Leadership in Blinsman Township southeast of Trent isn’t backing away from requiring the ownership and management of a massive new dairy to follow through on its promise to pave a one-mile section of road from the dairy to 481st Street.
During a regularly scheduled meeting of the County Board of Adjustment this past week, River Bend Dairy, LLC management, along with a team from the company slated to build the biodigester for the farm, spoke about the need to revise language in the contract. Dairy management said it’s necessary to meet evolving plans they have, new dairy technology and opportunities to better manage waste and the roads into the future.
At the time of the original permit approval in September of 2020, the dairy committed to take on the financial responsibility of rebuilding the one mile of 242nd Street going east to the County’s paved 481st Street. Since then, a representative from the Local Transportation Assistance Program, or LTAP and a transportation engineer on the project shared with the BOA and Township leadership that they firmly believed a gravel road is the best option for all involved, including the county. The dairy, they stated in a public hearing in late January, wouldn’t have the loads coming in and out once it’s fully operational, to maintain an asphalt surface. High volumes of traffic is what keeps asphalt flexible and on low-volume roads, they argued, asphalt is difficult to maintain.

“A lot of counties are turning that over to contractors because it’s getting to the point they don’t want to deal with cost over time,” Will Kratt, a Transportation Engineer with ISG, a firm based out of LaCrosse, Wisconsin with an office in Sioux Falls, told the BOA.   
This past week, seemingly at an impasse on the matter as spring approaches, the roads soften, and the dairy looks to begin populating its newly built 6,500 head dairy, board members suggested two possible solutions.
“From day one, you had an agreement with these guys,” said Commissioner Randy Hemmer. “Why don’t you follow through with what you agreed to? Your word was you were going to do this. I don’t think you said, ‘when somebody changes the plans down the road, we’re not going to do this.’”
Carson te Velde, the manager for River Bend and Wildwood Dairy near Egan replied that, if the road gets paved — even if it’s a terrible idea, then so be it. He added, however, “But, are you still comfortable with your $100,000 that you committed, even though the engineers are saying don’t do this? Because that’s part of the agreement as well.”
Blinsman Township has brought in local Attorney John Shaeffer to help in the negotiations on their end. Other county board members suggested that the dairy not be allowed to start populating its barns until a paved road is in place or an alternate agreement is reached with the Township and its neighbors.
The conversation has county officials looking further into the growth of larger-scale farms in the area, how much is too much and where that growth might best be allowed. An informal survey was recently done among some farm families across the county as a result.