Letter to the Editor: Pagel Promises Obstruction

Claiming that significant “momentum” is underway by farmers in Kewaunee County and defining that as the “right direction” to be finding a balance between clean water, public health and industrial dairy financial profit, while addressing known groundwater pollution in Kewaunee County, John Pagel, the county’s largest liquid manure producer and chair of the Kewaunee County Land and Water Conservation Committee, declared his personal inflexibility on the issue of groundwater pollution regulation with a public accusation that forces are trying to stymie that “momentum,” when he finished his sentence with, “…there are some people that are trying to take that away from us, but I’m not going to let them.”

Pagel then insinuated the existence of a near insolvable rift in the Groundwater Work Group membership by literally pointing to the members sitting on either end of the tables, and to their needing to begin working together, and that they hadn’t been doing so thus far when he repeatedly insisted the sooner cooperation ensued, the better. That statement seemed exceptionally hypocritical coming from the Work Group member who just declared his intended obstruction to recommendations being reported from the Groundwater Work Group.

Mr. Pagel went on to employ what easily fits the definition of the proverbial “victim card,” claiming that the factions needed to begin to work together “without accusations and insulting and so on and so forth.” Ask yourself, who appears to be making accusations and who appears to be issuing actual insults? Perhaps another definition, “psychological projection,” should be recommended research for those who don’t know of it.

The unmistakable initial value of the public meeting and presentation of the June 2016 Groundwater Work Group Report for Kewaunee County, to me, seems quite obvious. A self-declared obstructionist to the reported direction for addressing groundwater pollution, which may not fit one person’s interests or views as to the “proper” direction to pursue, currently chairs the county committee which is tasked with bringing resolutions for those pollutant solutions, officially before the Kewaunee County Board of Supervisors for further action.

The sentiment from those people attending overwhelmingly appeared to be: let us finally begin to implement the solutions being presented and a call for immediate action. Despite their Corporation Counsel’s opinion about what constitutes a legal conflict of interest, the removal and replacement of a county supervisor from an initially appointed committee chair position, to the best of my understanding, does not require that high of a legal bar to begin that said removal action. My understanding is that any committee chairperson serves solely at the pleasure of the county board chair.

Donald Freix

Fish Creek, Wis.