Jenna White, a Morristown resident, stood and listened to the board at Wednesday night’s meeting.
Lacey Watt | Daily Reporter
MORRISTOWN — What was supposed to be a public hearing for the people of Morristown to speak on a possible annexation changed as a new ordinance was passed and an item withdrawn was from the agenda.
In the cafeteria of Morristown’s Jr./Sr. High School, many members of the community came together for Wednesday night’s town council meeting. Originally on the agenda for the night was a public hearing about an annexation of land. However, the petitioner, Jordan Caldwell of Caldwell’s Inc, had the item withdrawn.
If the land was to be annexed, community members were concerned about a potential rezoning of land which would possibly allow a Controlled Animal Feeding Operation, CAFO, to be built on the land.
Jason Clark, attorney for McNeelyLaw LLP, shared with the Daily Reporter on Aug. 21 that the petitioners had requested an extension of 90 days for the public hearing. Clark did not attend the meeting.
Jordan told the Daily Reporter that the extension was requested because a fiscal plan was not completed yet and members of the community had given feedback requesting more time for research and education. Jordan said those are the same reasons as to why he withdrew the item from the agenda.
Dana Caldwell, Jordan’s father, attended the meeting but did not provide comment.
The council passed Ordinance No. 2023-17, titled “Town of Morristown Public Health and Welfare Ordinance” and denied the request for an extension.
The ordinance states “The purpose of this ordinance is to regulate and prohibit businesses that are detrimental to public health on all parcels or real estate in incorporated areas of Morristown, Indiana” and that “No CFO or CAFO, including its lagoons, ponds, pits, holding tanks, and related structures, may be located within city limits.” This also includes any business that causes a public health risk to the community.
The ordinance was passed unanimously by the board, which drew applause from the crowd.
Larry Tracy, vice president of the council, told the crowd at the meeting that “You’ve made it well known that people have a voice… It takes a group of people to make things happen. If more people in the state, United States, government itself acted more like this, I think more would get done in a positive manner…”
The board also motioned and approved to accept the withdrawal from the petitioner, and let the petitioner reapply at a later date if wanted.
Jordan told the Daily Reporter that he respected the town’s decision and that he would take some time and regroup.
Jennifer Wright, a Morristown town resident, took to social media with other community members not long after the discovery of the requested annexation to create a Facebook page “Say NO to Morristown CAFO,” and also hosted a community meeting late last month to present facts gathered about CAFOs to other concerned community members.
“I think the community prevailed tonight. Our concerns were heard, and thanks to our town board of Morristown for doing their due diligence and sourcing out their own facts and recognizing that this was not going to be good to add to our community,” Wright said.
