TOWN OF TURTLE For just the third time in the 21st century, the Town of Turtle Wednesday swore in a new board chair.
Retired teacher Donna Redner ousted long-time chairman Roger Anclam in a recall election sparked over unrest regarding the handling of the selling of the Lathers Road bridge and dealings with developers over a possible hyperscale datacenter in the township.
Redner took the oath of office before a public hearing was held to consider a 12-month data center moratorium ordinance. That ordinance would preclude any developments larger than 10,000 square feet from moving forward while the town reviews its zoning codes and ordinances.
The proposed data center by a California developer Panattoni Development was to be 2.1 million square feet, cost more than $1 billion and stretch into the Towns of Beloit and Turtle. The Town of Beloit on Monday held a public hearing on a similar moratorium ordinance and then its board voted 3-0 to approve it as written.
Redner, who moved to the Town of Turtle in 2018, and the Turtle board handled it differently. Redner said she wanted to draw on her educational background and stood in front of the crowd going through its ordinance section by section asking for crowd feedback so the board could create a final ordinance to be voted on at a future meeting. The public hearing took up nearly an hour and then the board held its monthly meeting.
The Town of Turtle board chairperson job pays $3,800 annually. Only four people have held the job in the last 29 years. Jim Brandenburg was board chairman from 1997 to 2007. He was then defeated by Dan DeLong, who served one term and did not run for re-election after being diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
Anclam, a retired General Motors worker, ran and defeated Brandenburg in 2009. Anclam then ran unopposed eight times until the recall election held on Oct. 6.