Imagine, if you will, purchasing a piece of country property on which to build your dream home. Building that home so that you can move your young family to the country where your children will be able to play and enjoy the beautiful outdoor Oregon life we all appreciate and sometimes take for granted. Imagine buying a large acreage farm on which to raise your sons – the property you want to preserve and grow old upon; the property on which you would like to someday be buried. Now – imagine that way of life being destroyed. What would you do if a 100 acre quarry began operating right next door to your home? Having to listen to rock crushers and back up alarms all day long – for the rest of your life. You can’t sleep in on a summer day because they begin operating at 6am. You can’t sell your property- at least not for anything close to what you paid for it – because your property value has been cut in half due to a fully operating quarry in your backyard.
Unfortunately the above is not a “fairy tale” containing a make believe villain. Unfortunately this is a true story - and it is about to happen to my friends Adrienne, Beth and Adam along with several of their neighbors. On December 16th the Marion County Board of Commissioners all but approved the application for a quarry to begin operation at 16675 Coon Hollow Road in Stayton. The final ruling will be announced on December 30th.
There are many concerns for the nearby property owners – not the least of which is their quiet idyllic way of life. Sitting on their property on a summer morning - enjoying the sunshine and breeze - listening to the birds sing and the water running in the creek… this will no longer be something they can enjoy. The sounds of man and his equipment will be heard throughout the area. The people who bought these properties did so to enjoy the land and live a life surrounded by nature and beauty. While I do believe that property owners have the right to do with their property what they want – as long as it is legal – do they have the right to do so at the detriment of the community? Do the rights of one outweigh the rights of many? I don’t think so.
While a way of life is certainly important and one that I am in support of, let’s take a look at the safety of this issue. Let’s discuss the road conditions and upkeep. As a taxpayer I am concerned about the roads and who will pay to repave them every couple of years. Coon Hollow and Boedigheimer are rural country roads. They were not built to support large trucks traveling them numerous times a day. The quarry has applied for up to 400 loads daily. That doesn’t mean 400 trips. That means 800! A truck will come into the quarry empty and leave with a load; Up to 800 trips per day! The trucks weigh 56,000 pounds fully loaded; 104,000 pounds if it is a truck and pup. The quality of these roads will deteriorate at a rapid pace. How often do you think potholes will need to be repaired – the road to be repaved? Again, I ask, who is going to pay for this?
Cost aside, what about the safety of the people traveling the roads? Coon Hollow is not overly wide and it contains S-curves that are dangerous under normal circumstances. I’ve travelled that road many times and often I’ve come around a corner to be faced with a car that is not in their lane. How likely is it that one of those fully loaded large trucks will be in their own lane? Anyone in a car – or even an SUV or minivan – who meets one of those trucks head on will most likely not survive.
The City of Sublimity successfully petitioned that the trucks will not be allowed to travel through their city. Ironically, one of the Commissioners lives in the City of Sublimity. Does this raise any red flags for anyone else? If there were valid concerns about the trucks travelling through their city doesn’t that mean that everyone using these roads should be concerned? Do the City of Sublimity’s citizens have a greater value than those citizens living along Boedigheimer and Coon Hollow? Apparently this particular Commissioner feels that they do. He said in the hearing on the 16th that he didn’t want to see those trucks in Sublimity and even cited certain streets that they shouldn’t be allowed on. Hmm… interesting.
I urge you to please write to the Board of Commissioners and ask them to reconsider their position on this matter. Ask them to deny the application or delay it pending further investigation. At the very least be concerned about the number of loads on those roads per day. Ask them to a lower the number of acceptable loads and adjust the operating hours of the quarry. The application requests operating from 6am to 6pm six days a week. A start time of 7am or better yet 8am seems more reasonable. Their e-mail addresses are: sabrentano@co.marion.or.us – jcarlson@co.marion.or.us – pmilne@co.marion.or.us .
I’m not usually an activist. I don’t normally get overly political – but if I could get personal for just a moment, it completely breaks my heart that this beautiful area is going to be destroyed along with my friends’ way of life. If this can happen to my friends, it can happen to any of us. While a quarry may not be operating next door to you what COULD happen to your property? Imagine - it seems just about anything.
Unfortunately the above is not a “fairy tale” containing a make believe villain. Unfortunately this is a true story - and it is about to happen to my friends Adrienne, Beth and Adam along with several of their neighbors. On December 16th the Marion County Board of Commissioners all but approved the application for a quarry to begin operation at 16675 Coon Hollow Road in Stayton. The final ruling will be announced on December 30th.
There are many concerns for the nearby property owners – not the least of which is their quiet idyllic way of life. Sitting on their property on a summer morning - enjoying the sunshine and breeze - listening to the birds sing and the water running in the creek… this will no longer be something they can enjoy. The sounds of man and his equipment will be heard throughout the area. The people who bought these properties did so to enjoy the land and live a life surrounded by nature and beauty. While I do believe that property owners have the right to do with their property what they want – as long as it is legal – do they have the right to do so at the detriment of the community? Do the rights of one outweigh the rights of many? I don’t think so.
While a way of life is certainly important and one that I am in support of, let’s take a look at the safety of this issue. Let’s discuss the road conditions and upkeep. As a taxpayer I am concerned about the roads and who will pay to repave them every couple of years. Coon Hollow and Boedigheimer are rural country roads. They were not built to support large trucks traveling them numerous times a day. The quarry has applied for up to 400 loads daily. That doesn’t mean 400 trips. That means 800! A truck will come into the quarry empty and leave with a load; Up to 800 trips per day! The trucks weigh 56,000 pounds fully loaded; 104,000 pounds if it is a truck and pup. The quality of these roads will deteriorate at a rapid pace. How often do you think potholes will need to be repaired – the road to be repaved? Again, I ask, who is going to pay for this?
Cost aside, what about the safety of the people traveling the roads? Coon Hollow is not overly wide and it contains S-curves that are dangerous under normal circumstances. I’ve travelled that road many times and often I’ve come around a corner to be faced with a car that is not in their lane. How likely is it that one of those fully loaded large trucks will be in their own lane? Anyone in a car – or even an SUV or minivan – who meets one of those trucks head on will most likely not survive.
The City of Sublimity successfully petitioned that the trucks will not be allowed to travel through their city. Ironically, one of the Commissioners lives in the City of Sublimity. Does this raise any red flags for anyone else? If there were valid concerns about the trucks travelling through their city doesn’t that mean that everyone using these roads should be concerned? Do the City of Sublimity’s citizens have a greater value than those citizens living along Boedigheimer and Coon Hollow? Apparently this particular Commissioner feels that they do. He said in the hearing on the 16th that he didn’t want to see those trucks in Sublimity and even cited certain streets that they shouldn’t be allowed on. Hmm… interesting.
I urge you to please write to the Board of Commissioners and ask them to reconsider their position on this matter. Ask them to deny the application or delay it pending further investigation. At the very least be concerned about the number of loads on those roads per day. Ask them to a lower the number of acceptable loads and adjust the operating hours of the quarry. The application requests operating from 6am to 6pm six days a week. A start time of 7am or better yet 8am seems more reasonable. Their e-mail addresses are: sabrentano@co.marion.or.us – jcarlson@co.marion.or.us – pmilne@co.marion.or.us .
I’m not usually an activist. I don’t normally get overly political – but if I could get personal for just a moment, it completely breaks my heart that this beautiful area is going to be destroyed along with my friends’ way of life. If this can happen to my friends, it can happen to any of us. While a quarry may not be operating next door to you what COULD happen to your property? Imagine - it seems just about anything.
Thank you for your consideration,
Cindy Mulligan
Unfortunately, 95% of the earth's population can't imagine living such a life that you described.
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