Loyal city reps plan to dialogue with Amish community re: manure issue

By Valorie Brecht City of Loyal representatives are continuing the process of trying to keep horse manure off city streets. After a police committee meeting last Wednesday, it was decided that Police Chief Matt Kubista and council member Curtiss Lindner would extend an invitation to meet with three local Amish bishops to talk about the issue. One of the bishops had already reached out with a request to talk.

That decision came after committee members shared the research they had done on the issue. Loyal Mayor Carmen Englebretson had contacted the Augusta police chief, as that is the closest city that has an ordinance requiring a manure-catching device.

“The chief said it was tough at first; he gave a lot of warnings,” said Englebretson. “Then he started fining people $60 per violation, but a lot of them would rather pay the fine than comply. Five years ago, they raised the fine to $250 and now they have almost full compliance.

“He said another thing we need to do is talk to our neighboring communities and get on the same page. He said they are going to threaten to leave town; they are going to quit coming, but they’ll come back.”

She reported that if the Augusta police see a buggy without a manure-catching device, the driver will get pulled over. Kubista said the City of Loyal would want to specify, if it were to create an ordinance, that horse and buggy drivers must have a manure-catching device and they have to clean up the manure if the device fails, because otherwise buggy drivers could have a device but just move it back far enough so it didn’t catch the manure.

“The hard thing for us is they have no ID,” said Kubista.

He said he had seen people take advantage of that before, because, without an ID, there is no way to verify that the person is who say they are.

“That’s how you get aliases and they keep giving different names and different things. And I’m not saying the Amish are going to do that, but that’s the problem — how do you? Or when you go to court, if they would contest the citation, I have to know, ‘Well, how did you identify them?’ By their word. I don’t necessarily have any type of identification,” said Kubista.

Lindner said that many in the Amish community have a fishing or hunting license, so they would at least have a customer ID number. Kubista said that was better than nothing, but still not the same as having a photo ID to compare to.

The city also distributed a survey to all the Main Street businesses and as many others as could be reached within the city limits, asking for thoughts on the issue.

“Looking at the responses, there’s not very many that are concerned about their businesses at this point,” said Lindner. “So that’s maybe different from last time.”

“A lot of people said, ‘This is a farming community.’ Well, that’s all well and good, but so is Augusta, really. You know?” said council member Kris Schultz.

“Well even some that said that, they still said that there should something, a way to pick it up,” replied council member Greg Brock.

“I’m personally all for the manure catcher,” said Schultz.

“I’m all for any way to keep it off our streets,” said Brock. “But it would be nice to figure out a way to get this done without having to put an ordinance in.”

Years ago, the city passed the first reading of an ordinance that would have required manure-catching devices for buggies, but then the Amish community sent letters to local businesses — including the feed mills and hardware store — stating they were no longer going to shop there because of the ordinance. The business owners, in turn, reached out to the city and said they didn’t want the ordinance because they didn’t want to lose customers. So the city didn’t go through with the ordinance. The manure issue was also brought up two other times at the city council.

“I mean that’s what was the consensus was last time: it wasn’t going to get better unless you put the ordinance in, just like the Augusta chief said. And we did. We put the ordinance in place. We did it, and we did it quickly, because we said, ‘We’ve already been through this two other times. Let’s get this done, then.’ So we did and then, like I said, the letters came. So the frustration is, this is the third or fourth time here or whatever. It’s like, every time a new person comes into town, every time somebody says — if we’ve come to the consensus that ‘No, it’s not in the best interest’ or whatever, every time a new business comes into town and (complains), what are we going to do? How many times do we go through this?” said Kubista.

The council members still felt it was important to take the issue a little further and see if any improvements could be made.

“And I totally understand from your (Kubista’s) point of view, it’s like banging your head against the wall for the fourth time. I get that. But, I think we owe it to our business and the citizens that have come to us to at least, bare minimum, look at having a meeting with them (the bishops). I know from your point of view, it’s redundant, but I know there are two different bishops now from the last time you would have talked to them. Does it mean anything? Maybe not. But I think we have to go at least one more step to show our citizens that we are listening and we are taking their feedback into consideration,” said Lindner.

“I agree,” said Schultz. Brock did as well. Schultz planned to work with a community member who had contact with the Amish community to set up a meeting time.

For context, the discussion on horse manure began after Main Street business owner Robert Scheuerman voiced his complaints at the Sept. 19 council meeting, and again at the Oct. 3 police committee meeting. No one else has voiced complaints on the issue at a public meeting since then.

The council also talked about trying to keep buggy drivers from going over the sidewalk near Kwik Trip.

“Robbie (Scheuerman) had also mentioned it… They park at Kwik Trip and they just unhitch their horse and ride across the sidewalk out the Methodist Church parking lot driveway there,” said Englebretson.

“Sometimes they don’t even go out the driveway. Sometimes they actually go right off the curb,” said Brock.

“Again, unless they’re right there doing it, how are you going to follow up with it?” said Lindner.

Englebretson asked about getting a sign asking people to not cross the sidewalk with their buggies. Kubista said Kwik Trip could put up a sign on their property, but if it was on city property, the city would have to get permission from the state. The council members talked about possibly putting a sign on the hitching post itself and asking Kwik Trip if that is something they would be willing to do.

“If we talk to the bishops, we can ask them if they can please not drive over the sidewalk,” Kubista added.

“From a city council standpoint, a shod horse on concrete is not the best to have chipping away at that sidewalk,” said Lindner.

“That’s why I would say, ask them and tell them. You could be cited too. I mean, our ordinance doesn’t say ‘horse and buggy,’ but it’s driving over a terrace,” said Kubista. “But if nothing else, talk to them first and see if they think a sign would work and they would respect that… I’m always a firm believer of trying to talk and communicate.”