Hi Folks,
I'll have more for you on Sunday because I've got to get back to work hauling kegs after a missing much of the week in court and in zoning meetings, but I wanted to let you know that as expected, the Ole' Boys Network on the Oneida County zoning committee voted to shut down our beer garden yesterday.
Here's the link to the local NBC affiliate's coverage of the explosive meeting where as expected, the committee refused to let me defend my company and hauled me out of the meeting when I demanded they let me provide the context behind the petty reasons they were using to shut me down.
Since I expected to be kicked out of the meeting, I held a rally to be able to give my entire speech explaining the more than 4 years of political harassment that lead up to this 2nd vote to shut me down.
Here's the link to that speech. I'm hoping that someone on this list can get this "banned" speech out to larger news outlets, because the mainstream media in Northern Wisconsin is simply too decimated or too overworked to cover this story with any depth.
Now that the county has officially shut me down, my attorney Fred and I hope this is ENOUGH to finally convince a federal judge to step in an grant us a temporary injunction against the county from shutting me down until our entire case can be heard.
If you remember, we filed for an emergency injunction against the Town of Minocqua last March because we KNEW that by holding an easement over our heads until we dropped our lawsuit against them for political harassment, they would be causing the exact situation we're in now--running up against the County's coordinated attempt to shut us down for zoning violations. Unfortunately, the judge claimed that by "preemptively" filing for an emergency injunction, we were not really in an "emergency" yet.
Well now we are, and we hope that a federal judge agrees.
As soon as Fred gets a little sleep (he hasn't had much this week), we're going to sue Oneida County once again in Federal Court, and hope and pray a judge hears this case immediately instead of pushing us off until 2025--which was the reason we had to give up the last time (justice delayed truly is justice denied if you don't have enough money to pay lawyers for years on end).
I REALLY TRIED to wash my hands of all of these petty local issues twice over the last two years, simply wanting to live in peace in 2023 and most recently last April. But each time I waved the white flag and attempted to make peace with the town of Minocqua and Oneida County, they saw blood in the water and doubled down to destroy my business.
Ever since I put a Biden sign on my building four years ago and started a Super PAC to help keep Wisconsin blue, they have used every trick in the book to slow me down and run me out of Northern Wisconsin.
I know now that I simply can't stop fighting, and that I have to find a judge willing to hear this case in a timely fashion and stop them, once and for all.
If you're just as infuriated about all of this as I am, I could use your help to fight back. If you're able, please chip in here to help us mount yet another, but hopefully final, legal battle to stop our rogue local government from endless harassment.
I'm at my wit's end with these jerks, and I hope you are too. We simply have to find a way to stop these endless attacks.
Thanks for reading,
Kirk Bangstad
Owner, Minocqua Brewing Company
Founder, Minocqua Brewing Company Super PAC
P.S.
Here are the email addresses of the County Board once again. Please email them and tell them how shameful they've behaved and how they've given this beautiful tourist area a terrible reputation throughout the U.S.
cshowalter@oneidacountywi.gov
khanus@oneidacountywi.gov
lnewman@oneidacountywi.gov
sschreier@oneidacountywi.gov
rfisher@oneidacountywi.gov
dcondado@oneidacountywi.gov
rbriggs@oneidacountywi.gov
dharris@oneidacountywi.gov
dhess@oneidacountywi.gov
rjensen@oneidacountywi.gov
mives@oneidacountywi.gov
csorgel@oneidacountywi.gov
sholewinski@oneidacountywi.gov
llopez@oneidacountywi.gov
mtimmons@oneidacountywi.gov
billyf@oneidacountywi.gov
mtautges@oneidacountywi.gov
ralmekinder@oneidacountywi.gov
cschultz@oneidacountywi.gov