Madison County: Special Use Permit Up Tuesday
Justin Schneider has a big article up on the Herald Bulletin on the hog CAFO coming before the Madison County BZA at 9:00 A.M this Tuesday for a special use permit. The farmer, Rick Jarrett, started with plans for an 8,000 hog operation, but scaled it back to 4,000 in response to critics:
Tom Austin, superintendent of Elwood Community Schools expressed his concerns that an expanded CAFO would mean a further devaluation of the tax base which has already given Elwood the highest school tax rate in the county.
“I’m not an expert on farming, but I do know a lot about school finance,” Austin said. “In my ongoing stewardship of the finances of our school corporation, I feel this operation will only lead to the further devaluation of our school tax base.
Link.
The supporters on this operation, including consultant, Kari Keller-Steele, focused on the positives:
“The thing that’s hardest to combat is the bad image of what can happen,” Keller-Steele said. “Most of the things I heard were, ‘What if this happens, what if that happens? What if the creek is contaminated?’ Nobody can predict the future. Mr. Jarrett runs a top-quality operation right now. In his methods of application he has done all the right things.”
