Feedlot Near Minidoka Gets OK’d
Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2008

2-1 decision by commissioners would place massive feedlot a mile from former camp site.

The remnants of a military police station and reception building are shown at the entrance to the Minidoka Internment National Monument at Hunt, Idaho.

JEROME, Idaho.— Jerome County Commissioners in south-central Idaho have approved a massive animal feedlot a mile west of a National Historic Site where Japanese Americans were con­fined during World War II.

Commissioners on Monday voted 2-1 to approve the Big Sky Farms Limited Partnership dairy near the Minidoka Interment National Monu­ment.

In October, commissioners had re­jected the dairy, but a judge last month ordered them to reconsider that decision because they hadn’t taken into account zoning and feedlot ordinances.

Commissioner Joe Davidson had voted against the feedlot last fall, but said the judge’s decision gave him no choice but to approve it Monday.

“It has nothing to do with what’s right or wrong,” Davidson said. “It’s what the judge said to do.”

Commissioner Charlie Howell also voted to approve the feedlot, while Commissioner Diana Obenauer voted to reject it. She cited concerns about waste management and that a traffic study hadn’t been completed until after a deadline had passed.

The next step in the process is for county Prosecutor Mike Seib to draft a memorandum by Aug. 25. That will be reviewed by the commission to finalize their Monday decision.

Neighbors and officials with the Minidoka Internment National Monu­ment in the past have opposed the feedlot, citing the potential for odor and flies. Additional public comment was not allowed at Monday’s meeting.

John Lothspeich is an attorney for Don McFarland, who wants to build the feedlot.

“It’s about time,” Lothspeich told The Times-News after Monday’s vote.

The Minidoka site was designated a national monument in January 2001. It was the largest of 10 detention camps around the S. where more than 120,000 Japanese Americans were in­terned during World War II.

The Minidoka site was originally a 33,000-acre prison compound operated by the War Relocation Authority at the Jerome County farming community of Hunt. It operated from 1942 through 1945 and held as many as 9,397 U.S. citizens of Japanese descent.

In May, President Bush signed a bill to expand and refurbish the monument, and to add an 8-acre site on Bainbridge Island, Wash., west of Seattle, as a sat­ellite to the monument. The Bainbridge site is where 227 men, women and children were rounded up and placed aboard a ferry in March 1942 to be sent to Minidoka.