Alderwomen Laurel Hauser and Barb Allmann attempted to get the common council to table a vote for bids to dismantle the granary, when that motion failed both women walked out of the meeting.

People in attendance applauded the women and it left the council with a lack of quorum ending the meeting so a vote on the granary bids couldn’t happen.

“I had to leave because I could not vote on this and get the city in more legal trouble,” said Laurel Hauser.

It also marks the fourth time the women on the council have created a quorum, there were three special meetings last week, Local 5 did learn that Kelly Catarozoli is out of the country, Hauser said she couldn’t make last weeks meetings and we didn’t get a chance to speak with Allmann, however there actions were met with support from people who want to save the granary.

“The three ladies are standing up in defiance,” said Chris Kellems. “It is quite clear that their actions speak louder then their words.”

Alderman David Ward said that a majority of people in his district would like to see the granary come down, he said the lack of quorum has also prevented the city from conducting business.

“I think it is regrettable,” said Ward. “It prevented the council from dealing with a very important road issue that we have coming up and a possible referendum.”

People who attended the meeting were disappointed to learn that there was no public comment portion of the meeting for the first time and they compared the city government to a dictatorship.

The Sturgeon Bay Historical Society has offered the city plans for the future of the granary after receiving an anonymous $1.25 million dollar donation, the SBHS told the city they would pay to fix the granary or pay to demolish it if that was determined necessary after an engineering study.

“We have asked numerous times to have that on the agenda,” said Hauser. “We haven’t even been able to have a discussion about it and what different options we have.”

We requested an interview with Mayor Thad Birmingham, however he had no comment.

The fire chief ordered the granary razed back in October citing public safety reasons, he gave the city 30 days to take it down.