See his letter attached to the bottom of this story.
Commentary – Linda Cooper
Levy County Commission Chairman Matt Brooks quietly sent a letter to the Williston City Council late Tuesday morning suggesting manure composting is a harmless organic process governed by state agencies and it’s really nothing to be concerned about.
The letter was clearly intended to discourage the city council from taking any action in regards to the potential dumping of tons of horse manure on an 80-acre parcel east of Williston located in the city’s municipal service district.
Council members took public comments on the issue and there was opposition to the manure dump, as some have called it, being operated close to the Williston community and particularly in the neighborhood of the predominantly black East Williston community.
The council didn’t take action on the matter and Brooks, who is pushing hard to win approval of a county land development code amendment that would allow expanded horse manure dumping in rural residential areas of the county, persuaded the city that it wasn’t their fight and mentioned the May 9 commission workshop on the issue.
If anyone was wondering where Brooks stands on this issue of manure dumps, the letter, which was labeled as a Public Service Announcement under the header, “From the desk of Commissioner Matt Brooks, District 5”, left no doubt as to his views on the issue of dumping Marion County horse manure in Levy County.
Bear in mind that it was Brooks who said last year in a county commission meeting that he didn’t want Levy County to become the dumping ground for horse manure from Marion County. He has done a “180” on his earlier comment and is now pushing for approval of expanded horse manure dumping in rural Levy County.
Brooks probably had a legal right to send the letter to the city council, but sending the letter to every member of the council without public notice was an unethical ploy to influence the council’s views on the issue five hours before they met to discuss it for the first time. It worked. The council took no action.
The council could still take action at a later date. Hypothetically, the council could send the county commission a letter saying they don’t want a horse manure dump near the front entrance to Williston’s east side that could be seen off U.S. 27A. The manure dump would amount to an unwelcome sign for Williston on its east side.
Brooks planted the seed for what he was intending to do with Tuesday’s letter to the city council by winning support at last week’s county commission meeting to establish a process allowing commissioners to send out letters under their own name, rather than the full board, to avoid giving the impression that the full commission supported his view.
Whether Brooks actually authored the letter will probably never be known. It is an extremely well-written letter suggesting that perhaps a professional marketing company wrote the letter and he posted his name on it as being “From the desk of Commissioner Matt Brooks – District 5. Land Uses Public Workshop May 9th, 2023/ 3:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.”
The letter mentions more than once that “organic composting and processing facilities” aren’t specifically mentioned in the county commission’s land development and zoning rules and regulations. That’s true. He mentions there are a number of manure facilities that currently process barn waste in Levy County and they operate, as far as he knows, in agricultural/rural residential areas, which is where the county intends to allow commercial dumping of horse manure if the full commission approves it.
Brooks, a former member of the Williston City Council, fails to mention in his letter that these current manure dump operations in Levy County were never given county commission approval to establish in rural residential areas of the county. That’s because there is nothing in the county’s zoning and land use codes that even mentions composting.
County Attorney Nicolle Shalley repeatedly told the county commission in unrelated discussions last year centering on the so-called monkey lab property in Gulf Hammock that there was nothing in the commission’s land use code that allows facilities like the monkey lab to locate in rural Levy County. She said if it’s not in the land development code, it’s prohibited.
It’s a certainty that Shalley knows these manure composting facilities already operating in Levy County are prohibited because the county’s land development and zoning rules and regulations don’t allow them, but she has remained silent on this fact, playing to the politics of the chairman who appears to be in favor of carpeting Levy County with manure dumps.
Spotlight made a public records request for Brooks’ letter. Spotlight wants the public to see the full letter that Brooks secretly dumped on the Williston City Council. The public was never informed of the letter until it was mentioned by Council President Debra Jones during the discussion of manure composting. She mentioned that the property in question does lie in the city’s Municipal Service District and the city can have some input into what goes there. It’s also going to be close to a planned RV resort on Williston’s east side.
Brooks mentions in his letter that manure dumping of this type is monitored by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and one of the water districts, in this case, the Southwest Florida Water Management District. DEP classifies composting as “solid waste” and monitors it as such. Solid waste includes manure and garbage at the Levy County Landfill.
What he doesn’t say in the letter is that manure dumps, politely described by Brooks as “organic composting facilities,” are currently not allowed to operate in Levy County. There will be more of them in Levy County if Brooks gets his way. It will take three members of the Levy County Commission to vote in favor of any change to the land development code and zoning rules to turn rural Levy County into a wasteland of manure dumps.
The May 9 workshop at the Levy County Government Center is just the first step. As one Williston resident pointed out last night, everyone knows the county commission is going to approve these manure dumps in Levy County. Let’s hope he is wrong, but we think the unthinkable could happen, that the county commission may open the door to more horse manure dumps instead of fewer of them.
There is a possible solution if the powers that be will reach out to Gainesville Regional Utilities concerning the possibility of burning the mix of pine shavings and horse manure in the biomass plant. I mentioned that possibility in a past county commission meeting but I didn’t go into detail. Many are not familiar with the biomass plant that supplies approximately 30% of GRU’s power according to GRU’s website. Just a thought.
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Commentary April 19, 2023; Posted April 19, 2023
