From: Nancy Banta
Hope
I am sick, literally, of walking out of my house every day and being smacked in the face by the odor from a neighbor’s hog operation less than a half-mile from my home. I can’t escape this odor, because at my place of employment the same odor is present numerous times throughout the year and will envelop me from the moment I exit my car until I take refuge in the building. Furthermore, once a week while working at my second job, I am plagued with the same conditions permeating through our sliding doors.
The reality is, the facility near my place of employment was operational prior to county ordinances. However, the circumstances at my home could have been avoided if the county government would have enforced the ordinances that were active at that time. Like the rest of the population, I want our county officials to value my neighbors and myself by enforcing the ordinances that were meant to protect quality of life.
Apparently, there are more pressing issues on the minds of some county officials, particularly Bartholomew County Commissioner Rick Flohr. He is currently exercising his freedom of speech by publicly belittling former employees and can’t be bothered with county residents’ pleas for help. This same commissioner, along with his fellow commissioners, has demonstrated his lack of concern for county residents’ quality of life. Meanwhile, because of the lack of enforcement, county residents have been condemned to a life sentence of smell and an eternal threat to our health. Our lives are forever altered, void of any hope to rectify these conditions.
My community requested that Mr. Flohr and other county officials reconsider the decision to decimate our lives on the premise it was oppositional to our county ordinances. These pleas, however, fell on deaf ears. The lack of equal consideration for residents is reason enough to remove Rick Flohr from office, and the public attack on former employees demonstrates how ill-suited he is for any position of authority. The alternative: Brad Woodcock.
Brad Woodcock is a man of integrity and will consider the needs of all residents, not just a select group. My rural neighborhood will be supporting Brad Woodcock for county commissioner. Please help us reclaim our county and vote for Brad Woodcock, a man committed to the residents of his community.
