Quarry hearings:
round 10

By DIANE GLYNN

HAWLEY — Impassioned pleas to deny the requested curative amendment that would allow the expansion of the Malti/Goodwin quarry in nearby Marble Hill were voiced at a hearing Thursday night to Palmyra (of Wayne County) supervisors.

Whether these pleas fell on deaf ears or not remains to be seen, as the hearing, held at the Hawley Fire Hall, and touted as the “final quarry hearing” for public comment, will go to yet another round-robin of testimony, as requested by the legal representatives of all concerned parties.

The matter of the proposed quarry was left in limbo last year with two Palmyra supervisors, Joe Kmetz (favoring the quarry), and Al Wolf (against the quarry), as supervisor Marie Ribiero recused herself from voting on the matter from the beginning. She cited conflict of interest (notably her employment with Queen of Peace Catholic Church, which has retained legal counsel to fight the request to expand the two-acre quarry). The Malti/Goodwin group first requested a zoning change to allow quarrying on 87 of the 277-acre site, then requested a curative amendment to allow blasting on a five-acre site.

The Malti/Goodwin group put the curative amendment on hold, and the appeal to ultimately change the zoning now falls in the hands of the county court, where the matter may not be heard until this summer, due to Judge Robert Conway’s packed schedule.

The Malti/Goodwin quarry owners requested the matter return to a curative amendment before Palmyra supervisors, which would not change the zoning, but would conditionally approve blasting on all five-acre sites within Palmyra Township.

Why return to the curative amendment route now?

In December the two voting members of the Palmyra Board of Supervisors were split in their decision. Since then, Al Wolf has retired, and the philosophy on quarries of newly elected Palmyra supervisor Philip Klavana has not been established.

Among the quarry critics heard last Thursday were Michael Alexander, whose property is less than a mile from the altogether 277-acres owned by John and Ronald Malti and William Goodwin. Alexander, who has pledged to spend “every penny” to fight the quarry, said, “There are issues greater than most people realize here. We have the largest influx of garbage coming here from other areas… Passing a curative amendment on this issue suggests that there is something wrong with the current zoning that needs to be cured.”

Hawley Borough Council member Mary Sanders asked supervisors to think about the ways in which allowing the quarry to expand would “open the door” to allow even larger industry to squeeze into the residentially zoned community the Malti/Goodwin group wants to change. “It’s unfair to change zoning in an attempt to provide competition for other businesses,” Sanders said in reply to William Goodwin’s assertion that they could not compete with the established Cyclone Quarry (less than two miles away) under the present zoning.

Goodwin argued that the DEP had already issued a permit for small mining on the property and, since most Wayne County municipalities were without zoning, reliance upon the DEP to issue permits for such things as quarries should hold sway over municipal zoning laws.

When a show of hands was requested to determine the number present who did not favor the quarry, more than three-quarters of the people present raised their hands. Merchants from neighboring Hawley opposed to the quarry included Looking Glass Gallery proprietor Juan Espino, and Torte Knox proprietor Sheelah Kaye-Stepkin.

To date, Palmyra Township has incurred $5,000 in scheduling hearings on the matter. The date of the next hearing has not been determined.