Falls Village residents prepare for quarry hearing

FALLS VILLAGE — Residents who live near a Sand Road quarry will once again have a chance to have their voices heard when the Planning and Zoning Commission takes up the company’s annual renewal application for a special permit allowing it to blast and mine stone.

At a public hearing next Wednesday, Dec. 19, the commission will hear representatives of Century Aggregates make their case. At the hearing last year, almost two dozen residents showed up to raise questions about the quarry’s operations and safety record.

"I think they’re making every effort to address the safety issues," Linda Weidenhamer said in an interview. Weidenhamer is a member of Concerned Citizens of Falls Village, a group of residents near the quarry that formed in 1987.

Weidenhamer cited the installation of a new berm and additional trees to reduce the noise and visual impacts as evidence that conditions have improved since Sept. 18, 2006, when a blast went awry. That unusually loud industrial accident frightened residents and sent large stones, some as large as a brick, more than 1,000 feet toward several neighboring homes, including those owned by Robert and Ruth Giumarro and the Weidenhamers. No one was injured, but Zoning Enforcement Officer Michael O’Neil issued a cease-and-desist order prohibiting blasting until further notice.

That order was lifted by the commission Nov. 8, 2006, after Century agreed to use high-technology laser profiling and deviation tracking systems designed to detect the kind of geological weakness that caused the fly-rock incident.

Weidenhamer said she still has a few concerns that she intends to raise at the hearing. The quarry is currently permitted to operate from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday, for a total of 50 hours per week. She proposes that the company refrain from operating on that last day, which she would dub "Sanctuary Saturday."

"It’s really a quality-of-life issue," she said.

She would also like the town to take a hard look at how much tax revenue the quarry’s equipment generates for the town. Witnesses say the large dump trucks seen entering and exiting the 5-acre quarry have New York license plates. Connecticut’s 169 municipalities have personal property and business equipment taxes, while New York’s do not.

Greg Marlowe, the general manager for the Century Aggregates quarry, did not return a phone call by press time. Neither did Fred Laser, who chairs the Planning and Zoning Commission in Falls Village.

Century’s application noted that quarrying will take place in the same areas of the mine as last year, "with increased development in the northern section in 2008."

Ruth Giumarro, who was in her house during the 2006 blast and heard rocks thumping against the roof of her Belden Street home, agrees that the company has been more responsive and that the berm and additional trees have helped.

In addition, the company calls all nearby homes just before the blasts and has hired a new blasting company since the fly-rock incident. At that time, Giumarro was outside weeding and had just sat down to lunch in her home when the blasting accident occurred.

"If I had been outside, I might have been killed," she said in an interview.

Last time around, Century’s special permit hearing was held Feb. 28, 2007, when the commission unanimously approved the renewal. The Dec. 19 hearing will begin at 6:30 p.m. at Town Hall.