Planning board members approved the deer meat processing business proposal at Monday night’s meeting after some discussion.
Story and photos by Brian Quinn
A Judge Road man has the town of Alabama’s permission to run a deer meat processing business at his residence, with one neighbor writing with her concerns and asking the Planning Board not to approve it.
Aaron Swimline received a special use permit for a business in a pole barn at his home, 1805 Judge Rd. According to the town zoning law, he had to reduce the proposed sign from 9 square feet to the maximum allowed size of 6 square feet. Board approval followed a public hearing.
Judge Road resident Aaron Swimline answers questions about the deer meat processing business he plans to run on his property.
Swimline said he would run the business from about September to January, during hunting season.
“The obvious question has to be asked – what about timeliness of disposal? What about odor? What about flies? What about containment?”
Swimline said everything will go into containers. For trash management, Swimline said, he’ll use dumpsters during the cold weather. The dumpsters he uses during the winter would be outside his shop. During warm weather, he would take the remaining waste to his friend’s farm every day rather than keeping it at his property.
“There’s no smell because it’s frozen and there’s only bones, usually, when I’m done,” he said. “It freezes in the dumpster because it’s wintertime. If it’s warm out, it gets removed right away. I take it to a friend’s private farm miles away. He owns hundreds of acres. Then, we cover it and compost it. Then, he spreads it the next year.”
Swimline said he would put the waste in barrels and his brother would take everything to his farm in his brother’s truck.
ARG Disposal & Transfer in Lockport has containers that are sealed, Swimline told the board.
“They put a liner inside of it and they just close the lids. They actually double-wrap them … It’s got a liner and seals it right up. All different sizes – 10-yard, 20-yard, 40-yard. Then, they pick it up weekly, daily, whenever I need it done.”
Planning Board member Lorna Klotzbach said the board received comments from a neighbor fearing that odor and flies would be a problem.
“I wouldn’t want that around my house, so that’s not going to be an issue,” Swimline said, noting he lives there as well and that the property is well-maintained.
“I clean everything up daily with soap, bleach – remove all waste that’s even around,” he said.
Board Chairman Carl Kumpf said Swimline’s neighbor, Stephanie Gilbert, submitted a letter to the board because she couldn’t attend Monday’s meeting.
“I am writing to ask that you vote ‘No’ to Aaron Swimline’s asking to use his property as a meat/butcher shop. Actually, my property is on the east, north and west of the property, but my house is on the east side,” Gilbert wrote.
She said there were many reasons the board should vote against Swimline’s application.
“First of all, research shows that opening a butcher shop next to a residence can drop those property values by 15 to 50%. Some research shows a decrease even higher, at 26 to 88%. If there is a chance that this would happen, it would be horrible to my home,” she claimed. “I have a friend who is a butcher in Attica. The smell from the Dumpster is putrid and the flies are horrible.”
A board alternate asked whether there is any documentation to support the statistics Gilbert presented in her letter. Kumpf said the board didn’t have any.
If Swimline is planning on spraying something to deal with the smell and flies, those chemicals will drift into her home, Gilbert wrote.
“The wind mostly blows from west to east. It would be a constant smell and nuisance to my home,” she wrote. “If this has a potential to move forward, I will be hiring an attorney to fight for my property. The odors alone from meat processing, waste storage and smoking will ruin my home and my property value.”
Kumpf asked Swimline if he planned on smoking any meat on his property, to which the latter said he doesn’t. He would handle the processing quickly.
“Mr. Swimline, just out of curiosity, do you have coolers and freezers within the building?” Klotzbach asked.
“Yes, everything is inside. When I’m done, it goes to wherever I compost it, in the Dumpster if it’s cold,” he replied.
Drew Reilly of Wendel Companies, an engineering firm working with the town, said the town’s zoning/code enforcement officer, Mike Morris, will review to make sure Swimline follows any conditions the board puts on the special use permit.
“He’s going to inspect it yearly to make sure he’s (Swimline) operating in accordance with the permit. If he found any problems, then you could always have the special use permit removed,” Reilly told the board.
Kumpf said the inspection would likely be once each fall.
“Unless there’s a complaint, then he (Morris) would have to get a hold of you,” he told Swimline.
Klotzbach said at the property at which she used to live and where her mother still lives, there was a wild game processing facility next door. Klotzbach never smelled any odor coming from it.
“I do know it’s possible to run a proper (meat processing business),” she said. “The idea of it, on paper, sounds like it could be horrifying, but, to be fair, I’d have to say that I know it can be done. In a rural community such as ours, processing deer is an important fact of life – and a helpful one, that people eat it and people use it to survive.”
Good for Aaron! That woman is a Karen, she’s well known to be a complainer about everything. Wishing Aaron success in his endeavor.