More than 12 years after Jay Nygard first tussled with the city of Orono over his efforts to install a small backyard wind turbine, Nygard is suing the city again, this time in federal court.
For Nygard, a former City Council member, the dispute has taken on global significance — he said he feels this is about stopping climate change, and making sure no one who wants to contribute to that effort is blocked by their city. At the same time, it's a highly personal small-town squabble over property rights.
"All I've ever wanted to do is install a turbine at my house," said Nygard, who owns an alternative energy business, "so I can prove to people it worked and I could sell it to them."
Minnesota courts first dealt with Nygard's wind turbine in the early 2010s. Nygard was at one point jailed for five days for civil contempt after he was ordered to rip out the turbine and didn't. The state appeals court ruled in his favor but returned the issue to a lower court for further consideration — where a judge ordered him to remove the turbine. In the meantime, Orono banned wind energy conversion systems in parts of the city, Nygard got involved in city politics and the temperature at council meetings kept rising.
In the federal lawsuit, Nygard is retreading the environmental and property-rights issues from his state suits, and has added claims of defamation, conspiracy and violations of his constitutional rights under the First, Fourth and Fourteenth amendments.
He alleges the city's code enforcement actions over the last 12 years, including his arrest, constituted a pattern of harassment designed to kneecap his business and drive him out of town.
The city of Orono and the other named defendants, including Mayor Dennis Walsh, have not yet been served with the lawsuit, Nygard said, which he filed in U.S. District Court on March 3.
City Administrator Adam Edwards declined comment Monday.
