Egg farm hot topic at county meeting

TIFFIN — The Seneca County Board of Commissioners heard from several residents with complaints about a proposed chicken farm before also hearing from the owner and operator of the farm John Bolte at the board's regular meeting Thursday. Carl Radman, whose property runs against Bolte's, asked the commissioners to consider the impact on the community. "The title (egg farm) is misleading," Radman said. "It's really a manufacturing process … This is a business, not a farm. It's going to impact the Tiffin community." Radman later said he was particularly concerned for how the farm will impact the families living closest to it. "I don't have a problem with wealthy families making wealthy profits, but not at the expense of a community," he said. Kris Kurtz, who lives on CR 90, said he was concerned with the potential water contamination of the farm. "I got neighbors saying, 'I hope that doesn't become a landfill situation,'" Kurtz said. "I agree with them there." Rachel Hemminger, who also lives on CR 90, asked the commissioners to consider what large trucks carrying manure and eggs would do to the nearby roadways and if they were aware the trucks would travel through the city of Tiffin. "I just want to address you guys about the traffic and local infrastructure," she said, saying she had done some calculations and the proposed number of trucks and gallons of manure would be more than what had been reported. Bolte, who was also in attendance, denied Hemminger's claim that the trucks would be traveling through town and would instead be using county roads. Bolte read from a statement at the meeting, saying he had the opportunity to "take a leap of faith and get involved in animal agriculture" after looking for ways to diversify the revenue of his pre-existing crop farm. "We believed that by building the chicken barn, we would be able to fulfill an existing need for eggs and would be able to provide fertilizer to our farm through the chicken manure, which would eliminate our use of industrially-produced chemical fertilizer and better protect our soil health for the future," Bolte said. Bolte also said the chicken farm would be certified free-range organic and he had been working with the Ohio EPA to "ensure the safety of the ground water … as well as managing surface runoff." Bolte said many other farms had millions of chickens per barn, but his would not be as large. He also offered tours of the facility to anyone wanting to view it after the building had been completed. In other news Tiffin Mayor Lee Wilkinson informed the board that the city was still currently working on replacing some city water piping and had run into issues on Perry Street, which would extend the project's date of completion. He also said some traffic signals would be replaced in the next week, which may temporarily interfere with traffic. The board then held ditch hearings with Sandusky, Wood and Wyandot counties. Also at the meeting the board approved the following supplemental appropriations: • $65,988.00 from the general fund for contract services. • $1,136.00 from the general fund for travel and expenses. • $1,000.00 from the juvenile court special projects fund for equipment. • $4,000 from the juvenile court special projects fund for supplies. • $8,100.00 from the Ohio peace officer training fund for training. • $65,000.00 from the justice center operating fund for contract services. • $2,500.00 from the enterprise zone fund for contract services. The board later passed the following resolutions: • Authorizing fund transfer be made to the justice center operating fund. • Authorizing fund transfers be made to the public assistance fund. • Authorizing Loren Branski, director of job and family services, to act as the commissioners designee for approving any inter-county adjustments of allocated funds. The next Seneca County Board of Commissioners meeting is scheduled for 2 p.m. Tuesday July 29 at 111 Madison St., in Tiffin.