TRR photo by David Hulse Confederate Civil War re-enactors Charles Bertani, left, of Middletown, and Bill DeHaas of Andover, NJ are pictured at Monday's Memorial Day services at the old Barryville Congregational Church. (Click for full story)

Residents: quarry plan is a disaster

By KRISTA GROMALSKI

LEBANON TOWNSHIP - Residents are gearing up to fight a corporate quarry and asphalt plant proposal that they say will endanger the township's ecosystem.

"They are not in the interests of Wayne County. They will be an absentee landlord. They will not create a lot of jobs for Lebanon Township or the county. They will not spend a lot of dollars in our township. They won't live here. They'll take their profits and they'll run, and 20 or 30 years from now after they've polluted Big Brook, Dyberry Creek and the Lackawaxen River... they'll be gone... and they will have left a major scar on this gorgeous area," said one opponent.

The accusation was against the company Haines and Kibblehouse, Inc. and came from Bob Miner, chairperson of the group, Quarry Under Investigation in Lebanon Township (QUILT).

Haines and Kibblehouse is the parent company of Honesdale Materials, Inc., the applicant for a proposed quarry and asphalt plant in Lebanon Township. Miner owns a stable and resides directly across from the proposed quarry site on Route 191.

Haines and Kibble-house executive Traci K. Miller purchased the property in Lebanon Township as an individual landowner and, according to QUILT officials, is leasing it to her company for use as a quarry and asphalt plant. Lebanon Township currently has no zoning laws in effect.

Since learning of the asphalt plant proposal in early April, Miner and a group of concerned citizens of the township combined with other environmentalists in opposition to form QUILT. During the short time the group has existed they've received the support of approximately 150 individuals, one environmental law firm from Philadelphia and a hydro-geologist, Miner said.