Posted on 10/05/2015 10:36:03 AM PDT by READINABLUESTATE
Orono, MN – For more than a year, we have been following the story of a Minnesota man, Jay Nygard, who is routinely risking jail time because he refuses to remove a wind turbine from his property. Nygard has been in and out of court over the years, and despite a short-lived victory in October, he was recently back in front of a judge facing a contempt of court charge for refusing a court order to remove the turbines from his property.
He did eventually remove the turbines, leaving only the cement bases because removing them would cause structural damage to their house. This was not good enough for the local government, who ignored the advice of three different engineers and demanded that they remove the bases, despite the risk of damaging the home.
OK missed that.
“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,”
“To me, it just looks like an oversized bird feeder.”
It appears to be a savonius type. I built one once out of oil drums. It Was noisy.
“Need more facts on that one. What were the weather conditions? What was he burning? “
Weather was damp. But the pit had been in use for years under other tenants. They had just moved in. But household trash. It is against the law to burn Publix bags, which is what he had among other things. But the neighbor who was upset with their barking dog called the EPA. The EPA put out the fire and sifted all the way to the bottom. They found evidence of other plastic.
The point is, the criminal charge alone would affect future employment. But the fines took away his driver’s license and thus, his job and thus his ability to pay rent, electric and food. In a stroke his ability to survive and his family where affected for life. Should any agency have that ability? And, why? So we can have even more government employees sucking at the taxpayer’s teat.
Ultimately, all of this took a family that was making it on their own and made them wards of the state.
There’s probably minutes of city council meetings and texts of orders available. I wouldn’t trust this article’s exact version of events.
Living in a high-density area with increasing property values on a large lake next to a large metro area has its drawbacks. Years ago, I lived on Harrison’s Bay in Mound, and there were plenty of cranky neighbors then.
Plus this is Minnesota, the state where nothing is allowed.
Didn’t Al Gore invent wind? or was that hot air?
“Made her take a morning off to wait for a judge to say, “fine 100 dollars.””
There should be a double jeopardy law. In Sarasota you could be fined by the local government for having green grass and the homeowner’s association for not having green grass. It was insane.
One man spent a fortune xeriscaping. Because the resulting lawsuit with the homeowner’s association made the news I drove by to look at it. It was awesome; artistic. The several trees had a drip feed but the rest was colored gravel, rocks and hardy beds of stuff that lived with little water. I moved before I heard how the lawsuit came out. But, I’ll wager he had to pay to remove the rocks and replace it with lawn; which he could not legally water at the time.
As a professional who has years of construction arbitration and mediation experience, I will agree your suggestion sometimes leads to resolution.
Here, however, it appears other neighbors were damaged as well. Such a public nuisance with additional players does not always lend itself to a resolution which allows the nuisance to continue.
Nonetheless, I addressed only one of the issues: the blatant violation of the zoning statute. That issue could have arisen without neighbor input simply with an inspector that happened to drive by the house.
The owner appears to have committed two offenses, he not only violated zoning restrictions established for the benefit of the community, but also failed to get a building permit.
Not a good way to launch a request of local authorities for a zoning variance. Even worse, if he thumbed his nose at the judge by refusing to remove the structure from the sideset, he shouldn't be surprised to find himself sitting in the slammer.
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.
And, another thought is, what should a go-to-prison offense be? Should any agency, no matter how obscure, be allowed so send somebody to prison by simply writing a regulation? Regulations are not laws. There are thousands upon thousands of pages of regulations, many of them poorly written. How can we all be responsible for knowing the contents of regulations it would take several lifetimes to even read?
Did the Founders intend for local agencies to have the power to destroy a citizen’s entire life? For burning trash? Or catching the wrong kind or size of fish out of season?
I watched what I thought was a gopher tortoise lay eggs in my driveway. So they wouldn’t be destroyed I called a friend who has a federal permit to move wildlife. He told me how to handle them and to call the local wildlife museum. After handling them as instructed I called the state museum. The curator told me; “You don’t have a gopher tortoise. Do you know how I know? If you did and you touched the eggs, even to stop their destruction, I would have to report you and you would face a year in jail and a ten thousand dollar fine.” I said, “what do I do with these eggs.” He said, “make an omelet.”
I’m looking for a free country. Anybody know of one?
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.
Thanks. I can see the house with the “bird feeder” (aka wind turbine). Still don’t see what the controversy is unless there is a noise issue. It’s definitely not an eyesore.
For xeriscape, I have to submit a plan to the architecture board for review. Then I need to get permits.
I’m actually thinking of dropping a bunch of riverstone down and go from there. Since I moved to Texas, my love of grass has diminished greatly.
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!!!
Neighbors complained about strobing effects.
“For xeriscape, I have to submit a plan to the architecture board for review. Then I need to get permits.
I’m actually thinking of dropping a bunch of riverstone down and go from there. Since I moved to Texas, my love of grass has diminished greatly.
“
When I lived in a neighborhood, I followed all the rules and submitted all the documents and got the approvals. The guy in charge waited for a year while I slaved away on my garage. He checked in regularly. When I told him I was done, I got served with a lawsuit to tear it all down. It was a power and control issue and he was evil down to the bone. (They lied and altered documents, which I proved.) After two lawsuits I’d bankrupted the association. The judge made them all sign a contract that neither they or their family members would serve on the board for five years.
But I still had to move as they, the former board, made life hell. I moved forty miles away, deep into the words. I have no grass, just forest. Couldn’t be happier.
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