Sumpter residents complain about stench of Elwell slaughterhouse

“I assure you, I’ll get the answer to this from across the street,” said Sumpter Township Supervisor Tim Bowman at the regular meeting of the board of trustees on Aug. 13.
This was after six residents got up to speak at length about the smelly slaughterhouse operating in their Agriculture-zoned area at 21890 Elwell Rd., south of Judd, and how it has impacted their rural lives.
Supervisor Bowman referred to the ordinance officers and the police department whose offices are located across Sumpter Road from the township hall.
The public comment part of the meeting took 45 minutes because of the lengthy slaughterhouse comments.
The first speaker, Bob Campbell, said he lives on Elwell two houses south of Judd. He said you have to have G-1 zoning for a slaughterhouse and they all are zoned Agriculture there.
“The flies are horrible. I can’t mow,” he said. “My understanding is the ordinance officer said to back off … It’s their religious right… What about our rights?
“I’m about to call the DNR, EPA, Health Department,” he said, adding that he has lived there for 52 years.
He said his neighbors are throwing carcasses on the ground and now in a dumpter. They are Arab-American and have religious rights. He said the ordinance officer told the neighbors to back off.
“How would you like to be on your mower and have those smells?” he asked and Supervisor Bowman said Bowman wouldn’t like that at all.
Campbell said the guy on Bemis Road had to jump through hoops to get his slaughterhouse approved.
Trustee Matt Oddy told him, they would look into it.
Second speaker was Klaus Mueller, of 21800 Elwell, who said it’s so bad you can’t open your windows and he’s afraid to let the grandchildren outside.
He said the law should be the same for everyone no matter where they came from.
Mueller said two weeks ago he went to the police department and waited for a very long time and no officer came and no one contacted him after he left.
He said the dumpster they have is an Easy Bake Oven, when they put the body parts in and shut the lid. He said people come and go all day long, don’t stay long, and leave with packages wrapped in white paper.
He said the neighbors call the police and there’s no response. The neighbors got tired, so they came to talk to the board, he said.
Third speaker was David Elrod, 21975 Elwell, who said he came to the meeting for the same reason. He said the neighbors don’t care about what this family does, but it’s affecting the neighbors’ lives. He said it’s hard to mow. He said if they moved the dumpster far away from the residences, where people can’t smell it, it wouldn’t be so bad.
Anna of 21951 Elwell said she has lived there 24 years and this summer the stench is horrible and she can’t go outside with her grandbaby. She said she and her niece went out to pick vegetables in the garden and her niece said it smelled like the penguin room at the zoo. They went back inside the house.
She said the smell is all the time and her family doesn’t want to go outdoors and keeps the windows closed and the AC on. She said this is ruining their way of life.
Ted Hall of 21960 Elwell said the area has wetlands and he tried to work with the ordinance officer to put in a polebarn. But the neighbors put dirt back there and now they’ve put in a polebarn.
He said instead of taking care of the offenders, he was being attacked by the ordinance officer.
Trustee Oddy defended the township saying an ordinance violation charge is in progress and it’s on the ordinance report board members received for that night’s meeting. He said it has to go through the court.
Hall said Summer’s Market on Willow Road is still slaughtering there, although it’s been through the court. He said they have gone over to check and was told by that complaining neighbor that the slaughtering is still taking place.
Trustee Oddy suggested the offense could be considered in the category of a nuisance.
Township attorney Rob Young said he hasn’t had any complaints recently on the Willow Road site, but he will take a look at it.
Hall said the ordinance officer accused them of conspiring and conniving against their neighbors.
Jay Bardell of 22161 Elwell Rd. said the odor goes for 25 acres across the road. He said they burn and it smells for great distances.
Bardell said he checked and they can take the animals to Three Farmers Halal Farm at 50425 Bemis Rd. which is the township’s only legal slaughterhouse.
“I saw 12 goats eating my soybeans,” Bardell said, adding he told the Elwell Road slaughterhouse he doesn’t eat goat meat, but he’ll kill them if they come back on his property. He said they handle 50-100 goats a week and it goes to the market in Manchester and other markets. He said he complained to Colleen [at the police department], but he’s never seen reports of those complaints in the paper, although they put in everything else.
Bardell said five years ago he worked hard to get the Three Farmers as a licensed facility and the Three Farmers said those slaughtering could bring their animals to the legal Bemis Road facility for slaughter. Bardell said it’s a real nice facility and he uses it himself.
“It’s time you guys put the brakes on,” Bardell said to the board members.
Treasurer Bart Patterson said he never heard about this and he doubts that other members of the board knew. He said the board prefers to have problems taken care of before it comes to the board.
“This is first I ever heard of it,” Supervisor Bowman said. “It irks me and I will get to the bottom of it.”
Trustee Oddy said the board doesn’t get direct reports from ordinance and then he backed up and said it does get reports and it has the July ordinance violations now.
Treasurer Patterson said if residents don’t get results from the police or ordinance departments to call the township hall.
One of the Elwell Road people called that they tried and got no call back and it didn’t go anyplace the time they called.
Trustee Tim Rush said to call Karen Woodington at the supervisor’s office and she would take care of it.
A person in the audience called out that the ordinance officer goes by his property slowly two to three times a week. He said he pulled up to a police car parked at the Roller Rink and asked about it.
Supervisor Bowman pointed out he has been a contractor for more than 40 years and drives all over the township. He said one day he saw an ordinance officer parked at the Roller Rink and he went to town and spent two to three hours loading up with lumber and came back to Sumpter and the same officer was still sitting in the same spot.
Trustee Oddy said when matters get to court they take a long time to resolve because the court is favorable to the landowner, and it should be. He said the township writes the tickets and lets the court determine what it wants to do.
A man called out from the audience, “There’s an illegal operation and you can’t stop it?”
Trustee Oddy said, the case drags on in court. He asked the supervisor to move on with the meeting.
Later, in the only report from attorney Rob Young, he said he didn’t like the ordinance officers being criticized because they are very professional and efficient. He said there were 11 cases in court last Thursday. He said the officers write reports, so he doesn’t have to do the background research and charge the township for his time. He said they talk to him and he has them in court.
Young said you can’t shut down an operation ahead of time, before the court rules.
“I swear to God, the chief takes it serious,” Young said. “It irks me when I hear the complaints.” He said specific zoning is needed and tickets are written.
In another public comment Zeola Walker, who spoke before the slaughterhouse comments, asked if the board is going to renovate an office in township hall and board members said they didn’t know anything about it and that wasn’t happening. Treasurer Patterson said there was nothing on the table for that.
Walker said she read it in the paper and saw the court meeting video, and the paper and video are wrong?
Walker said nobody goes in that office, referring to the supervisor’s office.
She also asked why they are spending money on a door for the community center when that old building is “dark, dirty, dingy” and needs to be replaced by a new building.
She also said the board tells the residents to call Wayne County about road complaints, but, “That’s what you get $38,000 a year for.” She also said there is nothing in Sumpter for the juveniles to do, and, “You have nothing to offer at all.”
Walker said there are mosquitoes at Banotai Park and she asked if they spray the park for mosquitoes, ever?
“I can’t see what you’re doing besides increasing your wages,” Walker said.
Patterson said she needs to bring her complaints to the township offices and, “This is not the time to interrogate the board.”
Mary Ban also took part in the public comment, saying there was a terrible rainstorm on election day and both she and her husband use walkers. She said the poll workers at precinct four helped them out the side door to the handicap parking where she had parked.
Ban also said Van Buren Township has a new $15 million community center and it is wonderful, but in Sumpter, “We make do with what we have.” She said there are industrial complexes and commercial areas in the township that gives tax funds.
“I don’t want to be Van Buren,” Ban said. “I don’t want any more dumps. We’re rural and we’ll remain rural.” She pointed out all the new homes in Sumpter that are worth $500,000 to $600,000 which proves “somebody wants to live here.”
Ban also noted the reports of those who came to talk that night about the slaughtering is very unfortunate and, “We have laws and everyone should follow them.”
Trustee Peggy Morgan was absent and excused from the meeting.