Hi All, Sorry to take so long to update you all on what I learned on Monday immediately after the 4/7 Supervisor’s meeting when I was talking with Todd Phillips, Exec VP of Heartland Coop.
I found out that Heartland does NOT have a comparable grain elevator for us to visit in Iowa. [Most of their 63 elevators are decades old, and much smaller operations. They have never built an elevator of this magnitude. I asked him if he had any pictures or drawings that we could see, and he said that they were proprietary. I asked what he could tell me, then he happened to mention: “Phase 1 will be constructed of concrete. It will be 220’ high, and have eight sections each 78’ long.” [which totals 624’ in length]. 220’ high is roughly equivalent to a 22 story building, and 624’ is roughly 2 blocks long! This will be a massive structure. There are none other like it in the state. It will be by far the tallest building in most of SE Iowa. Outside of tall office buildings in Des Moines (12), Cedar Rapids (2), and Davenport (2), this will be Iowa’sTallest Iowa building in the other 96 counties! <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Iowa> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Iowa It will certainly be the tallest elevator building in Iowa. Once our Court House was the tallest building in Jefferson County. It will be dwarfed by this elevator. It will come to dominate not only the Fairfield skyline, but will most likely be visible as you are entering the county from all directions! Once we were known for our university or our meditation community or our entrepreneurial businesses or our artistic and creative community. Now we could become “the little Iowa town next to the giant elevator!” And although Heartland says they will not initially be grinding grain here, I asked about drying grain, and Todd confirmed that drying will be happening. You already can hear grain dryers a mile or more away from those on individual farms. I would expect this elevator’s drying noise to be very uncomfortable not only at Overland and at Walton Lake and at Seven Hills, but probably over the whole western half of Fairfield. I’d guess you’ll be able to hear it on the Fairfield square if the wind is in the right direction. And Todd confirmed that the facility will be running night and day as needed during peak seasons. And that is, of course, over and above the noise due to thousands of extra grain semi’s and the extra train traffic. Yes, we have to look at the potential danger to air quality and to water quality, to the costly wear and tear on our roads, to the financial costs to the county, and so forth. But the eyesore of this giant industrial structure, and the noise generated from their grain drying, could be the biggest detriments to our high quality of life in Fairfield. Please do what you can to get the word out about the size and noise of this facility. They have not been very forthcoming about the scope of this project. Just calling it a grain elevator sounds a little quaint. But this is something far more serious. Roger PS: I also want to mention my concern about lack of adequate available water, and risk of polluting our streams: When Overland built here in 1984, we had planned to install fire hydrants at our cost to help protect our building. The Fairfield Water department adamantly prohibited us from installing those hydrants, saying there would not be enough water pressure if we had a fire to fight here at the same time that Parkview Center had a fire. So we backed off, and only got a 1 ½ ‘ water line and no hydrants for our building. Then in 2012 when we were considering building a warehouse next door on our property, we wanted to see if we could now get a 6” connection to install 3 fire hydrants and be able to supply sprinkler systems in one or both of our buildings. The City of Lockridge, which now owns the water line from Fairfield to Lockridge, was reluctant to agree, and scaled us back to just 1 hydrant and a potential 4” water line to our property. Subsequently, when getting a sprinkler system quote, we were informed that a 4” water line was inadequate for a sprinkler system for our building. I wonder what, if anything, is planned for water for fire protection for this 220’ elevator across the road from us. I asked Mayor Malloy yesterday, and he said there has been no request for, and the city has no plans to provide, such water service to the proposed elevator site. We built 3 large ponds on the back of our property in 1984. We stock them for fishing, and used to swim in them. Several years ago we had a major kill off of hundreds of fish in one pond, presumably by chemicals introduced by either by Burlington Northern or the neighboring farming when combatting weeds. Our ponds are fed by water that drains from the land across the road to be owned by Heartland Coop. I see today that Heartland Coop just posted a public notice that their storm sewers draining into “an unnamed creek discharging to Troy Creek to Crow Creek to Cedar Creek.” I believe that “unknown creek” goes through our land. What if one of the tens of thousands of trucks using this facility has some problem, or what if one of the later phases of the elevator project [this 220’ building is only “phase 1 of 3 per Todd Phillips of Heartland] involves transporting fertilizer or herbicides or pesticides coming in via rail, and what if there is then a toxic chemical spill? It might create a much bigger problem than killing our fish and harming our livestock. We really need to protect ourselves and our community from the danger of this potential water pollution. Thanks, Roger
