O’Brien County, Iowa — The O’Brien County Board of Supervisors held a public hearing about the proposed construction of a confinement feeding facility owned by Van Ess Dairy LLC in Section 17, Lincoln Township during their regular weekly meeting Tuesday morning.
Van Ess Dairy wants to build one new dairy cattle free stall confinement building, one new earthen manure storage basin, one new sand separator building and an anaerobic digester system to process all dairy cattle manure and generate gas as part of an expansion to an existing dairy cattle confinement facility at their location a few miles northeast of Sanborn. The facility would house about 5,400 head of mature dairy cattle and 900 head of immature dairy cattle.
Following the public hearing, the O’Brien County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to approve the construction of the Van Ess facility expansion.
In other action, the Supervisors, as the Board of Canvassers, made official the results of last weeks special election for the 2nd Ward seat on the Sheldon City Council. Ken Snyder was declared the official winner with 90 votes, Sandra Johnson finished with 23 votes and Madeline Kopel garnered 9 votes.
