After Months of Slow Walking Our Permit, Oneida County Zoning Slapped Us with a $1,810 Fine

[Omaha Steve]

https://mailchi.mp/6e1cb71763fe/americas-literacy-crisis-and-the-gullibility-gap-8274119

Hi folks,

Two days ago, I got a citation from the Oneida County Zoning Department for $1,810 for opening my tap room for the summer season last Thursday without a permit to do business.

As I've written many times in the last year, the "old boys club" in Oneida County revoked my permit to do business last July using bogus zoning violations that included installing a wooden fence instead of a metal one, and using landscaping rocks instead of permeable pavers for my beer garden. After being granted a "stay," which allowed us to remain open for the rest of last summer, we appealed this decision last October. The county waited an unprecedented 4 months to hear our appeal and then rejected it last February.

We immediately filed for a new permit in February, and they slow-walked the official "acceptance" of that permit until April. The current application has now been held up by the unincorporated Town of Minocqua, which has no jurisdiction when it comes to zoning, but is still illegally given power by the county to make demands on local businesses--like building parking lots instead of beer gardens.

This follows a 5 year pattern of political harassment, selective enforcement, and violation of due process by of the Town of Minocqua and Oneida County--working together to put me out of business and drain my profits with immense legal fees, simply because my company has become a loud progressive voice in a very conservative part of Wisconsin.

In any normal city in America, we not only could have secured a new business permit last winter, but we would have been allowed to operate peacefully 5 years ago instead of incurring what is now millions of dollars of legal fees and lost revenue.

Knowing that we needed to bypass our corrupt circuit court in Oneida County to get a semblance of justice, and after countless failed attempts at begging Wisconsin's Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul to step in and help us, my attorney Fred Melms and I decided to file a restraining order against Oneida County in Federal Court to stop their attacks.

I decided that navigating Wisconsin's Federal Western District in Madison required a second pair of eyes and a legal team that has argued cases in front of that court more frequently than Fred, so I hired a law firm in Madison to help us.

The screenshot above is their $25,290.70 bill for helping us simply try to stay open this summer.

These Madison lawyers are great, but when I got this bill, my stomach immediately started to hurt, because I knew I'd have to make a choice between fighting my legal battles or making beer to serve my customers this summer.
Video of Representative Ron Tusler (R-Appleton) calling the cops on a Wisconsinite who testified against a bill while wearing a provocative baseball cap.

It's readily apparent for anyone who has followed my company for any amount of time that the zoning problems I'm having in Oneida County aren't happening in a vacuum. They are a direct result of my company totally immersing itself in the work required to resist authoritarianism in Wisconsin.

Every Republican enemy that I have in the state, and I have many, knows that my Minocqua Tap Room is one of my company's largest sources of income. Cutting off that revenue stream means cutting off our political activism, and that's always been their goal.

Just yesterday, our team of volunteer citizen journalists captured this video
of Representative Ron Tusler (R-Appleton) calling the cops on a man who was testifying against a heinous bill that would allow cops to harm protesters without being punished--for simply wearing a provocative baseball cap.

We're putting out multiple videos from across the state each week that shine a light on how heavy-handed and brutish Trump's acolytes in Wisconsin have become, and that work is essential to recruit moderate Republicans to side with us against MAGA and protect Democracy in this all-important American swing state.
All this being said, I'm once again asking for help.

I'm proud of what my company has accomplished over the last 5 years in spite of being constantly barraged by lawsuits and small-town government harassment.

I've adhered 100% to my mission of selling high quality beer, wine, coffee, and soda as a way to fund my fight for the America that I still believe we can once again become.

But I can't pay all of my legal bills alone.

Please help me keep fighting these jerks in Oneida County. We can't let them win. It's simply not right what they're doing.

If you are able, please contribute to our legal defense fund here. And if you live nearby, please come visit our Minocqua tap room today through Sunday, 11am-7pm to voice your support. I refuse to close my taproom while they intentionally slow-walk my business permit to rack up more fines against us.

I'm not built to give up. I never will. But I can't fight without lawyers, and we have to sell beer to pay fines.

Thanks for reading, and thanks for sticking with the Minocqua Brewing Company.

Kirk Bangstad
Owner, Minocqua Brewing Company
Founder, Minocqua Brewing Company Super PAC

Donate to our Legal Defense Fund Here: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/mbclegaldefense

[UpInArms]

1. A link to their online store

https://www.minocquabrewingcompany.com/

[Greybnk48]

3. We have their FDT tiger eye bracelets and they are very nice. High quality and really good service.

I talked to the woman who makes them and she should have new ones by now that say 8647, if you aren't comfortable with the f word.

[WENSTJDON]

4. Thank you for the link to their store.

I went and ordered some items to show my support for their business.

[Maninacan]

2. WI zoning

Wisconsin DILHR can go to hell Darien township had a fake building inspector for ten years. My house was destroyed by a contractor and DILHR refused to uphold the first half of the first paragraph of the entire statute and code. Their lying attorney wrote a lying letter to the ATTY general. I was on a SH*T list after that. Then WI.DOT failed a job in front of my house that worsened flooding by my garage and that was destroyed. Zoning also allowed my neighbor to flood my garage by adding 2000yds of fill and blocking drainage. These town boards are nothing but farmers and business owner bullies, Zoning then came after me in another township and threatened me with a large fine for not having a permit to build a deck. They only knew i was building a deck because i complained about the neighbor near my new house adding fill and possibly causing flooding at new house.

[Omaha Steve]

5. Kick

[Nevilledog]

6. Kick