ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, February 15, 1996 TAG: 9602150052
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: PULASKI
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
Pulaski County residents living near a 10-year-old rock quarry convinced the county Planning Commission that expanding the work area is a bad idea.
They will have to do the same thing Feb. 26 when the matter comes before the Board of Supervisors. But they will have a commission recommendation against the conditional-use permit needed for the expansion.
The commission voted 7-0 against recommending the permit for Holston River Quarries, following a public hearing Tuesday night that packed the agency's meeting room.
Residents of the area along Virginia 611 (Wilderness Road) in the Ingles District complained of blasting contributing to cracks in the walls of their homes, odors and air pollution from the existing operation and constant flow of heavy trucks up and down the road. They said they were concerned about the possibility of damage to their underground water sources, noise, debris, sinkholes and dust.
Kendall Clay, a lawyer representing Pulaski County Developers which is seeking the conditional use permit, said the expansion would not change the character of work going on in the area, which is zoned for agriculture.
Clay noted that the same quarry owners had recently gotten permission in Montgomery County for an operation off U.S. 460 near Blacksburg. The conditions governing both projects are remarkably similar, he said.
Maynard Sayers, a resident of the area and the county's commissioner of revenue, said he and others living around the quarry had "already endured 10 years of horror" from the existing operation, which covers more than 40 acres.
Dudley Grimes said a large picture window had been cracked twice by heavy blasting, which sometimes shakes glasses and dishes to the floor in his home. "The smell of asphalt is so strong that you couldn't get in your back yard to cook a steak," he said. "It used to be a beautiful place."
Mike Boyer said the some 75 residents of his trailer court, including about 40 elderly people, have had their lives made miserable by quarry operations for the past decade and are worried that the operations could change the course of underground water and harm their wells.
"They're asking the neighbors to absorb all the costs," he said. "This, to me, is the perfect example of why you have zoning. ... If you're going to let this happen, forget zoning."
The county had no zoning ordinance when the quarry was located along Virginia 611.
"In addition to threatening our source of water, air pollution is a serious problem," said Becki Gunn, one of the trailer park residents.
"Our house has been shaken many times as though a minor earthquake had occurred," said Robert Kinder. "Approval of this request would be the beginning of the end for property owners on Route 611 all the way from Staff Village to the Claytor Lake exit on Interstate 81."
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