Public to get say on manure biodigester near Greenleaf

Posted at 3:40 p.m. on August 7, 2019

The Brillion News

GREENLEAF – The Town of Wrightstown has scheduled a public hearing on Wednesday, September 4, at 7 p.m., for the public to have their say on plans for a $60 million manure processing plant on Mill Road, west of old 57 Road.

The developer, BC Organics, originally wanted the plant, which would produce commercially marketable biogas from liquid cattle manure, to go a mile south in the Town of Holland, at the corner of Lamers-Clancy Road and Old 57 Road.

The Holland Town Board killed that plan with a 2-1 vote to deny the necessary conditional use permit. BC Organics then applied to build the same plant on Mill Road (Brown County IL), across from the entrance to a new landfill that Brown County plans to open in 2021.

That site is in the Town of Wrightstown.

The Town of Wrightstown’s Plan Commission met to discuss the application on Monday of this week, and will hold another meeting on the proposed plant on Wednesday, August 21.

If the plant is built and begins operations, it will receive a $15 million grant from the state Public Service Commission, with the money coming from the Focus on Energy program.

In a sepearte matter, BC Organics is suing the Townof Holland, the town board, and the town plan commission over the denial of the conditional use permit. The suit is assigned to Brown County Circuit Court Judge Tammu Jo Hock. BC Organics is represented by atorney John E. Thiel of Appleton. The town is represented by attorneys James R. Sickel and Remzy D. Bitar. The suit was served on Town Clerk William Clancy on June 25. On July 12, the town’s attorneys answered the complaint with affirmative defenses to it.