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Governor meets SOUL protesters in Hayward
(8/24/2005) 91.3FM KUWS
Governor Jim Doyle and his cabinet members are in the northern Wisconsin to meet with people. Nick Pelletier has the story.
This is the third annual northern tour for Governor Doyle. He says this is sort of like Superior Days in reverse. "People have a chance to ask me questions or make comments. Let me and the cabinet know what is on peoples minds." He says this gives local people a chance to meet with officials from Madison. Jacqueline Strand was at the Hayward lunch. She came to say thanks for restoring 62% funding to her organization Northwest Connection Family Resources. "We work with childcare providers doing trainings and technical assistance for them. We also have parent referrals that we do. We have an 800 number for. Anyone in the 10 counties can call us for a parent referral and then we give out free referrals about quality child care, how to chose it." She says without the funding they would be up a creek. Mora McCusker of southern Douglas County wants to know why Doyle allowed the ATC transmission line to go through.
In February the Douglas county Board voted not to Negotiate with American Transmission Company for the Duluth to Wausau transmission line. Representative Phil Montgomery introduced legislation that allows public land condemnation for the utility. Doyle says this was a hard decision to sign the bill into law but it had to be done. "I have never made any secret from the day I ran for Governor I said that I we believe we needed to have that line and we do, for the long-term economic health of the state. We have the lowest number of transmission lines of any state in the country coming in. We simply need more."
McCusker was among a handful of protesters there. "I don’t understand why government can’t have a backbone and say no to this type of thing. That is what everybody espouses that is what they would like to do but nobody will have the guts to just do it." She says what Doyle says and does doesn’t add up. "He seems to want to portray himself as an environmentalist but at the same time you look at other things he is doing that are far more consequential. It doesn’t make sense to me. I know he wants to put the Totogatic River and the upper St. Croix under the state wild rivers act but what is the purpose of that. This line is going to be either going by these rivers, crossing them, or within sight of them. I just don’t understand those things." Doyle says the line will allow the state to keep running. "We are able to say to people that we are going to have an adequate supply of affordable electricity into the future." He says even if he did veto it, it may have been overturned.
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