BEATRICE - Gage County’s Planning and Zoning department has set the public hearing on another concentrated animal feeding operation proposed by Summit Pork. It involves a proposed site in section 25 of Island Grove Township….just north of Liberty, Nebraska near the Gage-Pawnee County line.


Planning and Zoning Administrator Lisa Wiegand said the hearing on a permit will be held Tuesday, August 29th…at 6:45 p.m., at the courthouse board room.
"This particular application is in the state's review process. It's more than likely the outcome of the state's yes or no on the state permitting process should be in place by the time P-and-Z has their hearing."


The proposed operation near Liberty submitted their permit application to the county in late June. "I did ask them to go out and mark the specific building site, so that our county surveyor, Chris Witulski, could go out and do those proper measurements. On Monday, I did receive those measurements from him, and it does meet the half-mile setback from both of the closest residences."


Property owners who live within a mile of the property line of the proposed operation receive formal notice from the county, regarding the permit application and hearing.


"We actually went out about a mile-and-three-quarters, so we're going to touch on a lot of those people and the Village of Liberty. So, they'll be getting their landowners or property owners notifications mostly likely by the weekend or for sure, by Monday. Keep in mind this particular application is next to a county line, so Pawnee County...those landowners, we've gone one mile out into that area for notification. We do that as a good procedure between county operations."


Just recently, the Gage County Board approved a special use permit for a Summit operation that is working with Otto Farms…..the site located in Hanover Township between Pickrell and Adams. It recently received air emissions permit approval from the State of Nebraska.


"That particular application has started digging. They're working on it. In fact, that next day after they received approval, they startted digging. My intent with this project is we'll weekly monitor and take pictures of that particular site just for our own records."


The Gage County Planning Commission makes recommendations on permits to the Board of Supervisors, which takes final action on the permits. Wiegand told the county board that other such CAFOs have been approved in Jefferson County, with one of them the farthest along located in the southeast part of the county, northeast of Steele City.