Sen. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green) made one of his listening session stops in Argyle on Monday, January 19. There was no topic off limits and the constituents who participated brought up several.
One topic discussed was bringing back control to villages and townships. Lisa Braley, who lives in Fayette Township, stated that Pattern Energy has been trying to come into the township to solicit people to sign up to have wind turbines on their land.
Braley stated that the township passed a wind and safety ordinance in December 2023 to protect it’s residents’ health. The township then sent a letter in July 2024 and November 2025 asking for additional information on the project and what their intentions were with the area. Under the Wisconsin Legislature Chapter PSC 128: Wind Energy Systems, an energy company is required to work with the “political subdivision” (meaning city, village, town, or county). Fayette Township never received a response nor additional information until a Pattern Energy representative showed up at a township meeting on January 10 unannounced with a copy of a map with proposed building sites.
Braley asked the representative how they were going to work with the mile setback from a neighboring non-signer, as was listed in the township’s ordinance and he stated that they were not going to follow the township’s ordinance. She understood that Sen. Marklein had introduced Wisconsin Senate Bill #3-2025-2026 that would require local approval for certain wind and solar projects before Public Service Commission (PSC) approval.
“We need control back in our township to say no because the residents have already spoken,” Braley said.
Braley’s property butts up against Yellowstone Lake State Park. She is worried for the thousands of people that visit the park anytime throughout the year and the views that could be ruined with the tall turbines. She said she could potentially see nine wind turbines outside of her window.
Deirdre Birmington, who lives in Moscow Township, stated that their township had written three letter’s to Pattern Energy before they received a response and they haven’t been as cooperative as the PSC stated they should be.
Steve Ferrell from Monroe questioned how Pattern Energy could say there will be no wind turbines in an area (Ferrell also owns property in Mineral Point) and then a little over a month come around and say that 65 wind turbines are looking to be put up.
“Yes, we need help with control because they are coming at us and they are coming at us hard,” Ferrell said. He felt that the people where these wind turbines are going to be places should have some say and not just people from the PSC.
Dixie Stechschulte, who lives in Adams Township, advocated that more money needs to come back to the local municipalities and townships so they are able to keep their local control. She stated that small townships like Adams Township isn’t able to pay for things like fixing up roads, buying new equipment, and if it were to come down to it, they aren’t able to fight against large wind turbine companies to keep them out of their area.
She added that several of the school district’s around Adams Township (Monroe, Black Hawk, Monticello) will be going to referendum and looking for additional money and they don’t have the money to spare. “Your senate district has been known to always have to do referendums, which is a huge tax burden,” Stechschulte said.
Stechschulte felt that with Sen. Marklein sitting on the Joint Finance Committee and the projected surplus of $2.5 billion from the budget, that money should be coming back to the tax payers and to the townships. “All of that [money] should be coming back into these locally funded things. That is where it started. I think that is where it should come back. I’m urging you to consider that when you are dealing with this budget because it is imperative that these local control issues get funded,” Stechschulte said.
Another topic discussed was that of education and childcare. Monica Schober from New Glarus was a teacher and now substitute teaches at Monticello stated she is concern with the way education is funded and having quality childcare. She stated that in order to have a successful 4K-12 system, there needs to be quality childcare for students.
Julie Saether from Blanchardville wanted to see a stop to funding private charter schools with public money. She felt that public money should only be spend on public education. She wanted to see more of an investment in our small, rural, public schools.
“Wisconsin is the third highest in the United States in state education money used in private school systems,” Schober added.
Previously mentioned was the referendums that are taking place in area districts. Stechschulte commented that one narrative being told on how to stop the referendums is school consolidation. She stated that Rep. Todd Novak (RDodgeville) is pushing this idea. She was against this idea.
“When you lose your school district, small communities go away, rural climate goes away, rural infrastructure goes away. No one will want to come here,” Stechschulte said.
She reiterated her point of giving the surplus of monies from the budget back to the rural communities so they can help keep their identities.
Sen. Marklein understood the concerns for local control. He began with the PSC, who is an appointed position, appointed by an administration that wants those people in those positions. He stated that wind turbines aren’t going up in the Madison area and the inference is that out in the rural areas, it is easier to get these structures up.
He added that data centers are a new entity. There is a bill that is being discussed to prevent data centers from offloading their power bills onto other entities. They like Wisconsin’s climate because they need to have their water cool and our climate helps with that.
The main question raised is how long until these things will be technologically obsolete.
School districts in this area get around 70-85 percent of their budget funded by the State of Wisconsin. Districts like Madison don’t get funding due to their large property tax base.
Sen. Marklein stated that a majority of the surplus money is a one time money, like capital gains. School districts want to be funded with ongoing money so they have to be careful to where the money is distributed.
One major issue hitting all of the school districts throughout the state is declining enrollment. In 2007-2008 school year, Argyle had an enrollment of 343. In the 2023-2024 school district it dropped to 284. That amount does not include open enrollment.
“It is an issue all over the state,” Sen. Marklein said.
At a CESA 3 summit in Fenimore, this topic was discussed. It was mentioned that the city of Cuba City and the school district of Cuba City began working together to find a solution and are now working on building around 40 homes in the community. Those homes will help bring in families and build the school district. Sen. Marklein stated that building housing can solve a lot of different problems.