In AmeriKa you have no property rights...but keep taking it anyway...
It is not sufficient that he simply comply. He must also like it and declare so!
And here was a guy trying to be green, and the lefties came after him for it, with a vengeful vendetta even after the windmills were gone.
What huge hypocrites.
If it is an unsightliness issue, then he could build cellar doors or storage cubicles on the pads.
I'm having difficulty understanding why the neighbors would care about a wind turbine. Is it noisy? An eyesore to the neighborhood?
Do the neighbors have a legitimate gripe or are they just your typical busybody neighbors from hell?
Here's a picture of the Nygard house with said turbine (look in upper right of picture). To me, it just looks like an oversized bird feeder. Nothing to be getting your panties in a twist over.
More info here:
http://www.kare11.com/story/news/local/2015/02/19/wind-turbine-nygaard-orono-robiner-tennant-kaardal/23699799/
1) There are three other, much smaller wind turbines on his property. They are not the issue.
2) The one that is an issue is much bigger, and is located about 20-25 feet from his neighbor’s house. It is probably 100 feet from his other neighbor’s house
3) These are high priced, closely spaced houses located on Lake Minnetonka (wealthy neighborhood)
4) The issue is over the noise they make and the lightening that they draw.
5) It appears that the Gadsden flag is attached to one of the smaller turbines. Possible revenge against the Tea Party.
It isn’t clear how the turbine affects the foundation of his house
Among other things, it appears he built the structure within his 5' setback. That zoning violation directly diminishes the value of his neighbors property.l
This is why you buy your property in the middle of nowhere and do what you want.
gotta wonder if, perhaps, there is an electric co-op run by the local govt that doesn’t like competition
He completed the build **AND THEN** applied for the permit.
The authorities consider this a power encroachment, so I think he`s f*cked.
After all,Al Gore does hold the patent for wind mills.
You might put someone’s eye out with that thing!
Your property isn’t really your property. This country looks more and more like the old Soviet Union.
“The base was level with the ground and 4 feet cubed. We removed the top half of the concrete and used a metal cutting tool to remove the top half of the bolt assembly, rendering the structure unusable,”
As an engineer who designs rotating machinery (including a few small wind turbines), I wouldn’t want that thing anywhere near my property. I’ve had to do failure analysis on rotating equipment that ‘gets blowed up real good’ and although there’s the possibility that this fellow knows exactly what he is doing, the words ‘homemade’ have disaster written all over them. Has he had a finite element analysis done on the rotating parts by a person who knows what he has done? Was a fatigue analysis completed… again by someone who knew what he was doing? Was the foundation designed by a civil engineer? What calculations has he produced for the tower? What backup system is in place to ensure that it won’t wildly run out of control in the event of a brake failure and self-destruct in a windstorm? Does it even have brakes? And on and on it goes…… I’m all for homegrown talent exercising their rights to invent and test things but they have to be far enough away from others so that if they blow up (as they almost always do), the shrapnel can only do damage to the people and property that are related to the project owner. Even the pros get this one wrong repeatedly…. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqEccgR0q-o The noise is another issue as there are bylaws to do deal with that.
It is my considered opinion that most people will gladly give up their freedom in return for the right to tell their neighbor what to do.
For most people, freedom is like tonsils. No idea what its good for, best get rid of it. Might cause you trouble down the road.
I did a job for this fellow two years back.
Going to Jail for Going Green
As I write this letter, I'm wondering if I will be incarcerated in just a couple days. Wednesday morning
at 9 am, my wife and I will appear in Hennepin County District Court to show cause as to why I have
not removed my micro wind turbine. It is a convoluted story which began with the City of Orono
outright refusing me any opportunity to install such a product. They also ignored all of my
correspondence and took an aggressive posture from the start. How ironic will it be if I will be wrongly
deprived of my liberty during our country's celebration of all of our freedom on July 4th?
Our journey has cost us over $125,000 during the last 3 1⁄2 years. We lost at district court, won at the
Minnesota Court of Appeals, somehow lost at the district court with the same judge again, for the exact
same reasons, and then lost at the appeals court when my former lawyer electronically filed a document
It turns out I had the right to install the turbine all along according to a 1995 Minnesota statute (Mn.
Stat. 216F.02). 1995. All individuals in Minnesota do. That is what the law is for. Why Orono
chose not to research and accommodate state law, as they must, is beyond me. In fact, they had a wind
turbine application in the late 1990s which they outright denied as well. The most comical thing that
Orono has stated (recently) in response to our challenge of their total ban on wind turbines is that they
cannot even admit that their ban on wind turbines is a ban on wind turbines.
I am now under a contempt order which can only be seen as illegal as the court never took time to hold
a hearing to determine whether or not the court actually has jurisdiction. The supreme court has
previously ruled that lack of this hearing during contempt proceedings, when it is requested, voids the
contempt process. Not only was I not allowed to have the hearing, as is shown in the transcript, but the
latest order and corresponding memo claims that I waived my right to it. Which I never did. I was
there to ask for the hearing in defense of the contempt order. The most frustrating part is that I have
never once been allowed to personally defend myself in any of these hearings. It sure seems to me that
criminals charged with felonies are afforded more rights than I have been as they have a right to
So here I am again ... wondering what will happen Wednesday. I must say that given past history, I do
not have much confidence that the district court will be reasonable and hold off on the punitive
measure of sending me to jail for 6 months, when a contempt of court violation does not have a
definitive jail sentence. Why not wait until the appeals court has time to review our appeal? The turbine
has withstood many severe storms as I built it to withstand 140 mph destructive wind speed.
I have been able to find justice at the appeals court level before, and I am hoping to do so again. I am
asking the Minnesota Court of Appeals to please expedite a review of our motion for a stay as I am
quite confident that they will apply the law properly and preserve my liberty, as precious as it is.
If this story stirs the patriotic, green minded and / or common sense part of you, please go to
www.ci.orono.mn.us for contact information for Orono elected officials and city staff to voice your
opinions. Share this with friends and family who are like minded as well.
If I do need to sit in a jail cell to make a point of how wrongly I have been treated, so be it. This is too
important for Minnesota and our nation. I can't imagine our founding fathers reaction to a private
citizen's loss of liberties simply for bringing the most modern green energy technology to his home, his
Please help the Nygards by taking a few minutes of your time to help them in their struggle. They ask
for you to spread the word as far as you can and to take the time to contact the individuals listed below.
Send them emails, call them on the phone and let them all know how wrong they are and that we need
to look to the future instead of living in the past!!!
Thank goodness AEP is looking out for me.