Commissioners make no decision, table permit issue

After almost redundant discussion on the application for a condition use permit from Pine Bluffs Gravel and Excavating Inc. for the proposed use of a gravel mine to operate a ready-mix concrete batch plant at the Cheyenne County Board of Commissioners meeting Monday morning, commissioners decided to table the matter until April 15 when hopefully both parties will have reached an understanding.

The meeting of the two groups started out with Sidney Attorney Don Miller, representing Pine Bluffs, explaining all the measures that the company has and is currently going through to ensure no more problems arise for the neighbors.

“We presented the board with some evidence on Feb. 19 at the public hearing. Some of the evidence we presented included evidence form a hydrologist talking about the water issues and how this use will not negatively impact that water,” said Miller. “We also presented testimony and a PowerPoint presentation from the engineering firm of DOWL HKMvia Jake Miller.”

Miller said that the presentations illustrated ways that the team was strategizing to minimize as well as manage the dust problem.

“Since that hearing we have taken some of those steps. We made some promises to the commissioners that we were going to take some steps and we did those,” said Miller. “We had a bulldozer out there pushing down that dirt after that snow had got a little moisture in it. We pushed that dirt down and we hydro-mulched those dirt berms to help control the dust.

“We also put the liner in the pond to address some of the water issues.”

“We are trying to take the steps that need to be taken to reduce the risk and the difficulties the neighbors have in regards to these matters,” he said. “We are trying to make good on our promises and to address some of the issues that have been raised.”

Julie Harrison, a neighbor due east of the company, said that all the preventative measures the company is now trying to put into place should have been done months ago.

“Why didn’t they do all this stuff that they are doing to fix and control from the beginning? Even though it was temporary, why didn’t they play by the rules from the start? Now they are trying to play catch-up but we’ve already been damaged. Why didn’t they play nice with us from the beginning?” asked Harrison.

“It is not the best use of my time to not get along with the neighbors. We try and live in harmony in every place that we are in,” said Keller.

“This should have been done before all of this began,” said Bob Reynolds, a lawyer from Ogallala representing the Craig Harrison, Brad Sutton and Chad Hrbek families.

“We followed the law, that’s what we did,” said Miller. “We believed we were under permitted use so we proceeded from there. We had contracts and deadlines we had to meet. We told their council we would sit down and talk and never heard response.”

“As I sit here and listen to this it reminds me immediately of my five kids,” said Reynolds. “I have four girls and a boy. One of the biggest problems with my son, who is about to graduate from law school, is he was really big on the idea that it was a lot easier to ask for forgiveness then it was for permission.

“It strikes me that this is what we are talking about here because if this was a six month operation to fill a couple government contracts under the zoning regulations that would allow for this to occur, then during that six month period of time a cement plant would not have been built, permanent scales put in and all of the work done out there to develop this property. This was done with the presumption the program would be going forward,” said Reynolds.

The lawyer also explained that he had been a truck driver to pay for law school and that the trucks ran all night and were noisy and in fact a nuisance.

“This has been, since the moment that it began, a nightmare. For them they have had times that every single orificein the house is closed and yet dust would still accumulate inside. They have had people knocking on their door at all hours of the day,” he continued.

“It’s one thing to move to a nuisance and it’s another thing to have a nuisance move to you. It’s in our opinion impermissible for a governmental entity to authorize that nuisance’s perpetuation when they know that it exists.”

Also opposed to the idea of the commissioners granting the permit was Randy Sutton, who lives approximately two miles from the site, and Craig Harrison, who lived just adjacent to the property east.

“Mr. Keller went in there and created a gravel mine, piled up a bunch of stuff and as he stated at the last commissioners meeting they’ve already got more contracts that they bought or traded for. It’s my understanding they need to be at least 1,500 feet from any housing development to have a mine,” said Sutton.

“I think the commissioners are committed to the citizens of Cheyenne County to have Pine Bluffs Sand and Gravel push what they have shut and then go ahead and ask for some kind of permit for what they want to do next in Cheyenne County,” he continued.

“We have three children, one with a health defect, and we have to be very cautious of the places we choose to live,” said Harrison. “Due to the gravel pit we had to put our house up for sale.”

“I travel a lot and am not home all the time. It worried me greatly when I have truck drivers knocking on my door at all hours of the day. I had to make the decision to move because of the environment that this company put us in,” he said. “This has been a health concern, a safety concern and a huge financial burden from what this company has done to us.

Herb Stevens also stated his fear of going out of business if the creek were to dry up like it did this summer, which he blames on the gravel mine.

“Is there any common ground that the interested parties could come together on and make a solution rather than have the commissioners dictate what will happen?” said commissioner Ken McMillen.

“No matter what way we go, someone is going to be grossly disappointed but I would certainly not want to circumvent the interested parties from getting together and working out a solution,” he said.

The two parties will come together again to meet with commissioners April 15 at 10 a.m. after they have privately met amongst themselves to come to an agreement, if possible.