Community Trying To Stop Proposed Rock Quarry

A plan to start a rock quarry has residents riled up in a scenic Sand Springs neighborhood. A public meeting was held Tuesday night to hear both sides of the quarry quarrel. The landowner would have

Tuesday, September 18th 2007, 6:00 pm

By: News On 6

A plan to start a rock quarry has residents riled up in a scenic Sand Springs neighborhood. A public meeting was held Tuesday night to hear both sides of the quarry quarrel. The landowner would have to get a specific-use permit from the city before he could put in the quarry. The News On 6â€™s Steve Berg reports residents say they're determined to keep that from happening.

"We all moved out here to have quiet country living,â€ said Sand Springs resident Robin Pressnall. â€œWhat you hear are the trees and the birds."

Robin Pressnall fears that would change if a proposed rock quarry goes in just north and west of her home in the Rolling Oaks Neighborhood.

The quarry would cover several hundred acres in a wooded area between Avery Drive to the north and 41st Street to the south.

"We would be having explosions, we would have a 24-hour rock crusher we would hear constantly,â€ Pressnall said. â€œI'm very concerned about the older people that live in our neighborhood, anybody who may have emphysema or asthma, the dust that will be coming."

The attorney for the landowner is asking people to attend Tuesday night's meeting with an open mind.

"This isn't your father's rock quarry," attorney James Weger said.

James Weger says there have been many improvements in quarry operations, and he says blasting will be kept to a minimum.

"There won't be more than one or maximum two a week," Weger said. "Most of these people in Rolling Oaks and the other subdivisions will never know this rock quarry is there."

But Pressnall isn't convinced and has helped gather more than a thousand signatures on petitions to stop the quarry. And she's invited residents who live near a rock quarry in Owasso to speak at the meeting.

"We've talked to numerous, some of them that lived within three miles of a rock quarry, and they say that three miles away when the explosions are going on they can feel them inside their bodies," said Pressnall.

And she thinks it would jolt her property value.

"I don't know how many people you know who would want to live next to a rock quarry," she said.

The city will have a total of three meetings on the issue before they decide whether to grant the specific-use permit. The Planning Commission held a meeting Tuesday at the Sand Springs Community Center. That is located in the Plaza Shopping Center at 420 East Plaza Court.

Officials say over 400 people attended Tuesday's meeting.

Sand Springs officials say two more meetings concerning the quarry are scheduled for October 2nd and October 16th. Both meetings will be at the Sand Springs Community Center.

Watch the video: Community Takes Stand Against Proposed Quarry