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
Thursday, May 31, 2012 at 12:00 PM 
