Driftless Defenders, Western Dane Preservation Campaign, and Driftless Area Land Conservancy collaborated on the May 1st meeting in Mount Horeb and scored a home run by making the Madison evening news, both on channel 3 and 15!

https://www.channel3000.com/news/community-concerned-that-new-power-lines-would-cut-through-conservation-areas/737174694

More chairs had to be brought in to seat the crowd of 100-110 people (not including organizers and table staffers).   WDPC showed a film they recently produced, which described how the transmission lines will affect people’s lives.  Driftless Defenders provided the speaker, real estate appraiser Kurt Kielisch, whose firm has consulted on many properties affected by transmission lines.  He relayed how land value drops for those on the line and also for those properties within the viewshed (i.e., if you can see the towers and lines from your property it is worth less).  He also described how it is people’s perception that drives market values.  Driftless Area Land Conservancy unveiled a full page ad that will appear in Sunday’s Wisconsin State Journal and many other newspapers.  It states reasons for opposition to the line and is signed by all groups who make up the coalition they have established.

DD’s information table was a beehive of energy following the meeting.  We distributed 50 yard signs, 100 trifold information brochures, a large (uncounted) number of magnetic vehicle stickers, and gathered more signatures on our opposition petition.  People picked up our Ididaride and Rally flyers and will post them for us.  A woman who offered to help staff our table and pay the entrance fee for DD to set up our information table tomorrow night at Mixpo, an annual business expo in Mount Horeb which she thinks will give us good exposure.  So Deb Eide and I will pack things up again and head out to Mt Horeb, I hope this time not in a downpour.

Thank you to Lianne Stephenson and Deb Eide for staffing our table.

Thank you to all the people who worked hard to bring this excellent meeting to fruition.