Residents, council member raise wetlands, avian flu and county-council rules at public comment

Several residents and an on-duty county council member used the public-comment period at the March 11 St. Joseph County Board of Commissioners meeting to raise environmental concerns and a procedural issue at the county council.

Deb Dural of German Township told commissioners she had provided a packet connecting habitat loss to amphibian declines and noted research she said shows a roughly 40% decline in amphibians. She also cited recent reporting on an avian influenza outbreak affecting commercial poultry in Indiana and said local farmers who use pastured or organic methods — including Hebron Farms — had not reported infections, which she presented as an example of alternative practices.

“According to research that Notre Dame is doing, amphibians are down 40% due to loss of habitat,” Deb Dural said. She added that nearly 7,000,000 chickens, turkeys and ducks on commercial farms across Indiana have contracted the flu and that “this particular strain is behaving differently than every other strain in the past.”

Councilman Fig, who identified himself as a county council member, said he planned to oppose proposed new rules before the county council that he said would allow the council president to strike items involving political speech from the agenda. Fig said he believed the change would create a First Amendment risk and could invite litigation.

“I will be voting against [the new rules] because I believe they could open the county up to a lawsuit,” Councilman Fig said. He told commissioners the proposed rule would give extra powers to the council president and said council members should be “one of nine,” not subordinate to a stronger chair.

Resident Dan Caruso addressed wetlands near Gordon Road in New Carlisle that are implicated in permit filings for an Amazon data center. Caruso questioned Amazon’s statement that an alternative site was not feasible because it would separate data centers geographically. He urged Amazon to use the alternative site across Larson Boulevard to avoid impacting protected wetlands.

“You have every opportunity to go to the East just across Larson Boulevard where you have put in the plans that was your alternative site,” Dan Caruso said. “That is a wetland that is protected that needs to be protected.”

These public comments were received for the record; no board action on the topics was taken during the meeting.

Why it matters

Commenters raised environmental and procedural issues that may affect future permitting and council deliberations. The wetland and siting concerns relate to a pending application and potential appeals; the council-rule issue concerns how the county council handles agenda items and political speech.