By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter

                Morriston resident Rose Fant appeared before Levy County Commissioners Tuesday to announce she had filed another code enforcement complaint against a neighbor operating an illegal landfill next to her family’s farm and she wants something done about it.

            Fant was referring to neighbor Samuel Allen Fant who she said continues to dump horse stall waste mixed with wood shavings on his property and is now burying garbage between layers of manure composting material to disguise it as compost.

            “There has been dumping even since this board voted to disallow these landfills,” Fant said. “I personally believe the people at the landfill next to me have been receiving clandestine deliveries shrewdly masked by layers of already composted materials,” she said. “My husband and I have made recordings of activities on this property and the video has been forwarded to the code enforcement department. The complaint dated 8-21-23 that I provided you is presented as absolute proof that unauthorized dumping is openly occurring on this property.”

            Commissioners made no comment.

            Fant said the arrival of trucks has been witnessed firsthand by her husband Ben and neighbors who have seen muck trucks – trucks loaded with a mix of horse manure, urine, and wood shaving – passing by their houses on their way to Samuel Allen Fant’s manure composting facility.

            “This needs to come to an end. The board has ruled on this matter with a unanimous vote terminating this activity in Levy County. Samuel Allen Fant will not cease this activity until forced to do so,” she said. “There needs to be consequences for the antagonistic, belligerent disregard for your authority. If there isn’t, this will never stop. Ordinances need to be written post haste.”

            County Attorney Nicolle Shalley is writing an ordinance that would prohibit manure composting in the unincorporated areas of the county except for bona fide farming operations. It’s not clear how bona fide farms would be allowed to store and use manure composting for farming activities.

            In July, county commissioners were poised to give Shalley the green light to write an ordinance for a total prohibition of manure composting in Levy County when Commission Chairman Matt Brooks added wording to the motion that would allow manure composting on bona fide farms.

            Opponents of manure composting fear that Brooks has left the barn door wide open to allow manure composting throughout rural Levy County by creating a loophole for bona fide farms. Shalley hasn’t completed the draft ordinance and didn’t return a Spotlight call Wednesday regarding the status of the proposed manure composting law.

            Rose Fant hasn’t filed the only complaint against Samuel Allen Fant’s composting facility in Morriston.

            Spotlight administrator Linda Cooper filed a complaint on May 2, 2023, calling Fant’s composting facility an illegal solid waste landfill. She noted that manure composting isn’t an allowed land use in unincorporated Levy County.

            “The attached two parcels in the name of Samuel Allan Fant are in violation of permitted land use rules as they exist today and he has been in violation for many years,” Cooper said in her complaint. “By Mr. Fant’s own admission, he states he is a “composting facility.” In reality, this is an illegal solid waste landfill. Attorney Shalley and Planning and Zoning Director Stacy Hectus have said on numerous occasions that if the use is not permitted it is prohibited, i.e., the Monkey Lab. The land use laws should be enforced and the solid waste removed.”

            County commissioners adopted a resolution in February of 2022 prohibiting manure composting in Levy County. The resolution was aimed at stopping the spread of manure composting in Levy County. Shalley and County Coordinator Wilbur Dean said the resolution is county law and is enforceable in court.

            One of the many fuzzy areas of county law as regards enforcement of county codes is the question of how Levy County Magistrate Norm Fugate will function when he enforces county codes and when he will actually begin hearing cases like the one against Samuel Allen Fant. Dean said the new magistrate’s office probably won’t begin operating until November of this year.

            Spotlight has been told a large backlog of county code enforcement cases is building behind the scenes because the cases aren’t being heard by the magistrate or county court. Whether the lack of a magistrate is factoring into the Samuel Allen Fant case isn’t known because no one in county government really wants to talk about manure composting or the proposed ordinance Shalley is writing.

            If Dean and Shalley are correct, and the 2022 resolution prohibiting manure composting in Levy County is enforceable, why isn’t the resolution being enforced by the county court, or does the lack of a magistrate, a completely new position in the county, factor into the situation? The silence in county government is deafening.

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Board of County Commission Regular Meeting August 22, 2023; Posted August 23, 2022