By JUSTIN SCHNEIDER
A Madison County judge has granted a change of venue in a case related to the proposed Mallard Lake Landfill project.
On Wednesday, Madison Superior Court 1 Judge Dennis Carroll issued an order of transfer in the case of Killbuck Concerned Citizens v. Michael Hershman to a Hamilton County Court.
“... the court, having heard argument herein and taking this matter under advisement ... now finds that the change of venue from the county shall be granted, over the plaintiffs’ objection and after notification to the parties herein and the parties’ agreement of venue ...” Carroll wrote.
The matter will now go before Judge Daniel Pfleging in Hamilton County Superior Court, Division 2. A representative of the court said a hearing had not been scheduled as of Wednesday afternoon.
In 1978, J.M. Corp. announced plans to create a landfill at the corner of county roads 300 East and 300 North in rural Richland Township. But the project has been mired in controversy and legal battles for parts of four decades.
The Killbuck Concerned Citizens Association, a group opposed to the project, filed a petition for mandate Aug. 24 against former Madison County Planning Director Hershman, claiming he failed in his duties by refusing to bring the landfill issue before the Madison County Board of Zoning Appeals. The group has long claimed that a special-use exception for the landfill granted by the BZA expired in 1982.
Jerry Shine, an attorney representing the county, filed a motion to dismiss and a motion for a change of venue Nov. 14 and 15. Legal matters related to the emotional and controversial landfill issue have been moved in the past.
“We weren’t going to get a judge in Madison County to hear this case,” Shine told The Herald Bulletin. “We need to be fair to everyone.”
Ralph Reed, founder of J.M. Corp., wants to create an above-ground landfill, but the KCCA claims that only an underground, or trench-style landfill was approved. Shine has said previously that, according to court documents, a “sanitary landfill” was authorized.
Meanwhile, Reed said, 25 percent of trash collection fees are used to send Madison County trash to Wabash or Winchester.
“This is the third time they’ve filed suit against the county,” Reed said. “The last time this was filed in Hamilton County, it sat there four, five six years and the KCCA withdrew it.”
KCCA leadership, meanwhile, has expressed astonishment over the county’s defending the landfill project.
“I don’t know what the rationale is for spending taxpayer dollars to defend this landfill,” KCCA President Bill Kutschera told The Herald Bulletin. “Pretty much everyone agrees it is a bad idea.”
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9:30 p.m.: Landfill case moves to Hamilton County
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