A final decision on a preliminary injunction sought by opponents of the proposed Pilgrim s Pride rendering plant on Gadsden Airport Authority property will come next week, following a second day of testimony on Thursday.
Dynamic Collision, a body shop located on Steele Station Road near the proposed site adjacent to the Northeast Alabama Regional Airport, and close to a dozen other local residents and entities who were added as plaintiffs, are suing the City of the Gadsden and the Gadsden Airport Authority.
They claim locating the Pilgrim s Pride plant on the property would violate zoning regulations and are seeking to block it.
A preliminary hearing in a case challenging a proposed rendering plant in Gadsden will continue on Thursday after a full day of testimony on Monday.
Testimony will resume at 1:30 p.m. Thursday, although Etowah County Circuit Judge George Day said the hearing could be pushed up to 9 a.m. if a morning hearing gets canceled. A decision will be made on Tuesday.
The suit brought by Dynamic Collision against the City of Gadsden and the Gadsden Airport Authority, and later joined by 11 community members, challenges a proposed Pilgrim’s Pride rendering plant on GAA property on Steele Station Road on the grounds that it would violate zoning regulations.
A preliminary hearing was held before Judge George Day in the case of Dynamic Collision vs. the City of Gadsden and the Gadsden Airport Authority. It focused on 16 subpoenas filed by the plaintiff who is challenging the proposed plant on GAA property on Steele Station Road, contending it would violate current zoning regulations against various city, airport and industrial development officials, Pilgrim s Pride itself and representatives of an engineering firm.
The subpoenas requested that the parties provide documents regarding communications between them and Pilgrim’s Pride to the court, and be present during a hearing scheduled for next Monday.
Pilgrim s Pride argued this would require them to also present documents involving the company s “trade secrets” and pertaining to technological designs and other equipment, setting up the potential for competitors to steal their ideas.
Attorney: Pilgrim s Pride soliciting bids for August construction start
Lawyers for Dynamic Collision filed a motion Thursday seeking an expedited ruling and hearing on a preliminary injunction request as part of a zoning challenge at the proposed site for a Pilgrim s Pride rendering plant.
Attorney Joshua Sullivan s motion asserts that a ruling is needed quickly because Pilgrim s Pride solicited bids for construction on the proposed plant, for a starting date in August.
Circuit Judge George Day responded quickly, setting a hearing for 2:30 p.m. May 10.
Day in his order setting the hearing said Dynamic Collision, the plaintiff, had sought a declaratory judgment and a permanent injunction something that should be entered, if needed, after a final hearing. The order says the court has taken the arguments under advisement and expects to make a ruling soon, along with other motions discussed in a hearing earlier this month.
Gadsden City Council President Cynthia Toles at the end of Tuesday’s council meeting reiterated the city’s response to comments last week by the attorney for opponents of a proposed Pilgrim’s Pride rendering plant.
Christie Knowles in a social media post last week said Mayor Sherman Guyton “essentially accused” her of stealing confidential documents that dealt with the plant. Her firm represents both plaintiffs in a pair of lawsuits against the plant.
Knowles also said she had been informed that the mayor’s office had sought to obtain a search warrant for her office, and that there had been discussions of whether she could be prosecuted for homeland security violations.