Residents accuse company of ruining their right to live peacefully
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RIGBY — Residents in a Jefferson County neighborhood say they are losing sleep because of the constant noise, light and sawdust emanating from a pallet manufacturing plant but the owner of the plant says he was there first and has a right to operate his business as he sees fit.
A group of residents from the Snake River Estates and Bear Island Estates have gone before the Jefferson County Commission four times accusing Challenger Pallet and Supply Inc. of violating county code and denying them their right to live peacefully.
But thus far, they say the situation hasn’t changed.
Challenger Pallet History
Challenger Pallet and Supply was established in Jefferson County by former Jefferson County Commissioner Tad Hegsted’s parents in 1971. Hegsted is the current president and owns the company with his business partner Kelly Bennion. Between 1999 and 2000, Hegsted’s mother was the president of the company and decided to downsize by selling land to a developer.
Hegsted told EastIdahoNews.com the developer decided to put in 27 homes directly adjacent to the pallet plant. Hegsted said he told county officials that he was against the developer building homes right next to the plant, but regardless, houses were eventually built into what is now Snake River Estates.
Several years later, more changes came to the area in the way of rezoning. Industrial zones in Jefferson County were broken up into light and heavy industrial zones. Challenger was zoned as light industrial in 2015.
Catastrophe struck the business in 2006, when the plant burned to the ground. Hegsted said he still suspects arson, although he said the Central Fire District never ruled a specific cause for the fire. Following the fire, Hegsted rebuilt the plant in compliance with county’s zoning ordinance.
Hegsted was serving as a commissioner during the period before and after the fire and continued to serve until 2014.
He said his company has always done everything the county has asked it to do to be in compliance with local law.
“We have not changed a thing that we’re doing,” Hegsted said. “We’ve always had lights, we’ve always had dust, we’ve always made noise. We haven’t changed a thing.”
Hegsted does admit though, that in 2016 he significantly expanded his facility by adding another building and more equipment. He also said he extended his operating hours.
And that is where Hegsted and his residential neighbors are coming into conflict.
Homeowners say the 2016 changes have caused problems. Prior to the expansion and extended working hours, they were able to live relatively peacefully next to the plant. Now, they say things are not so peaceful, and residents believe the plant is in violation of county law.
The people’s complaint
“You could see and feel the sawdust,” Linda Higgins, a resident of Snake River Estates, said during a July 2 special commissioner’s meeting. “It was so heavy I almost thought there was a big fire. I’ve lived there 24 years and it’s never been like this, except for the last two years.”
Higgins told EastIdahoNews.com she can’t enjoy her backyard anymore because of the sawdust and she only sleeps four or five hours a night. On July 2, Higgins’ eyes were red and puffy and she said it was due to the sawdust constantly blowing into her home.
Sawdust is one of the various nuisances residents say they are being plagued with. The worst, many have said, is the noise.
On July 12, Snake River Estates resident and one of the locals leading the charge against Challenger, Jay Hill, recorded what seems to be Challenger’s dust collection system running after 10 p.m.
Hill said during the summer of 2017, he purchased a decibel meter and measured anywhere between 100 and 119 decibels from the noise Challenger Pallet was emitting. According to industrialnoisecontrol.com, a jet takes off at 100 decibels. Eighty decibels is enough to cause hearing damage if exposed to it for an extended period of time.
During that time, Hegsted said the muffler to the dust collection system was broken and that’s why it was so loud. It was later fixed; however, he chose to run the system for six weeks before repairs were made.
Currently, Hill said there are times when he gets over 92 decibels inside his home.
Hegsted said the dust collection system only runs when the saws are in use. At other times, the plant emits a constant clanking noise that sounds like someone is banging pipes together.
A petition sent to the roughly 200 people in the two small neighborhoods garnered 75 signatures from residents. The petition asserted that Challenger has become a nuisance by operating 16 hours a day, running high-intensity lights and excessive noise from the plant’s equipment and semi-trucks entering, leaving and left idling.
Hegsted said he has worked to mitigate the complaints about his security lights by facing them toward the ground. Some residents say that wasn’t enough and as soon as leaves fall off the trees separating the neighborhood from the plant, the lights will become a serious problem again.
Hegsted disagrees. “There’s absolutely no sound, there’s absolutely no dust,” he said. “We have a paved road coming all the way in.”
Challenger Pallet Zoning and County Code
After numerous complaints to the county commissioners, planning and zoning, and local law enforcement, Jefferson County Planning and Zoning Administrator Kevin Hathaway sent a letter to Challenger Pallet and Supply on March 5, 2018.
The letter demanded to know what changes Hegsted had made to the plant in the last five years, including the construction of new buildings, new equipment installation, hours of operation and amount of production for each of the previous five years. The effort was to determine if the equipment and buildings now on the property still met the standard of a light industrial zone.
An EastIdahoNews.com public information request discovered no one from Challenger ever responded to the letter.
The only permit issued to Challenger Pallet was a building permit in Aug. 2016. According to the EastIdahoNews.com information request, there appears to be no record of any permits for the dust collection system or any of the other recently added equipment.
Hathaway told EastIdahoNews.com he is investigating whether or not the equipment was included in the permit for the new building Hegsted constructed.
“He will need permits, and if they weren’t taken care of, then we will deal with that on an individual basis,” Hathaway said.
He explained that if Hegsted does not have proper permits, he will need to apply for a conditional use permit. That will require a public hearing with public comment before the county commissioners. Hathaway explained that depending on the zoning, a conditional use permit may not allow certain operations.
When going before the county commissioners, Hill, Bill Smith and Bear Island Estates resident Ward Whitmore admonished the commissioners to enforce the county’s ordinances.
Jefferson County Code 3.3.16 says the purpose of Light Industrial “is to provide for the community’s needs for wholesale trade, storage and warehousing, trucking and transportation terminals, light manufacturing and similar activities.”
The homeowners assert that Challenger Pallet is no longer in compliance with their Light Industrial designation and is instead operating as Heavy Industrial.
Jefferson County Code 3.3.16 says the purpose of Heavy Industrial “is to provide locations for industrial activities that have greater than average off-site effects.”
“Sawdust is escaping off of these 44 foot high towers and blowing for a very long distance,” Snake River Estates Home Owners Association President Tom O’Riley told EastIdahoNews.com. “Anybody that lives in eastern Idaho knows the wind always blows. So, they’ve got escapage off their property and it’s going for miles and it’s affecting peoples health.”
The Light Industrial zoning designation puts a height restriction of 38 feet at the roof’s highest point on all buildings in a Light Industrial zone. The homeowners claim Challenger is violating Jefferson County code with the recently added, 44-foot tall dust collection bins. Hegsted argues that the code doesn’t apply to the bins because they are equipment, not buildings.
“We’ve built every one of these buildings with permits,” Hegsted said. “We’ve done everything legally.”
Challenger Pallet Under Investigation
“We’re currently investigating it through our planning and zoning and county prosecutor’s office and that’s really all I can say about it at this time,” County Commissioner Scott Hancock told EastIdahoNews.com.
After inquiries by EastIdahoNews.com, the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality inspected the plant and didn’t find anything wrong. Officials asked the company to implement some dust prevention measures, which Hegsted agreed to do.
“At the time we visited the site, it was a pretty windy day and we didn’t observe any dust leaving the property boundary,” DEQ Idaho Falls Region Remediation and Air Quality Manager Rensay Owen told EastIdahoNews.com. “We’ve been out there several times, not officially to inspect, just to observe the operations and see what kind of impacts they’re having on the neighborhood.”
Jefferson County Prosecutor Paul Butikofer investigated the matter and ultimately chose not to pursue charges.
In his official statement, Butikofer explained there are three questions that must be answered before bringing charges.
The first question is “was a crime a committed,” the second “assuming we believe a crime was committed, can it be proven beyond a reasonable doubt” and the final question “is it the ethical thing to do.”
“After a full review considering the evidence and relevant law, the Prosecutor’s Office is not taking criminal action at this time against Challenger Pallet for Nuisance or Disturbing the Peace,” according to Butikofer.
During the July 2 commissioners meeting, Hill, Smith and Whitmore were told by deputy prosecutor Weston Davis they could file their own civil lawsuit against Challenger Pallet.
“They’re clearly in violation of the zoning,” Whitmore said during the meeting. “Everyone at this table up here, including Mr. Butikofer and Mr. Martinez (county commissioner not present at the meeting) knows that. The question is what are you going to do about it and when?”
Hegsted told EastIdahoNews.com he told Martinez that he and the commissioners represent him as a business owner. He went on to say the commissioners have his back.
“I was county commissioner for 10 years,” he said. “I know how this all works. The commissioners are going to defend me. That’s our stance. That we have broken no laws. You allowed us to build here.”
