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• A report released Thursday on the Rural Mainstreet Index says the overall index rose to 58.2 in February, compared with 55.6 in January.
• Creighton University economist Ernie Goss oversees the report, and he says it is the index's fifth increase in the past six months. He says he expects economic growth for the region "will continue on a slow but positive pace."
• The index ranges from 0 to 100, with 50 representing growth neutral. Any score below 50 on the index suggests contraction in the months ahead.
• The index is based on a survey of rural bankers in Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming.
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• SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- A Minnesota company is looking to spread up to 19,000 tons a year of byproduct from the John Morrell hog processing plant in Sioux Falls across farm fields around South Dakota.
• The dried, treated wastewater byproduct currently goes to the landfill.
• On Monday, the Minnehaha County planning commission will take up a conditional-use permit application from Austin, Minn.-based Environmental Land Management, the Argus Leader reported (http://argusne.ws/YcDdP2 ).
• The county planning staff is recommending the permit be denied, saying it's likely that the proposed use would constitute a nuisance for surrounding properties with residences.
• "The proposed use has the potential for odors, additional heavy traffic during the transportation of the material and attracting nuisance animals and insects," the staff said in the report.
• The John Morrell wastewater is sent to anaerobic digesters, in which microorganisms break down the biodegradable material. It then goes through a dissolved air flotation system that removes suspended oils and solids before being dewatered on a belt press.
• Michael Klema, Environmental Land Management's director of business development, said what emerges "looks like used coffee grounds." He said it does not have an odor, and he plans to bring a sample to the Minnehaha County planning commission meeting to prove that claim.
• Klema characterized the byproduct as a valuable and free fertilizer supplement rather than a waste product to be sent to the landfill.
• "Only a certain amount of lucky farmers are going to get a sniff of it," he said. "There's not enough to go around."
• Klema said the company needs conditional-use permits in Lincoln and Minne

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