Mining will stay on the Superior Days agenda as citizen lobbyists arrive from the far north in Madison Tuesday. Mike Simonson reports that this usually unified front is cracking.

More than 20 local officials from Ashland and Bayfield Counties have sent a letter to Superior Days mining committee people asking that they withdraw mining as an issue this week.

Ashland City Councilor Kelly Westlund says while the Superior Days issue isn’t hardcore pro-mining, she says it asks that the Republican-controlled legislature agree on a bill.

“That’s still not good enough. We don’t want expeditious legislation. We’d rather have good legislation. And compromise between both branches is still a party-line vote.”

Westlund says Superior Days is still the “gold-standard” of citizen lobbying, and she doesn’t want that to change with boycotts or protests. But she says the fact is, there isn’t consensus.

Superior Mayor Bruce Hagen disagrees. He thinks neglecting a discussion about mining would be irresponsible. But he hopes there isn’t a revolt.

“To make us look like we don’t know what we’re talking about, or we’re not unified or northern Wisconsin is divided. So we kindly ask everybody to leave their personal viewpoints off the table, out of the discussions.”

So Hagen says the mining issue will remain on the Superior Days agenda.

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