By David Heiller
News Editor

One of my first photo assignments when I started at The Argus a year ago was taking pictures at a boys soccer game.

It was a beautiful October evening, crisp, a big moon in the sky, and the smell of manure in the air.

Welcome to Caledonia, I thought with a smile.

All of those sensory impressions, including the olfactory one, are a part of life here, and anybody who doesnít like it probably shouldnít live or work here.

The smell of manure in the air? Horrors! Help! Save me, Iím drowning!

Come on, folks.

County commissioners came to their senses last week in voting to rezone a 40-acre parcel of land on the eastern side of the city from agricultural to residential.

They had tabled it a couple times in the hopes that owner Warren Wiebke could come up with some magic covenant that would protect farmers and businesses from people complaining about farm smells.

People who buy and build on the outskirts of Caledonia should have enough common sense to know that. If they donít, it will be a learning process for them.

We donít live in the big city of Minneapolis or La Crosse. We donít even live in La Crescent.

This is Caledonia, population 2,965. Itís a farm community, and a healthy one at that, thanks to the animals and industry that produce those dreaded odors.

And there is no ìodor problemî in Caledonia like there is in the City of Cloquet, for example. Cloquet is home to a smelly, and profitable, paper mill. They call it the smell of money there, and that same phrase could apply to this situation.

The county has zoning ordinances that address feedlot size and location. From what Iíve seen, those ordinances are adhered too quite well. Commissioners and zoning workers use common sense and concern for citizens. Public hearings give people a right to voice their views.

Whatís next? Is Farmer Joe, who has been sweating all morning, going to have to break out the Right Guard before he stops at the Redwood for noon meal?

Is Farmer Jane going to have to put on slippers before she pumps gas at Kwik Trip after the evening milking is done?

All right, Iím exaggerating. But letís quit worrying about the smell of hard work. I would submit that we had better start to worry when we DONíT get an occasional whiff of manure on the wind.

Go to a soccer game, look at the moon, take a deep breath, and smile.

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Caledonia Argus
314 West Lincoln St.
P.O. Box 227
Caledonia, MN 55921-0227
507/724-3475

E-Mail: editor.argus@ecm-inc.com