By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter

            Despite the clear sunny skies over Levy County in recent weeks, political storm clouds are forming as Levy County Commission staff work behind the scenes with employees of a billionaire businessman who wants to make Levy County a potential dumping ground for thousands of tons of horse manure from Marion County.

            Emails between County Attorney Nicolle Shalley, Planning and Zoning Director Stacey Hectus, Big Lick LLC, and Wright-Pierce engineering – two companies that represent billionaire Reid Nagle — discuss how the county should write an amendment to the Levy County Land Development Code that would legalize horse manure composting facilities in areas zoned as agriculture/rural residential.

            Wright-Pierce engineering has submitted a proposed LDC amendment to the two county officials on behalf of Nagle suggesting how the legal document could be worded.

            Nagle also owns Big Lick Stall Rentals, a horse boarding facility for thoroughbreds in Morriston, Black Prong Equestrian Village in central Levy County, and All-in-Removal in Marion County, a firm that specializes in carrying clean wood chips from Levy County to show-horse facilities in Marion County and trucking horse manure back to sites where it can be used to manufacture compost for farm fields. Levy County Planning Commissioner Michael Earnest was copied on all the emails about the composting proposal.

            Earnest was appointed to the Levy County Planning Commission on Aug. 1, 2022, and is COO and president of All-in-Removal. He listed Levy County Commission Chairman Matt Brooks as a reference on his application for the planning commission, saying he and Brooks have been friends “forever.” Both are from Williston. The planning commission will make recommendations to the county commission concerning the LDC amendment for manure composting.

            Commercial composting facilities currently are not a legal land use in the Levy County LDC as it stands now. The proposed LDC amendment would create a process to make it legal.

            Commercial composting is classified by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection as solid waste and is also commonly called manufacturing in the scientific community. Solid waste is also the name given to garbage deposited at the Levy County Dump, or Landfill, but the difference in this case is that horse manure could be dumped on fields in agricultural rural-residential neighborhoods in Levy County after approval of a special exception by the county commission. That’s the preliminary plan being discussed by Big Lick officials and county staff.

            The county commission has set May 9 from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. as the date, time, and place for a public workshop to discuss the merits of the proposed land use amendment that would permit dumping of horse manure in agricultural rural-residential areas of unincorporated Levy County.

            Composting itself is not farming, although Levy County officials often refer to it as agriculture. The raw manure in composting facilities is often piled several feet high, hundreds of yards long, and in some cases covers entire fields with windrows of horse waste. The horse manure and wood shavings are left to rot, decay, and stink in the sun until it forms composting soil. Sometimes cow manure or chicken manure are added to the horse manure to make it decay better. The end-product of composting can be used to enrich farm soils and is therefore considered by advocates to be a recycling process and part of agriculture, but farm crops aren’t raised in the windrows of horse manure, and cattle don’t graze on the ground covered by raw manure. The facilities can be an eyesore for neighbors and may devalue their property.

            Nagle has created a company, Nature Coast Soils, LLC that has purchased two pieces of property near Williston for a total of $1.6 million, well over the property market value. It appears the properties would be used for composting facilities.

            Marion County permits the commercial composting of wood products, manure, and leaves only in heavy and light industrial zones, not in agricultural or residential.

            Below are public records that reveal email exchanges between Big Lick, LLC and county employees concerning a composting amendment to the Levy County Land Development Code.

            Email from Christi Carel, Chief Risk Officer of Big Lick, LLC, Charlottesville, VA

            -Big Lick, LLC company’s engineers submit draft LDC composting amendment to the county.-

From: Christi Carel Sent: Monday, September 19, 2022 12:23 PM

To: Stacey Hectus Cc: Michael Earnest ; Lucas Anthony ; Walter Nickel

Re: Levy County LDC – Amendment Text Language RE: Composting

Hi, Stacey,

Per our conversation, attached is the language we’ve worked with our engineers to draft regarding the amendment to the LDC permitted use text for composting to be permitted by special exception. Please let us know your thoughts once you’ve had an opportunity to review. Thanks so much.

            In her emails, Carel is careful to refer to manure composting sites in Levy County as composting facilities, not composting farms.

            Composting facilities would be akin to manure dumps, or landfills if legalized in Levy County.

Email from County Planning and Zoning Director Stacy Hectus to Christi Carel

-Public shouldn’t have illusion that they can sway anything.-

Fri, Oct 14, 2022 at 8:03 AM

From: Stacey Hectus

To:  Christi Carel

Re: Nature Coast Soils – Composting Facility – Levy County LDC

Hi Christi,

So after Nicolle and I met to finalize our docs and strategize we thought this might not be the place to bring up specific uses but instead after the Workshop bring it to one of the BoCC meetings in November.  It would be composting and one or two others and we would show them the difference in running them through both scenarios.  I have included what will be the main focus of discussion for the Workshop on Tuesday.  You are basically correct in what you stated below.  One was an agreement so if we did get complaints on certain properties we would see what was agreed to for Code Enforcement to enforce.  The Special Exception has a lot more public input. That is where I believe the BoCC will have a tough time deciding which direction to go BUT the thing we don’t want to do is give the public the illusion that what they say can sway anything. This in lies mine and Nicolle’s biggest grapple is the what can we do locally, if the state/feds regulate?  Setback and buffer is about it….

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Enterprise Reporting by Terry Witt April 8, 2023; Posted April 8, 2023