Supervisor in squabble over wheat

The state auditor’s office and possibly the Attorney Generals office has been contacted regarding District 3 supervisor Keith Taylor, who is alleged to have combined a wheat field owned by the county.

Taylor was alleged to have been found with a combine and buggy full of wheat he is alleged to have cut off the former West family property. That was purchased by the Marshall County Board of Supervisors as part of Project Poppy, codename for the new 500-acre battery manufacturing site in the Chickasaw Trail Industrial Park off Highway 72 at Curl Road.

Allegations that Taylor cut the wheat that he didn’t plant, estimated to be worth $35,000 to $40,000, were made by three farmers who planted the wheat last fall.

The Hurdles voided their contract with West family trust after the property was to be purchased as part of the site for the battery plant, according to Joey Brock.

Brock said the Hurdle and Brock Farm was paid for the crop they would have made.

“We dropped the lease after they made things right. We came to an agreement with the West Family,” Brock said. “We settled for the crops and the county proceeded to buy the land.”

Brock said pictures of tag numbers off trailers, of the combine and grain buggy filled with wheat were taken as well as a picture of the field at the battery plant that shows the wheat was cut.

Last fall the Hurdles had planted wheat before the deal was closed on the battery plant and the West family paid them for the wheat crop after selling the property to Marshall County.

“The lease was voided and they were able to proceed with the purchase of the land,” Brock said.

He and his grandfather, Paul Hurdle, and Heath Hurdle appeared in the boardroom at the July 1 meeting of the board of supervisors to disclose their findings publicly.

Brock began comments in the open meeting in the boardroom alleging that Taylor was “abusing his powers as a county official by cutting wheat owned by the battery plant.”

“To add injury to insult, he (Taylor) started calling us about contracts,” Brock said.

Taylor denied Brock’s allegations.

“We have photos. We are going to proceed. I know how farming is. You don’t get anything for free,” Brock said.

“I wish I had been given a chance,” said Taylor. “We’re an open book. I don’t have anything to hide.”

Brock alleged Taylor had his equipment on the land.

“We don’t have anything to hide,” Taylor reiterated.

“I got paid $200,000 for the wheat,” Brock said.

Taylor said he was “not in it.” His son was farming it, he said.

“I know perception. I have done nothing wrong,” Taylor said.

He said the combine belonged to his son.

“It doesn’t look good, no,” Taylor said. “Anything unethical, no.”

Paul Hurdle said there was 231 acres of wheat in the field.

“Your combine cut 80 acres of wheat. You were running the combine is why Ken Jones stopped you. The combine was stopped in the field. Ken Jones told you to get off the place, that it was unethical for a county supervisor to be running equipment on a place that was bid out,” Hurdle said. “You were caught on the place running equipment.”

District 1 supervisor Charles Terry said supervisors have no jurisdiction over other elected officials.

“For the record, myself and my son did not benefit one penny,” Taylor said. “Perception probably doesn’t look good. In my heart, there was no stealing or anything. I talked to the guy who rented it, my cousin’s son. I begged him not to bid on it.”

District 2 supervisor Johnny Walker corrected a comment by District 4 supervisor George Zinn III that the property belonged to Yates Construction.

He said the county, not Yates, owns the land where the wheat was planted.

“The line was clearly marked,” Hurdle said.

“The Wilson boy was on our combine cut 90 percent of the wheat,” Taylor said.

“My understanding is the county bought all this property,” Hurdle said. “So the wheat should have been the county’s. Wilson did not put one penny into this wheat crop.”

He said Wilson rented the land at an outrageous rent, twice what the wheat was worth.

“What you are saying is that the farmer who leased the land has nothing to do, that the property belongs to the county or the battery plant,” Terry said.

“That wheat belonged to the county,” Hurdle said. “The county should be paid back what they cut off.”

County board attorney Amanda Whaley Smith said Jacob Wilson sent her a text message that said, “I did not give anybody permission to cut the wheat.”

“If you lease land and it has a crop on it….” Terry said.

Justin Hall, executive director of Marshall County Industrial Development Authority, said “we talked with the attorney representing the county and they ultimately agreed to pay you (Brock and the Hurdles) for the crop.”

Taylor said the equipment in the field was not his but was borrowed.

“I didn’t make the decision. My son did, if anything,” he said. “I take issue with anyone who is saying we did anything illegal,” Taylor said. “My name has been run through the mud.”

Walker said the wheat was legally part of the county.

District 5 supervisor Ronnie O’Neil Bennett said he “would like to get (Jacob) Wilson in here.”

“You cut it and sold it, you made a profit, and now say you can cut it and sell it “to plant my beans,” Terry said.

Taylor had alleged the wheat in the field was preventing Wilson’s soybeans from being planted.

Hurdle alleged that Taylor took the wheat off the 80-acre field and sold it and made about $30,000 profit.

“When the county bought the property, it was their wheat,” he said. “I was informed if any of your son’s equipment showed up on the place it was unethical.”

Taylor said the issue of equipment was never discussed and that they didn’t profit “one dime off of it.”

Terry recommended the board pass a board order to pursue collection of the money for the wheat.

Taylor said the wheat had to be cut to make (the soybean) crop.

“Check into and see if it’s legal to pursue,” he said.

“You have to have evidence if it was county property and the county made a profit and theres a lot of legal issues here,” Terry said. “The county attorney has no authority but what we tell the attorney to do. We need to go to ethics and see what is legal or illegal or not.”

“I just brought that up about the wheat,” Hurdle said.

“The county was taken advantage of and the board of supervisors did not do what it should,” he alleged.

“At the end of the day, we’ve got to take care of the money and use it wisely,” Bennett said.

Terry asked for a motion for a board order to pursue collection of any money received for wheat that was owed the county and it passed by unanimous vote of the board.