GEORGETOWN – The Planning Board conducted a site visit last week at the more than 100-year-old Zibell Farm at 214 North St. to view the sand mining operation that has been going on for several months.
Farm owners allowed only Planning Board members to tour the property and view the scope of the mining operations. They asked SelectBoard member Laura Repplier to leave. The Town Common newspaper was also barred from attending the Planning Board meeting.
The Planning Board did not deliberate on the operation during the site visit, which chair Harry LaCortiglia wrote in an email would be an Open Meeting violation.
The board will meet again this week on the project to consider if it should grant a permit to the farm for the sand mining operations. Or if it should issue a cease-and-desist order to stop the trucks from extracting the sand and bringing in fill, which the neighbor claim is filled with construction debris.
According to Todd Champlain, who represented Kathy Potter, the current farm owner, the farm is removing the sandy and plans to replace it with high quality soil to create an organic farm. Champlain said the farm’s attorney has advised that the town does not have the right to regulate the agricultural activities.
His claim was based on an attorney’s opinion of the town’s “Right to Farm” bylaw plus state and federal laws protecting agriculture, he said.
Neighbors packed the SelectBoard meeting last week to complain about the 18-wheeler trucks, who start extracting the sand at 6:30 a.m. and continue all day, either removing or bringing in dirt on narrow roads adjacent to their residences.
Steven Proulx questioned who in town government was responsible for seeking a cease-and-desist order to stop the removal of the sand until the Planning Board can finish its deliberations.
Another neighbor, Vincent Milano, said the town has been slow to act. “There’s no ownership (among the boards and commissions). It’s embarrassing to me.” He said he was worried that in five years, the site will be declared an environmental disaster and the taxpayers will be required to clean it up.
Neighbors, Peter and Beth Gramolini, have hired Ron Borenstein, an attorney to represent them. “We are spending our own money to save our sanity,” she told the SelectBoard.
She said the trucks are bringing in asphalt millings and other construction debris to replace the sand.
Neighbor Steve Ratcliff said, “This is not an organic farm operation.” ♦
What Else Did the Planning Board Miss?
GEORGETOWN – At the time of their site visit, we don’t know what the members saw on site, but we do know they missed the noise of trucks entering and exiting the mining site nearly every 10 minutes, and the sounds of at least two loaders with their banging large buckets, and three excavators running constantly. Bentley Warren, Torromeo Industries (sand and gravel, excavation, cement…),WRJ Trucking, and PMS Trucking, were among the many branded trucks we previously observed hauling materials. We timed multiple trucks: It takes five minutes to fill an 18-wheel dump truck, less time for a 10-wheel standard dump truck, and a few minutes to close its cover. One route includes traveling on West Main Street, through Haverhill, to Torromeo’s plant in Kingston, N.H. ♦
