By PHYLLIS ZORN

Staff writer

A mountain of silage delivered to property owned by a county commission candidate resulted in a letter from the city of Marion telling him remove the pile or file a written request for a hearing within 10 days.

Marion police delivered the notice July 24, the same day silage began arriving on Mike Beneke’s Marion property at 601 W. Main St., the former Straub’s International location.

“We served it, but it was issued by city hall,” Police Chief Tyler Mermis said.

City attorney Susan Robson said the situation was for “a nuisance issue.” The property is zoned for commercial use, not agricultural.

Depending on what Beneke does, the city could end up taking action to resolve the nuisance, such as removing the silage and charging costs to Beneke, Robson said.

Beneke said he bought 500 acres of corn to harvest.

“We’re chopping on corn about a mile north of US-56,” Beneke said.

He said he planned to cover the silage and let it remain there until needed in the winter.

“I didn’t even raise two-thirds of what I normally raise,” Beneke said. “Plus it makes money in the economy. We’re taking our crop insurance checks or we won’t have anything.”

Beneke appeared at Monday’s city council meeting to ask when the 10 days to request a hearing began. Robson told him they began the date he got the letter.

After the meeting Beneke said he will request a hearing.

Beneke, who bought the building in February, attempted to rent it to Marion County Community Economic Development Corp., of which he is treasurer, for $1,000 a month. He now uses the building as headquarters for his Double B Cattle operation.

On the property are several farm trucks as well as well as a combine, manure spreader, tractor, silage trucks, a boom truck, and a grinder.

Also inside the building is a six-door limousine, which an employee said Beneke plans to use for his county commissioner campaign.

In April, Beneke was upset about the condition of a county road that leads to his Lincolnville feedlot. After he complained to county commissioner Dianne Novak, whom he hopes to defeat in the next election, county road employees went to check the condition of the road and found him already rocking it himself.

That wasn’t the first time Beneke has been steamed about roads.

In 2015 Beneke dumped 27 tons of gravel on a section of road east of Lincolnville that he said was hazardous.

Later, he dumped a truckload of dead tree branches on the courthouse lawn. He said they were in the middle of Yarrow Rd.