(Milford)– Local control over the placement of confined animal feeding operations was a hot topic among state candidates at a forum Sunday evening in Milford.
State Representative Mike May, who’s running unopposed for re-election, was asked point-blank if he favors local control. May didn’t give a direct answer, saying he passionately feels about clean air, clean water, and a vibrant economy and “how we fit all that together”. May says if local control would absolutely guarantee all three of those things, “you got it”. But he wants to see if there’s “a better way of making those three things happen…that’s what I’m hoping for”.
State Senator David Johnson of Ocheyedan spoke out against local control, saying it would do away with the family farm and result in more vertical integration in agriculture. Johnson added it would be the last straw for some communities that rely heavily on agriculture for their economy. Johnson, who lives near Ocheyedan, says the community relies heavily on the local feed mill which does 14 million dollars of business a year feeding cattle and hogs. Johnson said, “Tell me what the future of my town is if we were to have an emotional debate at the county level and shut down the livestock industry of my county”.
Johnson’s challenger, Mel Berryhill of Milford, says local control is crucial if residents are to protect their quality of life. He says “it needs to be in the people’s hands that have to live with it”.
Candidates running for Dickinson County Treasurer squared off over whether the driver’s license service provided by that office should be expanded. Kris Rowley is challenging long-time incumbent Linda Voss. She feels the service should be expanded to five days a week. Rowley added “I think we aren’t doing what the legislature intended. We have people instead getting their licenses down in Spencer and Clay county and in Emmet county because it isn’t available here. It’s just shifting our responsibility from Dickinson county to the other counties”.
Voss said she is looking at expanding the operation to more than just one day a week once a transition to a new computer operating system is complete. But she says it probably wouldn’t be to five days. Voss says she’s also looking at starting up the operation earlier in the day to accomodate students before school starts.
