It's an effort to make power more accessible and reliable to four main areas: The ANR natural gas pipeline, DNR fish hatchery, Kettle Moraine Correctional Institution, and the Town of Mitchell.
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"We thought we were moving out to God's country, living in an idyllic setting,” Jack Woodland remarked. He lives just down the road from the substation’s approved location.
“We have spent a lot of time, money, and effort…really a labor of love restoring habitats, prairies.”
Woodland’s property is one of the ones at risk of having transmission lines run right through the front yard.
He explained that his concern is really the lines, not the substation, because "the substation is useless without power" — in other words, you can’t have one without the other.
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So, the group asked the Sheboygan County court to reconsider the project approval, hoping it would halt the power line installation that is currently pending approval by the Wisconsin Public Service Commission (PSCW).
However, Judge Rebecca Persick upheld the PSCW’s decision.
I watched those dozens of residents leave the courtroom with heavy hearts.
"We didn't have the law on our side today,” said Waldo farmer Chris Kestell. “For now, they win… We [still are] trying to support our community and do the best we can for them."
Now they have to wait for the last decision on the Plymouth Reliability Project.
"We just have to hope that the Public Service Commission realizes that there are better routes for those transmission lines that are coming off of that substation,” noted Chris’s wife Jen.
"We're going to continue fighting, added Woodland. “It's our life."
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