Who's Monitoring the Quarry?

City Admits Quarry Operations Went Unmonitored for Past Six Years

Franklin citizens upset with the Payne & Dolan quarry enhancement/expansion called for a neighborhood meeting.   In attendance representing the City of Franklin was Mark Luberda, Director of Administration. Luberda who admitted to those in attendance that it appeared Franklin has been lax about monitoring quarry issues.

Franklin residents met to discuss the limestone quarries operations and why the quarries were not being monitored. Luberda said the contract that Franklin had in place to monitor the quarry lapsed in 2005 and the City never took up the issue again. When one of the Franklin residents in attendance asked him why, Luberda answered, “Maybe there were no complaints.” Another Franklin resident pointed out that perhaps there were no complaints because the quarries were not being monitored. It was the overall consensus of the attendees that the blasting, dust and berms are getting much worse and the whole situation is out of hand. If that is so, why would Franklin allow the quarries to expand without any independent monitoring?

The extraction of limestone at the current location of the quarries began in the 1940's with a change in ownership and property ownership lines between the two quarries over the years. The extraction commenced prior to the City becoming a Wisconsin municipality in 1956.

Over the years, the growth of the Milwaukee Metropolitan area increased the demand for this limestone resource. Growth has placed many new single family homes in the general vicinity surrounding the quarries. Obviously, the expansion of both conflicting land uses has demanded careful consideration of the quarrying operations.

During the early 1990's quarry operators and citizens of Franklin embarked upon a communication process leading to the acceptance of voluntary blasting guidelines, dust control, extracting limits, hours of operation, etc., by the quarry operators. When the quarries approached the City for approval to expand the extraction area boundaries beyond the area allowed by zoning, a long, extensive and exhaustive process took place and eventually lead to the adoption of the Planned Development Districts (PDD) No.23, and the listing of criteria as standards.

For several years, even before the adoption of the PDDs, the City of Franklin Fire Department was  the agency responsible for collecting blasting data and receiving and following through on complaints of quarry operations from citizens. Periodically, a seismograph, in the possession of the Fire Department, was utilized to verify blasting information. The collected data of blast results and tabulation of complaints was to be reported on a monthly basis to the City of Franklin Common Council. The Franklin Fire Department did not interpret the information for improvements to blasting techniques, nor did they have the expertise to be monitoring the other areas of concern as outlined in PDD 23.

Alderman Ryan stated that the quarry voluntarily imposed on itself restrictive operating guidelines to mitigate any potential negative impacts of the extraction and related quarry operations on the growing residential area in the vicinity of the quarry. The quarry also agreed to pay to have those activities monitored. Alderman Ryan stated it made more sense to hire trained and qualified independent experts to monitor the quarry rather than the Franklin Fire Department, especially since Franklin taxpayers were not paying for this. Alderman Ryan questioned why this was not done in 1997. Now Franklin residents are questioning why this stopped in 2005.

It’s noteworthy to point out here that on October 16, 2001, then-Alderman Basil Ryan moved to adopt Resolution No. 2001-5285. It was a resolution that he worked on approving a contract with Aquifer Science & Technology for providing quarry monitoring service which included blasting, dust control, hours of operation, noise, etc. This was after a long process which involved the environmental commission, planning commission, and 16 other companies. This was at no expense to Franklin taxpayers because there was a provision in the 1997 PPD agreement stating:

The operator shall be responsible to the City for all reasonable actual costs incurred by the City in the monitoring of Operator's operations hereunder and in the administration of this Ordinance...

According to a City official we spoke with, here are the annual contracted costs for Aquifer Science Technology’s services:

• 2001 Not to exceed $23,500
• 2002 Not to exceed $32,500
• 2003: Not to exceed $33,500
• 2004: Not to exceed $34,500
• 2005: Entered into month-to-month Agreement. Payments as follows:
• JAN—MAR: not to exceed $9,250/for the quarter.
• APR—JUN: Not to exceed $3083/Month and maximum for the quarter not to exceed $9,250
• Contract lapsed

We remind readers again, that these costs were the full responsibility of Payne & Dolan and NOT Franklin taxpayers.  So, again, why was this contract allowed to lapse by the Mayor, the Administration and the Common Council?

It’s fair for Franklin citizens to ask: Has Mayor Tom Taylor met his legal obligations on this serious public safety matter with Payne & Dolan quarry, or is he complicit in allowing Payne & Dolan to ignore City ordinances since 2011 expansion project?

Mark Luberda also told those in attendance Thursday night that (paraphrasing, again) the Mayor is including funding in next year’s budget for the hiring of an independent company to monitor quarry operations.”  This statement is idiotic and disingenuous at best; since this is cost is merely a pass-through expense from the City to Payne & Dolan.  The City of Franklin and its tax payer have no responsibility to pay for this service.  Why is the mayor so attentive to this matter now?  Is it because he got caught?  This kind of nonsense begs the question: What else is this mayor and Common Council hiding from the People of Franklin?

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