Facebook
Twitter
RSS![[Masthead]](http://www.marshallnews.com/images/nameplate.png)
RSS
Print
Email link
Respond to editor
Post comment
The committee was formed in response to Arrow Rock resident Dennis Gessling's plan to build a concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) near Arrow Rock. Gessling plans to raise about 4,800 pigs in two new buildings to be located about two miles west of the village of Arrow Rock.
CPSPHS members believe that the odor and the environmental effects of the operation could have an adverse affect on tourism, which is the life-blood of the historic village.
CPSPHS spokesman Whitney Kerr said he and others on the committee had learned a lot about the issue of CAFOs which, Kerr said, are not only a problem in Arrow Rock but across the country.
One of the things learned, Kerr said, was that there are about 20 counties in Missouri who had faced similar problems with CAFOs and had done something about them.
"Last time we were here," Kerr said, "we left with the impression that there wasn't anything the county could do about this problem."
Kerr said that in other counties, the commissions had passed health ordinances in order to stop the construction of CAFOs and he was asking the Saline County Commission to do the same.
"We respectfully request that you look at some way to regulate this," Kerr said, adding, "Right here in Saline County we have a treasure and sometimes we take it for granted and I think we need to protect it."
Saline County Southern District Commissioner Dick Hassler, questioned the ability of the commission to enforce such an ordinance.
"If we drew up an ordinance and someone didn't obey, how would we enforce it?" Hassler said. "We don't have the authority to enforce it."
Kerr replied that some counties use their health board to enforce the ordinances.
Hassler said that the health board was a separate entity in Saline County and the commission had no authority to make them be the body responsible for enforcement of such an ordinance.
Saline County Presiding Commissioner Becky Plattner asked the committee if they thought planning and zoning was an avenue that could be taken.
Mark Bellwood, who is not a committee member but appeared in support of CPSPHS, said that he believed that planning and zoning could be an option but, he said, agriculture is generally exempted from planning and zoning.
"They can do what they want," Bellwood said.
What was more of an issue, Bellwood said, was agriculture in general.
"Is agriculture really that good for us?" Bellwood said. "I think we are looking at a case now where agriculture is trying to bully the counties."
To sum up his view of planning and zoning, Bellwood said that he thought that it was a good idea but was "fatally flawed" in that it exempted agriculture.
Plattner then addressed Kerr.
"You've asked me to protect you, how do I protect me?" Plattner said.
"As a farmer?" Kerr asked.
"As a farmer," Plattner replied.
Kerr said that he hoped that the commission would look at what other counties have done on this issue so that they could see what they could do.
In the end, Kerr said that this group does not wish to completely do away with CAFOs, adding that while he respects the role of agriculture in the community and he values individual property rights, CAFOs are a different issue.
"They are being described as agriculture," Kerr said of CAFOs, "but the nature of it has become a heavy industrial type of use."
Kerr said that he hoped a compromise that would benefit all parties involved would eventually be reached.
"There is a reasonable middle ground," Kerr said.
The committee then asked for the support of the commission in their plans to ask Missouri Department of Natural Resources Director Doyle Childers to come to Marshall for a public forum on the issue.
Plattner said the commission would support the forum and added that the Saline County Courthouse could possibly by used for the forum, which would be open to the public.
Contact Zach Sims at