In attending the annual meeting of Westfield Township in Dodge County on March 8, there’s a staggering amount of over $18,000 for legal fees in their list of expenditures in 2015.  This is a shocking amount considering that a year ago the board was dead-set against spending an estimated amount of $2,000 for legal fees in adopting their own Planning & Zoning for the township.  The current board is conducting business as if it were their own private little club and have refused to disclose any and all documentation as requested by myself and others in the past two years.  The entire board consisting of Bruce Wolf, Paul Fiebiger, Owen Kirkebon, Larry Schmeling, and Julie Peterson should be held accountable for their own actions and personally re-pay the township the exorbitant fees that they themselves accumulated, not the taxpayers.

On another note, in review of last week’s issue of the “Farm Living” publication, produced by The Times and Dodge County Independent, there are a couple of articles that struggle to explain the feedlot controversy and factory farms.  In the Constitution and by-laws of the Minnesota Farmers Union, they express that a family farm becomes an entity other than a family farm when over half the work is done by outside workers.  In the US, any farm with more than 1,000 cattle, 2,500 pigs or 125,000 chickens is referred to as a Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation.  In the EU officials have defined intensive as a farm with more than 40,000 poultry or 2,000 pigs.

Government works best on all levels when it operates in a transparent manner and works in the best interest of all its citizens and residents, not for just a select few or a special group.

 

Brad Trom

Blooming Prairie