God, I love politics here. It’s not caught up with the rest of the world. Council People at times scamper out of control, because not enough notice is given to the township of 3500 residents to help in informing the city council of the community’s thoughts on any matter. So when the city council (not all of them mind you) starts to think for themselves, and tries to ram ordinances through thinking it will be good for the coffers of our broke little town. … The shit hits the fan…. Intelligent regular folk come out in droves and screech for justice, just before a major foo-pa is created by city government.
Sometimes the council listens, and sometimes it does not…. But today our little city almost bit off more than it can chew. It almost put a kill floor for a meat packing place in the middle of town.
To put things in perspective here, about the tiny town of Dillon; the City and county here have no local zoning code, no local building codes, they rely on the state’s basic guidelines sometimes to help them, but alias they don’t even have a good interpretation of that, to preserve what is a terrific little town in southwest Montana from sliding under the weight of bad decisions. We are well on our way to looking like a giant strip mall, and not a quaint little western town anymore!
The Owner of the meat house is not the villain here. The owner is a reputable business man who markets great local beef and wanted to expand his business. Somehow he was assured in the last couple of months that this was a done deal to permit his new building, and expand his business. So much so, was his belief, that he went ahead and started retrofitting his business, to its new task.
The citizens though, had every reason to worry, because they were not keep in the loop… my guess there was some secret handshakes and ex-parte conversation between someone in the council and the business owner that made the little Ibyville area of Dillon wondering if their property value would go down to zip, or if there would be a stench from the killing of numerous animals a week… No one at the city went to the effort of Montana law to publically notice those very people who lived by the little plant of such changes being reviewed by mail. No one is really certain if the sewer system could handle all of the wash down of the plant. No one knows if the meat plant owner’s implemented Ideas and possible expansion of business down the road, would keep 1000 pound animals from escaping from his little plant, or find his future packaged beef steak running down Montana Street, and creating havoc in some residential neighborhood close by. Nobody ever took the time to investigate the myriad of problems that could bubble up in placing a Kill floor in a residential area! No one.
As usual, certain Republican city council members who evaded getting booted out in the general election went back to business as usual in making bad decisions. The owner of the little plant, is a Republican politician himself, who knew he was working with the very same people who caused the county and city money problems in the past… so why was he surprised at the betrayal? He actually allowed them to pull the wool over his eyes again.
The citizens got what they wanted for now, no permit for a kill floor in town, but this story is not over folks. The meat owner can ask for new permit, a variance in a zoning code that doesn’t exist in this city… And certain city council members still think they can place light industrial within the city limits which by Montana state code they cannot… so keep up the fight little citizens! Your nightmares are just beginning to unfold for another 2 years of Republican chicanery!
Lastly we need this guys business to succeed here, like a lot of Mom and pop organizations in town. It was in the cities best interests, in the beginning of negotiations with this meat company to swap land with this guy to the outskirts of town so he could fill the hole other meat packers in our area failed to do, and expand his business with glee in an area set aside for light industry (If we had zoning laws first). And down the line, he would hire new workers to ply his goods as his business grew bigger and stronger.
It was in the best interest of everyone involved to be honest with the citizens of Dillon. The city council (and not all of them) failed again to assert the principles of transparent government in Dillon! There was a way to keep all parties happy, and again the city council members of Dillon failed the test of good government!
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