Morgan Town Board meeting reflects recall tensions

CORRECTION: Chris Huntley, who uses the name “Chris Topher” on Facebook, was misidentified in an article about the Morgan Town Board meeting that appeared in the June 20 Oconto County Times Herald. Also, while Huntley used an expletive in quoting Supervisor Leonard Wahl, Wahl himself did not use that expletive. We apologize for the error and any lack of clarity.

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The rift between some members of the Morgan Town Board and the residents who organized a recall election was on full display during the board’s regular June 13 meeting.

Candidates have until 5 p.m. June 28 to submit nomination papers to run against Town Chairman Fran Wranosky or Supervisor Leonard Wahl, who are being recalled. The election is scheduled for July 12; if more than two candidates emerge for either post, the July 12 vote will be considered a primary, and a general election will be held Aug. 9.

However, as Town Clerk Julie Belongia explained, if a candidate gets more than 50% of the July 12 vote in any event, that person wins and a second election is not needed for that position.

Tempers flared later in the meeting when a resident inquired about an agenda item involving a $4,999 contract to Wahl’s firm Morgan Excavating for cutting weeds in roadside ditches. It was revealed that Wahl has performed this service for the town for at least 25 years, beginning prior to his sitting on the town board.

But a post on the Facebook page “Town of Morgan Chat - Stop Birch Solar Farm” shortly before the meeting told residents that under state statutes, any job costing $5,000 or more must be let out for bids. Several online comments suggested the $4,999 quote was an effort to skirt the law.

After residents raised questions at the meeting about whether multiple bids should have been obtained, Wahl withdrew his own bid and discussion began over the bid-letting process.

Last year, the cost was about $3,600 with about $200 or $300 worth of repairs, Wranosky said.

Bids will be sought to mow a 12-foot swath on either side of the 52 miles of town roads, with intersections cut wider for visibility, between July 1 and July 15. The contractor must provide certificates of liability insurance and worker’s compensation coverage, with bids due to Belongia by 5 p.m. June 28.

The debate continued after the board finished its business and adjourned. Chris Huntley went to the front of the room and started his remarks by asking for a softer tone.

“There is a portion of the town that doesn’t trust the board members up here,” Huntley said. “There’s a portion of the town that says, ‘Hey, the board members are doing a great (expletive deleted) job.’ All right. How are we going to come to middle ground on this?”

But then Huntley addressed Wahl directly, saying, “Leonard, I’m upset with you that as soon as you were questioned, you just said, ‘F— it; my bid’s gone.’” That led to some commotion before Huntley asked to be heard further.

“We all need to figure out how we are going to make this town work. We can sit here and say, ‘I hate you, and you hate me and everybody hates everybody,’ and then it’s nothing. Then it’s going to be wiped away,” he said. “That is how this country is working right now, and that is not OK. … What I would ask from the board is that we all listen to everybody … and it’s not, ‘I’m in charge; I’m sitting up here at the podium.’ From the town (residents), I would ask everybody to keep your tempers low. Talk calmly, talk smoothly and non-confrontationally.”

There was additional back-and-forth about the cost of cutting the ditches until Wranosky called for calm and raised the issue of the proposed NextEra solar farm, which is at the heart of the recall election.

“I’ll say the word solar; it’s split this town so bad. I just shake when I come to this meeting, literally shake. You think I’m stumbling around up here, it’s because I’m shaking inside. These meetings used to be friendly,” Wranosky said. “I wish the people, like you said a minute ago,” — gesturing to Huntley — “(could) just calm down and be civil about stuff. I hate the fighting. I hate the stuff that comes out on Facebook; it’s detrimental to us.”

He repeated that the state Public Service Commission will decide whether the solar farm is approved and contended the Town Board has no role in the process except to negotiate a joint development agreement to ensure the company repairs any damage to roads and other infrastructure from the project.

Returning to the ditch-cutting issue, Wranosky said handing the work to an outside contractor could cost as much as $10,000 versus working with Wahl, who “has been taking care of it for over 25 years already.”

He acknowledged that the questions about the ditches are a symptom of the reality that a large group of people have lost trust in the board over the solar issue.

“We’ve been getting hammered and hammered and hammered, and it’s unfair. … You people don’t trust us from (hell) to high water,” Wranosky said. “I’m ready to walk out of here, and I don’t care what happens. You know what, I do care what happens to this town, ’cause I’m scared of what could happen to it.”

He then made a public apology to a man he had “hollered at” in a previous meeting and repeated the call to work together.

Several separate conversations broke out at that point, but they all ended when Wahl made a caustic remark to a man in the front of the room, who responded by cursing at Wahl and striding out of the town hall.

The post-meeting meeting broke up shortly thereafter.