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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.
The Gadsden City Council went into executive session during its pre-council meeting on Tuesday to discuss the “authorizing of engagement” for a legal firm.
The council was in executive session for roughly an hour to talk about hiring Ford, Howard and Cornett, P.C. of Gadsden.
Council President Cynthia Toles said after the council returned to open session and before its regular meeting that the issue had simply been “presented” and no immediate action would be taken.
No specifics were discussed, but the city in the past week has suffered legal setbacks in Etowah County Circuit Court in its effort to quash attempts to stop legal challenges to a proposed Pilgrim’s Pride animal parts rendering plant on Gadsden Airport Authority property on Steele Station Road.
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.