CAFO set in county

The Jay County Commissioners reviewed a notice from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management alerting them that a Coldwater, Ohio, operator is planning to build a confined feeding operation housing more than 2 million laying hens in Wabash Township.
The commissioners reviewed the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit application notice sent by IDEM for Hoosier Pride Farms operated by Keith Boeckman, Coldwater.
The planned CAFO at Ind. 67 and county road 850 East just west of State Line Road, would include six hen houses holding up to 2,013,984 birds, a manure storage building and egg-wash discharge lagoon.
Jay County Soil and Water Conservation District educator Bettie Jacobs said she hasn’t heard anything yet from Boeckman, who would have to file a Rule 5 soil erosion plan with the soil and water district before starting construction.
The commissioners reviewed a sketch of the plotted facilities and commissioner Jim Zimmerman, who also serves as president of the Jay County Planning Commission, said, at a glance, that it looked like the operation met the county’s requirements.
“The state will issue the permit if it meets all the state requirements,” Zimmerman said of the IDEM permit.
“They do not check county requirements.”
Zimmerman said, however, that he assumed for a project of this size that the designer likely would have checked the county’s requirements before starting the permitting process.
The Jay/Portland Building and Planning Department will also need to issue a building permit for the CAFO.
In other business this morning, the commissioners:
•Signed an ordinance raising some fees at the Jay County Health Department.
The commissioners reviewed the fees, which included permit fees and administration fees for immunizations, at last week’s meeting.
•Agreed to ask the Jay County Sheriff’s Office to forgive a parking ticket that was issued to a courthouse employee who drove a different vehicle without a parking pass.
Jay County Auditor Nancy Culy said she will issue a memo reminding employees of the parking policy and informing them that only one ticket per permit-holder will be forgiven.[[In-content Ad]]