Westerberg filed the appeal on behalf of three families, whose residences border the proposed sand mine in the Township of Scandinavia. Named in the appeal are Laura and Ron Scott, Greg and Chris Ambrosius, and Ken and Joanne Mentzel. A total of seven residences are within 500 feet of the proposed mine. The appeal to the Waupaca County Board of Adjustment notes that “the CUP application was incomplete, missing information required in multiple portions of the County’s ordinances” and lists five examples.

Westerberg also filed a lawsuit against the Waupaca County Planning and Zoning Committee on February 19th and that case has been assigned to Judge Troy L. Nielsen. The County has 20 days to respond with a written answer to that filing.

This appeal comes after 6+ months of meetings that the Waupaca County Planning and Zoning Committee held on this permit. The Township of Scandinavia’s Planning and Zoning Committee unanimously denied the permit on May 3rd and the Township of Scandinavia’s Board also unanimously denied the permit a week later. Chairman Gary Marx wrote a 61-page report on why the permit was not in compliance with the Township’s 2030 Comprehensive Plan.

The Waupaca County Planning and Zoning Committee had one public meeting on July 12th and then held another public meeting on August 22nd where the board voted 3-2 to deny the permit. Faulks Bros. then filed an appeal and after two closed door meetings between County Attorney Diane Meulemans and the board, board member Cindy Hardy then chose to make a motion on October 30th to reconsider the vote. Hardy, Joe McClone and Wayne Wilfeur had voted against the permit on August 22nd, but two months later Hardy with a seconded motion from DuWayne Federwitz wiped that vote off the books.

Meulemans advised the board that they were just to use testimony from July 12th in their decision to re-vote and no new evidence could be considered. Yet, on January 23rd, Hardy and Wilfeur joined Federwitz and Chairman Jim Nygaard in approving the permit, 4-1, with only McClone again voting no. With no new evidence, it was a drastic change in opinion on the legality of the permit.

The appeal states that the “appellants respectfully request that the Waupaca County Board of Adjustments reverse the Planning and Zoning Committee’s decision and deny the Conditional Use Permit for the non-metallic mine on the Iola Old Car Show Inc.”