General Discussion

https://www.minocquabrewingcompany.com/blogs/news/dumpster-koozies-freedomsters-rainbow-jumpsuits-and-the-beastie-boys



Hi Folks,

Last week was one for the ages at the Minocqua Brewing Company, but before I tell the story, I want to update you on our “phase 0” project to come up with the strategy on how to legally overturn the private school voucher system in Wisconsin that is bleeding our public schools dry. Our legal team should be done with their analysis and I should be able to tell you what we’re going to do by mid-August, and since the balance of Wisconsin’s Supreme Court won’t officially lean progressive until August, we’re making great time in getting our ducks lined up in a row to file a thoroughly vetted lawsuit by September/Early October.

Now for the wild and amusing story that involves a “Dumpster Koozie,” a “Freedomster,” a song by the Beastie Boys, and an ill-fitting rainbow jumpsuit.We found out last weekend that the Oneida County zoning committee scheduled a hearing to amend, suspend, or revoke our permit to do business. It was a wildly heavy-handed and arguably illegal escalation of our three-year-old fight to create an outdoor space for our customers to drink beer.

In this last chapter, they accused us of two violations—"outdoor beer sales” and “not fencing in our dumpster.” Those violations were apparently worthy of shuttering our business, which is arguably one the most popular establishments in Minocqua. This saga quickly became humorous because within a few hours, we crowdsourced many pictures of other bars doing absolutely nothing to keep their customers within any sort of organized drinking area, and over 10 examples of other businesses not enclosing their dumpsters. We even found a picture of an unenclosed dumpster at the Oneida County courthouse, where the County Zoning committee meets!



This was clearly a case of “selective enforcement,” which is a legal term that if proven, can be used to win lawsuits against government harassment. But we REALLY don’t want to spend the $200-$400K that it will cost us to sue our county in federal court over the course of the next several years just to serve beer outside, and I’d much rather spend my time raising money to help Wisconsin rid itself of our parasitic private school voucher program, so we figured we’d try some good old-fashioned grass-roots organizing to show our County Board zoning committee how ridiculous they were acting.

Here's a timeline of what happened last week:.....................

snip