The application was unusual because until recently there was a CAFO operating at the site. In 1976 Tip Top Pigs built a confined feeding operation on this 20 acre site. In 2008 the operation was sold. The new owners did not have the funds necessary for an outright purchase so they arranged a mortgage held by Tip Top Pigs. The inference from the presenter was that the new owners did not run the facility well. Almost immediately they could not make the mortgage payments. There followed a series of declarations of bankruptcy and starts and stops in the raising of pigs. The buildings were neglected and began to fall apart. In 2017 the buildings were razed, leaving only the foundations and apparently the bankruptcy was finalized. The land should have reverted to the mortgage holder, Tip Top Pigs, but they refused to take the property back because of environmental concerns. There are two large lagoons that were used for manure containment that may leak and the site is a mess.
There is a group that would like to restart the operation. To do so, they need to comply with the IDEM permit that the facility had and which will expire in early 2020. To get the permit extended, they need to have all local approvals made and the title transferred to them. The IDEM permit will allow them to rebuild using the same specifications that the former facility had--the buildings must have the same locations and same sizes. Their argument was that they had the only viable plan to clean up the site.
Any CAFO needs a special exception from the BZA and it was granted. The variance was for setbacks to other properties and because the adjoining property owners all had given their consent, the variance was also granted. However, during the meeting the question was raised if the nearest house was in the buffer zone and if this house is too close, another variance may be needed.
The same presentation was made to the Plan Commission. The land had never been zoned A3, and that may have been an oversight when the current zoning classification was adopted. However, even if it had been zoned A3, the zoning would have reverted to A1 six months after the site was no longer capable of raising hogs. The Plan Commission approved a recommendation to the Commissioners to rezone to A3.
The Plan Commission had one other cause, a rezone request from A1 to A4 for a parcel in the very northern part of the County. A gentleman purchased land with a Quonset hut that he would like to use as an event venue. It would be used seasonally from April to October. Two neighbors spoke, one for and one against. The one opposing said that he did not want loud parties next door and the possibility of drunken patrons roaming over his property. The one supporting said that the applicant was a good man trying to do something positive for the community and deserved support. The rezone was granted. Both the BZA and Plan Commission have some policies and procedures that they want to change but decided given the length of the nights meetings that they can deal with them at later meetings.
On Tuesday night the County Council met and approved several additional appropriations and transfers. Then they began their yearly budget hearings, which continue through the day on Wednesday and finish on the 27th. Budget hearings are intensely boring because the audience members do not have the pages of numbers that are being discussed and hence can only follow bits of the discussion.
The Coroner and auditor spoke first and then the Sheriff Williamson gave his presentation. He would like to change the way his people are paid. Currently a deputy with two years of experience is paid the same as a deputy with 15 years of experience. He would like to have a pay scale based on percentages of his salary (which is set by law at 60% of the prosecuting attorney's salary which is set by the State) so that pay increases as experience increases. His department has a lot of turnover and because training and equipping new deputies is very expensive, that turnover is a serious problem. His proposal would lower salaries for those starting out but would raise salaries for those who stay with the department. Currently 18 of the 24 deputies have been with the department for less than 10 years. He proposed a similar pay scale for other employees in his department (he has about 70 employees) but did not think that it would have a large effect on turnover because jail jobs and dispatchers frequently see their jobs as stepping stones to better jobs later. None of the 20 jail staff have been on the job for more than ten years.
The budget hearings for the night were finished but the meeting was not. Trane gave a presentation to the Council similar to that given to the Commissioners earlier this month. Trane recently completed work on the Community Corrections Center and has been monitoring the jail for about a year. They believe that the jail needs addition insulation and sealing—it has a lot of air infiltration. The heating and cooling needs some tweaking and the control system needs to be redone so that the jail personnel are in control of the building. The jail uses very little natural gas, even for heating, so is a heavy user of electricity. They think it is an ideal candidate for adding solar generation and a small solar field is part of their proposal. They said that with the addition of the proposed solar array, the utility cost of the jail over the next 25 years could be cut by two thirds. The Council moved to support the Commissioner's initiative to seek financing.
The final item of the night (the meeting lasted until about 9:45) was a discussion of a scorecard for tax abatements. The idea is that the County should make known what it is looking for in granting abatements, and if a company scores high on the score card, it should be able to expect that it will get an abatement. The score card would prioritize investment over job creation (Jasper County needs assessed value and has a very low unemployment rate) and would reward proposals with higher wages. In addition, a company that gets a tax abatement would not be able to appeal the assessment without losing the abatement. The consensus of the Council was that that work on the proposal should continue.
The Council then recessed until Wednesday morning.
I do not have much in the way of pictures for today. Below is Jasper, who greets people who attend meetings at the Court House.
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