Rants

What’s a WECS?

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Depiction of the large scale WECS’s that the Concerned Citizens protested at the County Level

Representatives from the Concerned Property Owners of Marshall County requested that Culver change their zoning ordinance regarding WECS’s and as a result, the Culver Plan Commission held a Public Hearing on an ordinance change at their August 2013 meeting.   (WECS is the acronym for Wind Energy Conversion Systems and applies to any device that takes wind energy and converts it to usable forms of energy.)  The initial request was for Culver to match the County’s zoning requirements which currently bans commercial WECS’s and allows residential systems with a Special Use Permit in selective zoning districts.  Unfortunately audience members requested that the ordinance be tweaked to further restrict residential systems as well.  At that time I spoke up and reminded the Plan Commission that they had recently created an A1 – Agricultural District with the intention of mirroring Marshall County’s A1 district.  This was done to eliminate discrepancy protests to extending our Territorial Authority.   The Commission agreed with my argument but still had some reservation so they decided to table the issue.

At the September Culver Plan Commission meeting the topic came up again. Russ Mason, Building Commissioner, had conversations with some farmers and had made some minor tweaks to the height restrictions for WECS’s.  Audience members also spoke up and protested the allowance of WECS’s in residential areas even under the special use requirements.  I again spoke up with two points:

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Culver Vision Workshop

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Culver’s Vision needs a strong prescription!

Last night was the Vision Workshop for the Culver Comprehensive Plan.  I’ve been calling this effort 20/20 vision for Culver for a while now.  Unfortunately with the poor turn out last night, our vision may require a stronger prescription!  Less than 30 people turned out for last night’s meeting.  That’s pretty dismal.  There were three Plan Commission members there, but only one Redevelopment Commission member and no Town Council members.  The overall poor attendance is probably due to poor advertising, but it’s unfortunate that our community leaders aren’t getting involved.  I’m not in tune with all of the local groups, but I was disappointed that only one Chamber board member was there who was also the only Second Century Committee board member.  That was particularly disappointing considering the leadership role SCC took in the previous Comprehensive Plan.  I couldn’t identify any of the Lions Club Board, Kiwanis Board, Boys & Girls Club Board, etc.  Maybe that apathy in and of itself says a lot about Culver’s future…

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Meeting with Jackie Walorski

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Representative Jackie Walorski

On Tuesday April 30 I was invited to a meeting with Jackie Walorski at the Plymouth Chamber of Commerce.  There was some interesting discussion (more than what was printed in the paper) but I was disappointed in the participation.  I know that invitations were sent to the other Community Chambers and there were no other representatives there.  Of those in attendance only three of us brought up issues for the congresswoman’s consideration, despite her obvious willingness to answer questions and work on issues.  This was a follow up on a meeting she held at the Plymouth Chamber in January which I attended, and I have to say I was impressed that not only did she remember me, but she came back with answers to some of the questions I posed then.

There were only about four of us that put questions in front of the congresswoman and because of lulls where no one else asked anything, I actually put three in front of her.  She was receptive and honest, when she didn’t know she said she would find out and get back to us.  I don’t think we can ask for any more than that.

As much as I am disappointed in the goings on in Washington, I felt that the interest from Congresswoman Walorski was refreshing and was a counterpoint to the disinterest from those that bothered to come.

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Who should lead?

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I was invited to attend a work session of the Culver Town Council last night.  The work session was the result of the efforts of MCEDC to energize Marshall County communities to plan and prepare for growth.  Unfortunately last night’s meeting degenerated into random complaints from various attendees about some Culver boards and commissions with very little positive discussion or resolution.  I had invited Jay Bahr, MCEDC‘s new Executive Director, to attend this meeting and was somewhat embarrassed.  It wasn’t exactly what I would have liked him to see with his first introduction to Culver’s leaders.

Image borrowed from Aliexpress.comIn February, MCEDC held our first County-wide economic development summit with attendees representing all of the communities in Marshall County.  As a result of that meeting I had met with several Culver Town Council Members to see what action steps could be taken. My thoughts on this involved encouraging the Town Council to be the pointy head of the spear.  In other words, set an agenda for growth and improvement and pass that mandate down to the boards and commissions that serve beneath them.  Theoretically, the Town Council is the elected body that represents the people and through them the citizen’s will should be enacted by the appointed boards and commissions.  Without a cohesive plan of action to implement, the boards and commissions either proceed on their own agendas or in some cases are rudderless and accomplish no agenda.

There has been some progress.  Retention meetings have been held with Elkay and discussions have been had regarding how to make Culver more accessible to business.  All positive steps, but ones without a cohesive goal.

Image borrowed from Granitegrok.comThe Comprehensive Plan will fill part of this need, but it needs the will of the citizens and their elected officials, the Town Council, to be reflected in that.  Even though completion of the Comprehensive Plan is as much as a year away, the Town Council needs to be gearing up towards implementation and as I’ve tried to express to them, the Comprehensive Plan process can’t be an excuse for doing nothing now.

Last night’s meeting showed a lack of respect for the Town Council’s position of authority in the Town.  It was a good step towards leadership, but it’s clear that they are going to need to TAKE their leadership back.  There will be no shortage of complaints, but complaints don’t fill the leadership void.  Culver’s unofficial motto has always been “Change is bad even when it’s change for the better”.  The Town Council needs to ignore that and be the instigator of change.  Change for the better…