Whistleblower: To him, the fix doesn't fly

Richard Theis moved to rural Scott County seven years ago expecting the abundance of fresh air and open space that comes with country living. What he got were hordes of flies and worse -- their excrement caked all over his house and cars.

He says the flies are the byproduct of a neighboring feedlot, where up to 90 cows stay while they fatten up on their way to slaughter. He thinks the flies are attracted by the feed and manure.

"You can't sit outside because the flies are so bad," Theis said. "I'm surprised I haven't gotten a disease."

Theis always thought the 10-acre farm was too small to house so many animals, some of which weigh more than 1,000 pounds. But he became furious when he found out that his neighbor, Roger Breeggemann, has long been violating a county ordinance that allows him to have no more than eight full-grown cows on that much land.

Breeggemann didn't return repeated calls for comment.

Breeggemann was slapped with a criminal charge last year, but area officials are now backing down. Chief Deputy County Attorney Ron Hocevar told Whistleblower on Friday that his office is planning to dismiss a misdemeanor charge against Breeggemann for violating the ordinance if he agrees to a list of requirements, including leasing 30 more acres of land and spraying a substance on his neighbors' houses to deal with the flies.

"We wanted to address the concerns they raised [about the flies]," Hocevar said. "[Breeggemann] is agreeing to do what it takes to make them happy."

But the neighbors aren't happy. Theis and his neighbor, Wiley Vogt, think the agreement is a "band-aid solution" that may allow the problem to persist.

Flies leave behind a mess

Theis first noticed the flies in 2002 when he was building his house on Zumbro Court in a western pocket of Shakopee. Once he moved in, he noticed black tar-like streaks on his cars and pretty much any surface the flies could get to, he said. Every other week, he got out a bottle of Windex and a roll of paper towels to clean up the mess.

He found out about the ordinance a few years later and contacted the Scott County Planning Department. His constant pestering, however, didn't pay off until November when prosecutors charged Breeggemann with violating an ordinance aimed at limiting the number of livestock on hobby farms.

Breeggemann acknowledged having as many as 100 cows on the land at the time, telling officials he ran a feedlot registered with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, according to the criminal complaint. He claimed the land had always housed that many cows, but prosecutors noted that his 10-acre plot was just a portion of a farm that originally spread over 80 acres.

Vogt has been renovating a house he bought next to Breeggemann's property since February and is planning to move in this fall. He expects to spend about $3,000 to sand, bleach and stain the windows that have been coated in fly excrement.

"I'm out in the country," he said. "There's going to be smells and scents. I'm not ignoring that. But you can't be outside without getting attacked by flies."

Vogt and Theis hoped that county officials would include them in any settlement discussions with Breeggemann, but neither of them has seen the agreement nor will they get to approve it.

By adding 30 nearby acres to his farm, Breeggemann will just barely meet the legal requirement that exempts his operation from the one-cow-per-acre limit.

"Essentially, they kept digging through the ordinance until they found a loophole in order to get him in compliance," Vogt said. "I thought it was going to get addressed and I was going to be included in it, but obviously not."

The agreement lets Breeggemann decide what to spray on Vogt's and Theis' homes once a month, and that concerns them. Breeggemann also will be required to remove manure from his property once a week and make sure the equipment he uses to move feed is covered so it won't spill on the ground and draw flies.

How many cows can Breeggemann bring in now? As many as he wants, according to Scott County rules.