Action on study would be good first step (05/13/06)

Reasonableness is a standard that’s long been used to measure law and public policy.

Are the rules and regulations reasonable?

Do they balance competing concerns?

We think a set of proposals put together in 2004 and 2005 by a county study committee looking at the growth of confined feeding operations locally meets that standard.

Unfortunately, for reasons that still aren’t quite clear, the study committee’s recommendations were never adopted by the Jay County Commissioners.

The committee, which had the active involvement of Jay County Health Officer Dr. Stephen Myron and Jim Zimmerman, president of the Jay County Planning Commission, didn’t propose anything radical or intrusive. Many of those involved in putting the recommendations together — including Zimmerman — were experienced CFO farmers.

The emphasis was on making sure property owners who would be affected by a confined feeding operation received adequate notification. Instead of just adjoining property, the recommendations extended notification to a larger radius.

It wouldn’t have provided much in the way of preventing a confined feeding operation, but at least it would have kept people from being blind-sided and would have reduced the sense of powerlessness than CFO neighbors have complained about.

Regulations by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management would still be the controlling factor.

This is not a pro-farmer/anti-farmer issue. This is not a pro-development/anti-development issue. This is not a good guy/bad guy issue.

It’s far more complicated than that.

There are competing concerns and interests: Property rights, public health, and the environment to name but a few.

The goal ought to be balancing those competing interests to make sure everyone is treated fairly.

It’s one of those situations where reasonableness ought to be the goal.

Adoption of the study committee’s recommendations would be a long-overdue step in the right direction. — J.R.[[In-content Ad]]