| One month wait instead of 9 months to a year. That is fast.
Trial set over paperwork for ethanol plant construction
DODGE CITY - The lawsuit stemming from plans to build an ethanol plant near Wright has been set for trial.
The various sides met Monday in Ford County District Court, agreeing to an expedited trial and setting March 1 as the date, said Lowell Brakey, an adviser to the plaintiffs in the matter. Judge Dan Love will preside.
A group of landowners who live around the proposed ethanol plant site, about a mile east of Wright, filed suit earlier this month against Ford County commissioners.
They charge that Boot Hill Biofuels, the project developer, didn't file all the required paperwork with county authorities in the lead-up to the commission's Dec. 18 vote granting the firm a special permit to build.
Accordingly, the December decision should be voided, they maintain, and Boot Hill be made to start the application process over.
Commissioners have said they were advised that everything was in order before voting 3-0 in Boot Hill's favor, while company representatives have indicated they did everything county officials told them to do.
Some of the plaintiffs have decried plans for the 110-million-gallon per year ethanol plant near Wright owing to the truck traffic it would generate and the water it would use. But those issues didn't figure in the lawsuit.
Brakey expects the trial will take one or two days.  |