Re: The system worked!

Posted by Broke Plowboy on November 13, 2014 at 18:43:26 from (198.179.214.27):

In Reply to: The system worked! posted by Dave H (MI) on November 11, 2014 at 19:55:40:

Well the System only works when there are law abiding citizens on the Township Board and people with some "Common Sense"!

Yep there is that word, "Common Sense". Well I will submit a story to you all on here that may just make you set up and take notice. The Missouri folks will have some knowledge about this issue as well. I am a rancher from Minnesota and this is what a bunch bumbling fools on a Township Board has done to me and what it has cost me and the taxpayers of Helga Township in northern Minnesota.

I enrolled in a contract with the Federal Government in the EQIP Livestock program to install paddock fencing and underground water systems for rotational grazing and protection of ground water runoff due to soil compaction and the like. The program is a good one and I recommend it to all farmers and ranchers. I hired an excavation contractor to remove the surface rocks that inhibited my completion of the project. Both my contractor and myself were contacted by phone by the township and told that we needed a five times after the fact fee ($2,340) for a mining permit to take the rocks off the land. They threatened a Cease and Desist order if I did not stop. You can about guess what I told them on the phone. They came with a piece of paper that was hand written and signed by the chairman of the board and the land use administrator telling me to cease and desist all operations.

The following evening there was a town board meeting. I took the paper and threw it in the face of the board and told them that this is not a valid Cease and Desist and told them that if they wanted one, I suggested that they get one signed by a judge and serve it according to the Civil Rules of Procedure. Now none of you know this, but I am not your average rancher. I hold two degrees and one is in law, I was a former investigator for the state, and I teach mining law. Picking surface rock on a ranch out of a pasture to allow for the tillage and reseeding of pasture grasses is not remotely close to mining of mineral materials.

After the cease and desist, they later came with one signed by a judge and served appropriately. We then locked horns in court and the judge ruled that my interest in the federal contract and the losses that I may incur is more important than that interest of the township. The township presses on for a decision on the merits of the ordinance and the mining clause and the judge did a 180 from his original decision and ruled that townships have the right to restrict agricultural practices in MN and he went on to say that because excavation is defined as anything greater than 18" deeper than the surface, that a mining permit for the excavation of mineral materials is required. Makes a guy wonder how that works for digging graves and septics? Don't dare to sink that chisel plow in too deep or we will have to get a permit..........So basically the judge issued a dismissal through what is called a "Summary Judgement" meaning that the township won the second battle and we still did not have our jury trial yet on the facts since this was a constitutional violation claim.

So then of course I couldn't let this BS go on because in order to get an Interim or conditional use permit, it requires a 10 posting prior to the hearing at the town hall and then neighbors can comment and they can take up to 60 days to decide if you get one or not and it is an initial $475 and they are able to require you to post a bond until the stuff is completed to their liking. I don't think so boys! How do you think that works out with the average farmer who has one guy digging and one guy planting and you have 10,000 acres? You don't have time to stop and wait for no permit!

So being the stubborn person I am about setting these boys straight, I appealed to the Court of Appeals. We had that a few weeks ago and the Judges just thrashed the township. Asking their attorney why they thought that they were the only township in MN that thought they could do this to a farmer and if the conditional use process was honerous for this type of activity and farming. The attorney was dumb enough to say yes.

Now after the favorable opinion comes out rescinding the judges ridiculous ruling only to save a township from shelling out big bucks for violating my constitutional right to farm with normal farming practices. It gets better folks. Another judge in the same 9th judicial district flies his radio controlled model airplanes out at the town board chairman's farm and yes you guess it, all without a permit. the chairman's best friend across the road has 3 businesses on his farm without permits. Every person on the board right now and many of the previous board have violations that have not been addressed eve though complaint letters have been forwarded about them to the board. So can you imagine how much fun it will be when we question all of them in the upcoming jury trial and all the skeletons come out?

So you are all wondering what this has cost. Well I have not been able to put cattle in these unfinished paddocks for 3 years in the most profitable three years in the history of livestock sales and marketing this world have ever seen. I have spent over $100,000 in legal fees and other costs and the Township is well over $200,000 in costs to the taxpayers. The worst of the costs are yet to come to the township as the jury will determine what fee will be needed to deter others from doing the same to a farmer. They only did this to me, all others around me have not been told to stop or to pay a fee.

Three other states have heard this issue at the Supreme Court level. Kansas, Missouri, and Iowa have all found in favor of the farmer or rancher saying that they own all surface rocks and sell or dispose of them as they see fit without a permit or license. Minnesota is comprised of 58% of agricultural land. Do you really think that this state is going to put up with that crap? Nope, and if the Nation would want 5 local people in control of the food sources of the world they would have made USDA and NRCS offices have local employees not federal employees, but no, they would never leave that kind of control up to five bumbling idiots because of the very thing that has happened to me in my case. So what do you all think about that? Anyone wanting information can contact me and I surely hope you contact Collin Peterson's office because that fool was chairman of the AG committee when this program became law as part of the farm bill and he has been called 20 times and has done nothing to introduce legislation to protect farmers in Minnesota. Spread the word so farmers know this is going on before we all have to get permits is we want to pick rocks.

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