A visitor to NIT left this comment today. Do you agree or not?
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I come to Mason City about once a week. I visit the Cargill plant. There are days, like today where the odor is (so) powerful that I retch, my eyes water, and I mustn’t breathe, or the stench would incapacitate me. I type this, huddled in a self contained pocket of air within my vehicle, waiting for my stomacher to settle and my head to stop pounding.
It seems the source is a nearby facility, run by Vi-Cor, that (does) ones not comply with city ordinances. This is indicative of a city with poor leadership who seems intent on torturing citizens and visitors until they leave for good.
Shame on all those responsible, especially those who have the power to correct this ludicrous situation yet do nothing.
It makes it impossible to form a positive or even charitable opinion of the city at large.
I need to lie down.
Matt
Minneapolis
Sorry for the late note…ViCor stunk up the air yesterday morning (Thursday April 4th) at 5am as I was leaving for work. The foul-smelling air was also present at 6pm Wednesday (April 3rd) when I came back into town from work.
I am going to keep blogging every time ViCor invades our air and community until ViCor polices itself or the Mason City Government enforces its own zoning ordinance.
@Mary-they were real bad last weekend too.
I greatly appreciate your comment LVS.
Please keep blogging whenever the stench is in the air. We need to keep recording this so the City can’t say “they” don’t smell anything. This is a repeat violation and we need to keep reporting it.
This is so wrong on so many counts. We have a right to breath clean and fresh air. ViCor doesn’t have the right to take this away from us no matter where we live in Mason City. They’ve been allowed to do it for years on the east side of town and that is wrong also. Now the whole town is permeated with the stench.
Scott Tornquist should certainly smell it when Metalcraft moves over here. Maybe he’ll stand up for the citizens of Mason City when it’s in his “backyard.”
Janet Solberg has lost her sense of smell as well as her sense of responsibility to the people of the Fourth Ward.
How many times do people have to report this zoning ordinance violation before the City officials do something? Just because the “officials” don’t smell it doesn’t mean it’s not present!!
Keep blogging folks – EVERY TIME you smell it.
City Officials – wake up and do the right thing!!!
Today is March 29, 2013.
9am…ViCor spewing stench again this morning. Nothing coming from the thermal oxidizer nor does it appear to be functioning but there is smoke/? coming from the original smokestack.
Take note Mason City…another day that the City of Mason City is allowing an industry to VIOLATE the zoning ordinance it put into place.
WHY DOES THE CITY NOT ENFORCE THE ZONING CODE? Have the city leaders all been paid off by VI-COR? This sounds like another Good Ol’ Boys Club to me. POOR CITY LEADERSHIP FOR SURE.
It sounds like alot of the responses are made up by the VI-COR team, especially the ones in favor of stinking up a residential area – that has laws in place to prevent such sh*t from happening.
Again, poor city leadership at it’s ugliest. Beermeyer and the Good Ol’ Boys Club.
It’s that time of year again. Time for ViCor to stink up the west side of Mason City in addition to the east side. Still the City and it’s elected and paid officials do nothing. They don’t smell anything but money.
Today at 5pm the air was rank with the smell of ViCor. Eyes and nose burning.
Yesterday at 3pm the west side of MC stunk with ViCor.
New occurrence? I think not. Periodically throughout the winter the west side would stink from ViCor’s national headquarters immediately south of a residential area. I drove out there at 6:30pm in early February to pick up a package from FedEx. The stench was unmistakeable – ViCor. I drove over to the plant on South Benjamin and observed smoke roiling out of the original/main smokestack and moving north/northwest. The thermal oxidizer sat cold.
Mason City Officials – you have an obligation to uphold the zoning ordinance and again/still you look the other way. We are NOT going to let this drop. A neighbor spoke with Alex Kuhn yesterday. We’re going to keep calling and blogging and emailing until you do something. How can you possibly expect to attract good paying jobs and industry to the area when this stench prevails? Blue Zone people – how can YOU condone this?? This is far from healthy and it needs to stop. NOW!!!!!!
This is not the smell of money. It is the smell of greed and hands in the other guy’s pockets – your buddies. This will drive people away and keep good people out.
Wake up and smell the stench and DO SOMETHING about it!
Wednesday about 6 pm the vicor plant on south carolina avenue was gushing steam/smoke/particulates at such an alarming rate I nearly got out of my car and took pictures and video. It smelled like a rotten potato. Should these neighborhoods be subjected to this filth? What is in this exhaust? Where is the EPA? The city? do they care? Something needs to be done.
I drive down that street frequently and never smell anything but soybeans. I keep wondering what ViCor smells like.
I live in the area of Vicor, the egg plant, the soybean plant and the ethanol plant as well as waste managements storage site. Further West is Aromours plant.
Depending on the way the wind blows, I will smell the soybean plant or the ethanol plant and on occasion Aromours.
None of these places smells so bad as to warrant all of the complaints I’ve read here. It is an industrial park after all.
Now maybe the city wasn’t real wise in establishing an industrial park so close to a residential area, but it is there. If you wan’t manufacturing in your town, something sometime is going to smell.
If you don’t like the way Mason City smells, move to the little towns that have zero manufacturing. Getting to be lots of “bedroom” communities you can choose from. Pay the cost of high fuel and drive into Mason City to work.
This Matt from Minnesota, sounds like he has no idea what is going on, just wan’ts to complain.
WOW, something in this article smells ….I think it is about time for the “news” to stop going after places that have workers employed. With all the unemployed wanting work and the “leaders” saying they have plans to employ the unemployed, (3.5 years in the making)I think these people writing the news should re-think there news search skills.
Just making my thoughts (read)
The stench from the ViCor plant on South Benjamin is bad. That’s what this piece is all about. ViCor has installed a thermal oxidizer that was supposed to take care of the “obnoxious odors leaving the premises of the property”. That’s what the city zoning ordinance says. Matt from MN is correct that this part of town stinks. You folks that wade in complaining of other parts of town need to speak up as well. Your comments I’m sure are justified but this piece is about ViCor. This part of town reeks! The City needs to step up to the plate and enforce the ordinance. We’ve had promises for years. Do something now instead of just give it lip service. Enough is enough!
“Many of them are full of garbge and have been sitting there unmoved for weeks.”
I had noticed the smell also from Waste Management, however I am not all that sure there are dumpsters of live garbage stored there. I believe that would be against City Code. Correct me if I am wrong, however there are no licensed refuse transfer stations within city limits.
That said, unless rinsed out, an empty dumpster can stink just as bad as a full one.
In the last few days, someone has again been drilling manure to the far south. Not quite as bad however as a week or so ago when Skippy at the Glob could not figure it out (yet NIT called it right).
This is rediculous anytime something smells in town everyone immediately thinks oh it’s vi-cor! We not dealing with a bio-chemical plant and they fixed the air filter on the plant in industrial park so your smelling something different dumb ass
I live about 1/2 way between both plants and have never been bothered by the smell.
I often ride my bike by vi cor on the bike trail that runs beside it to the west and north side. I can tell you that the smell that comes out of the plant is nothing compared to the smell a block away. Just to the south a block waste managment has a lot full of dumpsters. Many of them are full of garbge and have been sitting there unmoved for weeks. How can they get away with that? Mabe thats what your smelling at cargill, its closer and smells worse!
The South side of town always smells. Most times, it just reeks of arrogance and self-righteousness, but now it just smells like a mixture of toast and rotten eggs.
Its not that bad and they will fix it…Matt from Minn. would pass out at the sight of a blood drop…toughen up man
It’s not that bad at all …Matt in Minn.would scream or pass out at the sight of blood…toughen up and they will fix it
Oops! SouthEast.
In recent weeks, I have noticed this odor in the South and Southease parts of town.
We could smell it up here on 14th N.W. It wasn’t real bad but it was noticable I guess after working at Deckers years ago I would say this smells like the old ByProducts Department. Not as bad as the Hide Cellar but still nasty.
try mason city byproducts right next to the U.P.
Sorry to say, but I think anyone that thinks the smell is bad, should try taking a bath, I have been near that place many times and never has the odor been so bad that we should try and close it down and put more people on unemployment
Maybe it’s time for the area residents to try and sue the company. And the city councel. There as guilty as the company.
They are, or Their, not “there”….just saying
Sorry
council, not “councel”….just saying
Sorry
Was at mercy yesterday and the stench from vi-cor was terrible, about made me throw up! And the south carolina plant is worse!!!!
Interesting, I spent a great deal of time at Mercy myself yesterday. I never smelled anything outdoors that would make one throw up. Sure you wern’t there because you were sick? Just wondering what it was that affected you so.