This Community Rights action update was written and posted by Curt Hubatch, Community Rights US Media Team Member. He is also the founding member of the Washburn County Community Rights Alliance (WCCRA).

Five members of the Washburn County Community Rights Alliance (WCCRA) attended the November town meeting at the Chicog Town Hall the evening of November 13th. One of the members of the WCCRA lives in the township. Back in April of 2019, with the help and support of the WCCRA, the Chicog Town citizen introduced the first version of our Right to a Healthy Climate Ordinance. Since then the WCCRA has hosted a workshop with Community Rights US founder and director Paul Cienfuegos at the Chicog Town Hall, and have made various outreach efforts to educate citizens and locally elected officials of the town and surrounding area about the growing Community Rights and Rights of Nature movements in the United States.

During the meeting the town board unanimously voted to include a brief survey and summary of the proposed Right to a Healthy Climate ordinance in the property tax bills they send out to all landowners (roughly 800) in the township. This effort was spearheaded by the Town Chairman to get a better feel of where the citizens in the township stand on the controversial ordinance that challenges the legal doctrines that give big corporations more governing authority than most of the governing bodies in the United States.

Back in April of 2019 the WCCRA dug deep into their pockets and mailed out their own private survey to 150 township residents. 44 of them were returned averaging out to a 30% response. 36 out of the 44 were in favor of the ordinance; 1 was undecided; 1 other person had no opinion. In the end 82% of those that responded were in favor of the ordinance.

The WCCRA will have another update for the public when all of the landowners’ property tax payments have been submitted to the Secretary of the Town of Chicog. Look for this update sometime at the beginning of February.