The one decision made during a blockbuster, nearly 6-hour meeting held solely to interpret a sentence in the Elmwood Township Zoning Ordinance would become mute if opponents of a proposed electrical substation have their way in court.

Gaylord attorney Jim Pagel said this week that he plans to appeal to 13th Circuit Court a 3-2 ruling allowing the substation made by the Elmwood Township Zoning Board of Appeals last Wednesday night — actually, early Thursday morning — and file a separate lawsuit seeking to foil Wolverine Power Cooperative’s plan.

Pagel said his strategy is to delay construction while he has a chance to depose officials with Wolverine Power Cooperative and other electrical providers in a suit he believes will take months, or even years, to work its way through the court system. “I’ll be able to take this lawsuit and depose (Wolverine officials) for six hours,” he said.

In the meantime, though, Pagel has unleashed a variety of theories he readily agrees have not been proven, including that Wolverine is building the substation as part of an effort to supply power to Canada, and to connect to a “coal burning plant” proposed by Traverse City Light & Power along West Grand Traverse Bay. Pagel dismisses as untrue Wolverine’s argument that much of the information he seeks to prove his theories cannot be released because of Homeland Security rules.

Wolverine executive director Craig Borr bristles at both theories. Wolverine did sign an agreement with a Canadian company several years ago to sell and buy power, but never did business with Ontario Power Generation, he said. The agreement has since expired.

TCL&P officials long ago rebuked rumors and a news story about an energy plant along the bay.

“We can’t impress enough how important this facility is,” said Borr in an interview after the marathon meeting. “We felt we provided a very compelling case as to the need for the substation . . . but certainly the vote was very close.”

Wolverine’s top engineer, Danny Janway, told ZBA members that the substation location resulted from a joint planning effort by utilities seeking to provide electricity to growing Leelanau County and Traverse City. Other officials with Wolverine or associated with the project warned during the meeting of rolling brownouts in Leelanau County and extended power outages without the substation.

Still, the ZBA vote almost never occurred. At 12:30 a.m. last Thursday, Elmwood Zoning Board of Appeals chair Gary R. Bergstrom sought to again delay a decision to give Lisa and Mason Argue time to hire a specialist to debunk Wolverine’s reasoning for the substation. The Masons, who are represented by Pagel, are developing a subdivision named “Bahia Vista” off M-72 at the top of Morgan Hill next to the substation site. The ZBA first took up the subject on Dec. 19, but delayed a decision to give opponents time to mount their case.

“I am troubled by the fact that we seem to be relying … on the applicant solely to determine there is a reliability problem,” said Bergstrom. “I would like to have an independent engineer determine if there is this need for the transmission substation to provide ‘adequate service’… It’s important to me that this board makes the right decision, to make a fully informed decision.”

He was joined by ZBA member Jeff Aprill, who is also chair of the Planning Commission, in opposing the substation. Aprill in his role with the Planning Commission is behind a zoning amendment that would make construction of similar substations very difficult — if not impossible — to occur in Elmwood.

But the three other ZBA members wanted to vote that night — or early morning, as it was. They had remained mostly quiet until after Bergstrom and Aprill had pressed their cases.

Said ZBA member Jon Sutton, who sought to make a decision before his resignation became effective March 1, “It’s pretty hard to argue it’s not an essential service.”

“These (Wolverine and Cherryland Electric Cooperative) people, their whole life depends on electricity,” said Jim O’Rourke, who is also a trustee on the Elmwood Township Board. “I don’t think they have any ax to grind.”

O’Rouke, Sutton and John Riegling voted to determine that the substation would fall within an “essential services” section in the Zoning Ordinance, allowing it to be placed in any zoning district.

Bergstrom early in the meeting stressed that essential services are only permitted if they are determined to be “reasonably necessary for the furnishing of adequate service by the public utility,” or “for the public health or safety or general welfare.”

Believing the substation is “reasonably necessary for … adequate service” proved difficult for Bergstrom and Aprill.

O’Rourke had just retired from the county Sheriff’s Department, leading Aprill to make an analogy designed to show that Wolverine officials could not be trusted. “You know if you pull a guy over and you ask if he’s drunk, he says, ‘I haven’t been drinking,’” said April.

But the ZBA decision would become just a prelude in the effort to stop the substation under Pagel’s plan. He said he is also representing Josephine Bargeil, who resides near the site, and hopes to gather the support of others opposing the substation.

Pagel said he has a long list of arguments to make in his lawsuit. At various times during the meeting he cited New Jersey law and a California study warning of health risks associated with substations. He said Wolverine officials have misled the public about the need to locate the station in Elmwood, and produced an affidavit from the owners of land in Garfield where permission was originally sought to build the substation as proof.

The attorney in declaring after the meeting that he intended to file a lawsuit added that the Masons stood to lose “$300,000 to $400,000” through their development should the substation be allowed.

Pagel also criticized the role of Elmwood trustee Terry Lautner in offering to sell 8.7 acres to Wolverine for the substation.

Borr, on the other hand, lamented that a thick packet of reports and other verifying documents drew little attention from the ZBA. In particular, he pointed to a letter from the Midwest Independent System Operator (MISO), which he described as the “regional planner and traffic cop” assigned by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The letter stated the project is needed and represented efficient cooperation between Wolverine and other area electrical providers such as Cherryland Electric Cooperative, TCL&P and Consumers Energy, Borr said.

“One of the things that disappointed us is that the independent nature of MISO did not come out,” he said.