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MILFORD - American Milling Co., of Cahokia, Ill., hasn't filed for any permits for an ethanol plant in Milford yet, but about 60 Milford-area residents gathered Thursday to voice their concerns.
Most expressed sentiments against a plant in Milford, a few were for it, and others said more information is needed before the town should decide. The notion of forming a committee was discussed.
Thursday's meeting was an open forum where anyone who had an opinion or information could speak. The meeting lasted more than two hours.
Pat Hurd said she viewed an ethanol plant from a taxpayer's viewpoint. If a plant were built, the county would create a Tax Increment Fund Area for it and would capture all the tax dollars from it, she said. That would not help Milford or Van Buren Township. "This will not benefit us at all," she said. "I see no benefit. Show us a benefit to our town, to our township." The county could build some infrastructure for the company and some jobs may be created, but there was no guarantee they would be local jobs. "I want to be on record as saying I'm not for it," she said.
Theresa Brito spoke several times throughout the meeting. She said an "unknown source" told her the ethanol company would tap into the area's aquifer, having an effect on the ground water. Waste from the company could run off into their creeks and rivers, affecting everything from drinking water to fishing. Then there's the air pollution. She kept referencing the health problems the plant would create, citing Sierra Club and American Lung Association reports on ethanol plants. Brito has a child with health problems and the plant would make them worse.
"I want my children to live," she said, "and I want my grandchildren and everyone else's grandchildren to live."
She also said, "I'm not about to let Milford sink and go down like an anchor, like the Titanic and the ethanol plant is the iceberg."
Milford resident Ken Long said he's also concerned about the health problems the plant could cause. His wife has allergies. If the plant is built in Milford, Long said he and his wife probably would have to move. "The children in the community will be exposed to this."
An unidentified 14-year-old girl said she and many of her friends and cousins play outside. Pollution outside is "not right" and "you really can't have air pollution."
Roy Teeple said the community will always be open to some kind of danger. As for the ethanol plant, he said they don't have all the information yet. The plant also will create some jobs and a lot of secondary jobs. "There just seems like a lot of benefits to it," Teeple said.
Becky Doll wanted to know how will property values be affected by the plant. She said she would hate for Milford to turn out like the South Bend area that already has an ethanol plant.
Bob Bowerman spoke for a majority of the meeting. Bowerman is a grain and feed buyer for Maple Leaf Farms, though he said he in no way speaks for the company. Bowerman said throughout the night that his struggle is getting the correct facts together. Everyone has different figures to talk about. He said his desire is that the Milford community consider both positives and negatives and get the facts together so the town can decide if they want the plant.
If American Milling Co. applies for a permit, the company must go before the Kosciusko County Board of Zoning Appeals for approval.
"It will have a huge impact on this community," Bowerman said. While the county will approve the plant or not, and while the county will collect the tax dollars from it, Bowerman said Milford has to live with it in their backyard.
During the meeting, one man asked if there were any town or county officials in attendance. No county officials were present, but Milford Councilman Robert Cockburn was.
The traffic caused by the plant also was discussed. The corn for the plant would be brought in either by rail line or trucks. Bowerman said until the Ind. 15 bypass was completed, there was going to be a lot of truck traffic passing through Milford. "(Ind.) 15 is going to become much more crowded," he said.
Bowerman said he called people he knows in Illinois and asked them to judge the smell of an ethanol plant near where they live. "The phrase that comes up often is yeasty," he said. Another person told him it smelled like stale beer, while another said it smelled like her son's dirty socks. Steve Woelley, an industrial chemistry, said he grew up five miles down of the South Bend plant growing up. Some days it smelled like yeast, stale beer and dirty socks combined. Nowadays, it still sometimes smells when he is visiting his mom. But that area of town was always industrial before the ethanol plant went in. A natural barrier kept that part of South Bend from developing further, not because of the plant. He said he didn't know a lot about the possible ethanol plant coming to Milford, but it would be nice for the company to tell Milford about their plans.
Former county councilwoman Jean Treesh said, "I wish you could put this in my backyard. I think we need to jump at the chance to better our town."
Kip Tom, a local agri-businessman who helped bring the Louis-Dreyfus plant to Claypool, said what he heard at Thursday's meeting were the same concerns he heard at other meetings. Milford is only one location American Milling is looking at for a possible plant. Tom said the company won't release any information until they narrow down their search. Then they will have public meetings to answer everyone's questions. He said people need to know the facts and not just go off information from the Internet. The South Bend plant, he said, is very different from the ethanol plants being built today. When Tom asked if the people at the meeting thought the company would build a plant where they weren't wanted, most of the people said yes.
