Reader responds to ‘Secret group’ article

To the Editor:

In response to Richard Moore’s article in the Northwoods River News and The Lakeland Times entitled “Oops! ‘Secret group’ is secret no more,” I would like to say a few things. Mr. Moore’s article seems to imply that a group of environmental advocates who want to know what their local elected officials are doing with taxpayer money is a bad thing. I view a group of concerned taxpayers spending time to stay informed as positive. While we are not able to vote on these issues (except when the county board members are up for re-election), we do have a right to know about them from meeting minutes, informing others, and open records requests.

An environmentalist, by definition, is “a person who is concerned with or advocates the protection of the environment,” which, at times, seems to be the opposite of what some county board members are doing. The DNR has regulations regarding shorelines on our lakes and rivers that are based on science. These provide protection from erosion, pollution, and habitat loss for fish and wildlife, while accommodating lakefront property owners with viewing corridors to enjoy. These regulations seem very easy to follow, but a few lakefront property owners seem to care more about what they want than what is good for our lakes. Our county board allotted $10,000 of our taxpayer money to cater to this minority, hiring a Madison attorney (Larry Konopacki) to come up with a way to rewrite shoreline ordinances that differ from the DNR’s.

These changes mainly concern boat houses — whether owners can install stairs that lead up to the roofs of the boat houses, or whether they can install concrete aprons around the boat houses (which leach toxic substances into the water.) Some lakefront property owners also want to clearcut the viewing corridor of all vegetation, which, again, leads to erosion and loss of fish and wildlife habitat.

Maybe instead of writing inflammatory pieces about this group of environmentalists whose only goals are to preserve clean water, clean air, and our forests, lakes, rivers, and wildlife, Mr. Moore may want to investigate our county board chairman Scott Holewinski and his secret meetings with Tom Tiffany, Mary Felzkowski, and Margaret Byfield of the American Stewards of Liberty, aka the ASL. The ASL is an anti environmental group out of Texas that Tiffany has allied himself with. The ASL does not support public land, undeveloped forests, or endangered species. It wants our forest lands to be developed, in many cases for mining and/or industry. It also is against MFL land, which is very popular with the people of Oneida County. Mr. Holewinski has sent letters written by the ASL, signed by himself as county board chairman, without the consent of the county board, to the US Forest Service in an attempt to thwart the purchase of the Pelican River Forest and other conservation measures in the future. This seems unethical, if only we had ethics rules on the county board, since Mr. Holewinski did away with them two years ago. The public should know about these clandestine, shadowy meetings and the actions of our county board chairman and congressman, as well as the letters that have been sent to the federal government on behalf of Oneida County that few constituents or even county board members know about.

This so-called secret group and the open records requests is one way to find out. 

Kathleen Cooper

Pelican Township