Quarry Draft Ordinance Too Dense for City Leaders

In its story covering last Tuesday’s Common Council Meeting FranklinNOW reported:

The limestone quarries on Rawson Avenue were at the center of debate at the city's Common Council meeting Tuesday, as alderman sought to create a citizen advisory board that would oversee monitoring of the sites.

To meet concerns of residents living near the quarries, the city has issued a request for proposals for a private contractor that would monitor blasting and air quality at the quarries. A draft ordinance tentatively defined a citizens [sic] panel that, together with the Plan Commission, would "check what they (the monitors) are doing," in the words of Common Council President Steve Taylor...  Read more.

In October of last year THE FRANKLIN INDEPENDENT JOURNAL (FIJ) ran a story asking Who's Monitoring the Quarry?  At that time we wrote that the City admitted quarry operations had gone unmonitored for the past six years.  Were it not for concerned Franklin citizens living across the street from the quarry and upset with the Payne & Dolan quarry "enhancement” (expansion), who knows how long the quarry's emissions would have gone unmonitored.

Residents Call for Neighborhood Meeting

In attendance and representing the City of Franklin at this neihborhood meeting was Mark Luberda, Director of Administration. Mr. Luberda told those in attendance that it appeared Franklin has been lax about monitoring quarry issues.  Those in attendance were particularly interested in discussing the limestone quarry’s operations and why the quarries were not being monitored. Mr. 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 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.”

In the end, the citizens group agreed that the blasting, dust and berms are getting much worse and the whole situation is out of hand. If that is the case, we ask why would Franklin city leaders allow the quarries to expand without any independent monitoring?

As reported by FranklinNOW, here are some of the aldermen’s comments pertaining to the draft that was presented and debated during the Council meeting.

Alderwoman Kristen Wilhelm proposed that committee members be appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the council, and that city staff support the committee. But a dense paragraph in the draft outlining the duties of the panel drew criticism.

Alderman Tim Solomon asked whether the committee would be "micromanaging the consultant." Alderman Doug Schmidt said he was "overwhelmed by the amount of verbiage" in the draft.

Finally, Aldermen Wilhelm and Olson said they would work together to produce a new draft, along with the city attorney and administrators.

In the end the Council decided not to take any action on the matter and the draft ordinance was set aside for more work.

Click here to listen to the audio of the May 15 Common Council meeting.

FIJ coverage of this story

• Is the Quarry Expanding? Well...yes and no
• Who's Monitoring the Quarry?
• “There is absolutely no expansion of the quarry with the approval of this project”
• City’s Elected Officials and Payne & Dolan’s Dirty Little Secret

City’s Elected Officials and Payne & Dolan’s Dirty Little Secret

IMPORTANT MEETING TONIGHT

Have the City’s elected officials put politics ahead of public safety or have they been asleep at the wheel when it comes to monitoring the mining operations at Payne & Dolan's Quarry and  the the air quality coming out of that quarry?

A Franklin citizen’s group has asked former Alderman and editor and publisher of THE FRANKLIN INDEPENDENT JOURNAL, Basil Ryan to moderate its meeting this evening (Thursday, September 28, 2011) at 7:00PM to discuss and explain how Franklin’s elected officials and City staff have put Franklin citizens at risk of contracting Silicosis due to years of lax and legally required oversight of the Payne & Dolan Quarry.

Quarry Meeting Flyer

According to OSHAs website, Silicosis is caused by exposure to respirable crystalline silica dust. Crystalline silica is a basic component of soil, sand, granite, and most other types of rock, and it is used as an abrasive blasting agent. Silicosis is a progressive, disabling, and often fatal lung disease. Cigarette smoking adds to the lung damage caused by silica. Silica has been classified as a human lung carcinogen.  Silicosis makes an individual more susceptible to Teburculocis (TB), Scleroderma – a disease affecting skin, blood vessels, joints and skeletal muscles, as well as possible kidney disease.  OSHA also points to the following sources of exposure for Silicosis. 

• Sandblasting for surface preparation
• Crushing and drilling rock and concrete
• Masonry and concrete work (e.g. building and road construction and repair).
• Mining/tunneling; demolitions work.
• Cement and asphalt pavement manufacturing

If it were not for Payne & Dolan’s expansion ("enhancements" as City officials explained) of its quarry operation along South 51st Street, essentially between Rawson and Drexel Avenues, more than a decade old oversight failure by City officials may have never been discovered.

Ffollows are questions submitted to City staff during an August 24, 2011, Neighborhood Meeting pertaining to the Payne & Dolan Berm “enhancement” Project.  Answers are organized by topic, and were provided by the City of Franklin Planning Department.  We received these answers by email on Friday, September 16, 2011.

Questions & Answers to Quarry Questions (9-16-11)

The question now is: Who in City government should be held accountable for this serious failure to protect the citizens of Franklin from this potential cancer-causing agent produced potentially being produced ad released from the quarry operation?  In the private sector it would fall squarely on the shoulders of the Chief Executive Officer.

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“There is absolutely no expansion of the quarry with the approval of this project”

Despite company claims that there is absolutely no expansion of the quarry with the approval of this project, it would require a willing suspension of disbelief for any reasonable person to accept this as fact.

In a recent article we suggested that Mayor Tom Taylor and his “boys,” Aldermen Solomon, Taylor and Skowronski, were  conducting “business as usual “ by quietly permitting the quarry; more specifically, Payne & Dolan, Inc. to prepare for an expansion of the east side of its quarry on 51^st Street.  Since our firts report, the "berm enhancement" appears to be progressively edging closer to 51st Street.

Here  is the so-called “Neighbor Letter” and an aerial view of the quarry, highlighting the project’s location we received from Cliff Weninger, Area Manager, Payne & Dolan, Inc.  Read it carefully with a syndical eye.  There must be a mammoth number of noise complaints from neighbors in the immediate area of the quarry for Payne Dolan to go through this, what appears to be great expense to buffer its operations noise from its neighbors.  Neighbor Letter From Payne Dolan, Inc.

Quarry Aerial Photo

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Is the Quarry Expanding? Well...yes and no

Franklin residents have seen this movie before.

It was inevitable.  First, tear down the homes and buildings on the west side of 51st Street.  Let any rumors and scuttlebutt (e.g. quarry expansion), as to why these buildings were demolished abate.  Then, when all has quieted down, move in the bulldozers and earth-movers and hope no one notices or bothers to speak out until it’s too late.  That’s how Mayor Tom Taylor and his “boys” (Aldermen Solomon, Taylor and Skowronski) on the Franklin Common Council like to work.  Is that this group’s idea of open government.

Driving south on 51st Street yesterday, between Rawson and Drexel, I noticed a bulldozer and a couple other pieces of earth-moving equipment operating on the east side of the quarry’s burm.  Today I checked with my alderman and sure enough the quarry is being expanded as part of a years-old agreement with the City. Franklin pols will tell you “'Technically,' it’s not being 'expanded.'” Evidently this is due to the language in the agreement.

The berms to the east are being moved further east so that mining can take place beneath where the berms once stood.

Please direct any questions regarding this matter to the mayor, your alderman or Joel Dietl, AICP, Planning Manager, City of Franklin at 414-425-4024.