Residents wait to speak at quarry hearings

By TOM KANE

[This is the second in a four-part series on zoning in Wayne County.]

HAWLEY — Palmyra resident Charlie Bell isn’t happy these days.

A quarry is being proposed by a local company which would be right across the road from his home on Owego Turnpike. There is another one—Ciccone’s Atkinson Quarry—at the end of his road.

“I knew that one was here when I moved here,” he said, “but another one is just too much. There will be more dust, more noise and broken up roads around here. We don’t need another quarry. Not here.”

He’s one of many Palmyra residents, in the borough of Hawley, who attended four meetings held in Hawley over the last four months, waiting for a chance to have his say.

For the fourth time in as many months, a judicial proceeding on the proposed quarry was held on April 10 in the town, but no one had a chance to speak. The session, called a curative amendment proceeding, was held before the township attorney, Jeffrey Treat, who acted as a judge. Township board members have also presided.

The company proposing the quarry is Molti, Molti and Godwin. Its lawyer, and lawyers for four residents who are opposing the quarry, questioned witnesses brought forward by the company. Witness hearings dominated the meeting.

The company is arguing that the township’s zoning ordinances are too harsh. They want to mine a five-acre section of land as well as process the mined material on-site, both of which are not allowed by the zoning ordinance. Zoning allows only two acres to be mined. In addition, the company objects to the limitation of the entire operation to 180 days.

Wayne County Director of Planning, Ed Coar, was subpoenaed to appear at the proceedings to answer questions by both sides.

Coar stated that changes should be made in the township’s ordinance to conform to two new sections of the Pennsylvania Municipal Planning Code—Sections 67 and 68—and already existing sections that allow the extraction of mineral material. It doesn’t say how much should be allowed.

“Our zoning gives us the right to decline the curative amendment,” Palmyra supervisor Alfred Wolf said. “We’re not denying them the right to recover the minerals. Our ordinance limits how much they can extract and prohibits any processing on-site.”

Coar told Palmyra supervisors the state code required them to be reasonable in restricting the extraction of natural resources from the township. In a letter to supervisors, Coar stated, “In light of the proposed curative amendment before you, you will be one of the first municipalities in Pennsylvania to have the opportunity of trying to determine what is the reasonable development of minerals in your municipality.”

The public will have a chance to speak when the proceedings are over, Wolf said. Wolf estimates that at least two more sessions will be needed.

The company proposes to mine 10,000 tons of gravel and other minerals out of five acres each year, and estimates that it would take 500 trips per year by a truck to remove the material, according to John Seamans, a consultant for the company, who was questioned by the residents’ attorneys at the third meeting last month.

The entire property owned by Molti Molti and Godwin encompasses 277 acres, and sits a few miles east of Hawley. The trucks would be of the two- or three-axle type, Seamans said.

“You cannot possibly break even with the small operation that they are planning,” said resident businessman Michael Alexander. “It would take them 65 years to recover their investment. I suspect—and this is speculation—that once they get this curative amendment and the zoning changed, it would be a mere formality to get a permit to mine the entire 277 acres. Only the Department of Environment Protection (DEP) would be involved in the decision, not the town. It would be out of the town’s hands.”

Wolf said he was unaware that the DEP would do such a thing.

One board member, Marie Ribiero, has recused herself because she works for a group that opposes the quarry, the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of Peace, which owns a cemetery near the site.

Wolf said that a fifth session will be scheduled, perhaps in early May, when all the parties got back to him with an agreeable meeting date.

“It’s a good thing we have zoning,” Bell said. “Otherwise we’d have no way to control them.