The Carroll County Board of Adjustment has set a meeting date of Thursday, March 9, to consider a request for a variance from local farmer, Loren Danner. Danner has been named the plaintiff in a lawsuit brought by the Carroll Airport Commission over the height of a grain leg that was constructed on Danner’s property. The two parties have spent years negotiating the reduction or removal of the leg, which is considered to be a flight hazard on the ends of runways 1-3 and 3-1 at the Carroll Airport. They have, to date, been unable to reach an amicable solution. Commission member, Greg Siemann, has said that even though Danner filed the necessary paperwork with Carroll County prior to adding the grain leg that intrudes approximately 60 feet into the field’s airspace, the commission was not notified in time to stop the construction. This, Siemann said, violates several ordinances that were adopted by the County of Carroll in 1978. Danner said the cost to lower the system by 40 feet to fall under the 30-foot ordinance would have cost more than $200,000 over a year ago because it would require the installation of conveyors to move the grain. The Board of Adjustment held a public hearing on the subject on Thursday, March 2, but tabled the discussion. That discussion will be continued and a formal decision will be made by the board at Thursday night’s meeting, taking place at 7 p.m. in the Board of Supervisor’s meeting room on the second floor of the Carroll County Courthouse. The trial date has been set for Tuesday, March 14.
