Fallout from arena

Dear Editor,

The Red Willow County Commissioners have received a letter describing the present conditions and problems which exist on the east side of the Kiplinger Horse Arena. These are evident to me because I live immediately across the street to the east of the structure.

At present, there are three open pens for cattle which are brought in to be part of the activities inside the building. These pens have been standing since last September. In the past, these pens would have been taken down (the fencing is movable) and then the little green tractor with a front loader would have cleaned the straw and mess from the ground. This fall, there has been no straw on the ground and no cleaning of any of the pens.

When an event has been scheduled, large horse trailers are driven on the fairgrounds, the horses are unloaded and their reins are fastened to the owners' trailers. They stand there until they are ridden into the arena for that event. Saturdays and Sundays, these horses are kept on this ground on the east side of the arena. The horse droppings are plainly visible.

No farmer builds his horse barn as close to the house as this arena stands across the street from my house. Nor does the farmer deposit the cleaning from the barn as close to his house as the mess on the ground from the arena lies from my house.

Please, drive by and see for yourselves what my neighbors and I look at day after day.

Now there are plans to add to the Kiplinger horse arena even farther east, and this will occupy most of the area which has been used for years to accommodate cars being parked during Red Willow County Fairs.

Summertime, when flies breed, presents another problem to be dealt with from the mess on the ground.

Statewide problems of animals being penned and fed near houses where people live have been settled in courts.

However, in McCook, a large horse barn was built and is being used within our city limits. The houses on the east side of my street were built long before the horse barn.

Very truly yours,

Phillys E. Lyons,

McCook