[media-credit name=’JEFF SCHORFHEIDE/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]TOWN OF DUNN — The proposed site for a national disease research center 15 miles south of the University of Wisconsin campus received fierce opposition from the Dane County Board of Supervisors Thursday night.

The board voted 19-7 in favor of a resolution that formally opposes the UW-proposed site in the Town of Dunn for a National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility. The land is currently owned and operated by UW for other research facilities.

For several hours, the board debated postponing the nonbinding resolution until the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announces its narrowed list of potential sites for the 520,000-square foot facility.

"If there is a resolution, it may be enough to knock us off the list," Irwin Goldman, a UW horticulture professor, told the board. "Right now, the Department of Homeland Security is looking for any reason to take a site off the list."

The postponement failed by one vote, 14-13, but several board members cited different reasons for choosing immediate action on the resolution.

"I don't see us having a lot of authority down the road in making the selection of a different location," Dane County Supervisor Patrick Miles, District 34, said. "If this property is inappropriate, as I think it is, it should be off the list."

Not one member of the county board voiced support for the Dunn site chosen by UW administrators. Goldman defended the site, but without Chancellor John Wiley or another administrator present, he was unable to field some specific questions about the site's choice.

Board members called the site "the absolute worst location possible in the country" since it has been adamantly opposed by local residents, several of whom testified in favor of the resolution Thursday.

Currently farmland, the Dunn site is the university's only proposed site for the DHS research facility, competing with 17 other national bids. University officials have said Dunn's proximity to airports, the campus and the interstate could make it a competitive location.

Renee Lauber, land use manager for Dunn, staunchly opposed the university's choice, saying it would conflict with the town's land use plan.

"We are very clear on the issues with the property," Lauber said. "Letting the university come in and determine what land to use is urban sprawl."