Village ordinance update

This is going to be a long one so I suggest you get yourself a cup of coffee :-)

As most of the regulars in here know I have been having a dispute with the Village I live in over my display of horse drawn farm equipment. (Please do a search for "ordinance" for the complete story.) Well, it has come to a head and I would like to update everyone on everything to this point.

This past April I submitted a letter to the Village lawyer to get some clarification on some ordinances sence I am planning on building a new house. My last question to him was for clarification on junked vehicles on private property sense this is what the village was trying to use to force me to get my equipment out of town.

From that letter, and the return letter from the village lawyer, the Village of Cambria, Wisconsin has proposed passing a ordinance limiting, among other things, the number of pieces of farm equipment a person can display.

At the last board meeting I mentioned to them my feelings about this ordinance and the Village President (the mayor) lead me to believe by his comments I was the only one in town that cared about it. Well, to find out for myself if he was right I posted around town at a few of the businesses a cover letter with the proposed ordinance.

About a week after I posted them the mayor finally came across them and that night the Chief of Police (we only have one full time cop) was at my door saying I was misleading people and I was blowing it out of proportion. I had hauled 3 things back into town to display and he was saying I had to get 2 of them out of town or the Village was going to remove them.

This went on for 10 minutes or so untill I told him "Well, do what you have to do because on the advice of my lawyer in order to be grandfathered in I need to have what I want on my property.

As soon as I mentioned I had a law dog he mellowed out a bit and said he was going to give me a chance to get it out of town. I said he might as well write me up now because it's (the equipment) wasn't going any where. He then got in his car and left.

Am I out in left field on this one? If you could please click on the link below and let me know what you think. The top part is the cover letter and the bottom part is the proposed ordinance. I would hate to give a lawyer $$$$ when I could use it to buy more iron. :-)

Thanks much,

Gene Kidd (Old Iron)
Cambria, Wisconsin

• Proposed Ordinance

Cambria is located about 20 miles east of Portage and 18 miles west of Beaver Dam off of Hwy 33 on Hwy 146. A small place of around 750 people.

I would invite you by the house but I'm heading out tomorrow for 2 weeks at Ft. Hood, Texas for the Army Reserves.

Old Iron

First; is any of your neighbor's complaining?

If no !! , than why the ordinance?

Just because the they wish to pass it , they sould have a complaint in writing.

DO you have a business or hobby that uses these types of things? If you think they are ART that may make the differents, self expression, Freedom of speech. I would make sure that they are in good order and clean. Paint not coming off ( lead) no loose metal or sharp egdes , No health problem. You may need a fence . If they get a bug up for you , they can be a pain.

I live in western PA . Not many farms left and loosing more every year, I try my best too get a long with everyone, the Golden Rule. But I'll have had some fun in areas like this , the twp. suppervisers(sp) just look at me if they see me at a meeting , and say Hi . You can see they are think ing NOW WHAT !! Not too hard for me to get a couple of people on my side, or to a meeting, I can get a bees nest stirred up for them to deal with , so they just look at me funny , I'm not a trouble maker, but they don't like long meeting. Easyer to make me at easy than to get me going, around to the twp. and get a mess started.

You have to be at the meetings , If you talk about the laws (ordinance) and say at home well , you eat what you sow. Boy don't get them Mad they don't like that , and than you can have trouple. We all make misstake and if they are watching than, they nail you one way or and other.

I hate new laws (ordinance), rules they must be there but, they come about and change things. Tell someone too often that they must do and have to do things that may not be fair or right in there eyes. I like my freedom to do AS I PlEASE TOO !!. I hate being told you have to do it this way. Would be better to just ask and find some middle ground, but too often that doesn't work so they start with rules , well ..... Good Luck Punchie

I sure don't know the right answer. Since it ain't my money, I'd say "get a lawyer and fight that nonsense." Our little town did something similar with mailboxes--some folks had cute little mailboxes in various shapes (tractors, animals, what-have-you). Seems that didn't suit some folks so they passed an ordinance banning them. Would be nice if folks would stick up for their rights before they're all taken away.

But truthfully, it is that kind of nonsense that made me buy my little farm away from people and town governments. I was sick of it, and it was easier to move than to fight city hall.

good luck,
Tom

Believe it or not we had a fight here 2 years back over mail boxes. Back then everyone was required to have a P. O. Box untill someone found a post office rule saying if you lived 1/2 a mile away from the post office you could get home mail delivery. It took a city wide vote to get the mail boxes because the Village Board was afraid what kind of boxes people were going to come up with.

I would love to get a place out in the country but if I was to do that now they would think they won and I'll be danged if I'm going to let them think that.

Old Iron