Gravel pit opponents sound off

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WOODSTOCK – About 40 neighbors of Tom Merryman’s proposed rural Woodstock gravel pit are not merry at all.

Twenty of them spoke for just under an hour to the McHenry County Board on Tuesday to oppose plans to mine gravel on 80 acres on South Street, just east of Franklinville Road about a mile west of town.  The board did not vote on the matter pending a Zoning Board of Appeals recommendation.

But Tuesday possibly could have been opponents’ last chance to address the board before members approve or deny Merryman Aggregate’s 10-year conditional-use permit. Neighbors are worried that gravel trucks, which could make as many as 200 trips each way daily, would ruin their rural lifestyle through traffic, dust and noise.

“Your vote on this matter will either preserve a rural area of our county, or destroy it,” resident Scott Rood told the board.

County rules place public participation after zoning votes, which take place at the board’s evening meeting on the third Tuesday of the month. The zoning board is expected to make its recommendation June 26, which could go before the County Board July 17.

Merryman was not at Tuesday’s meeting, but said Wednesday that the size of his operation was much smaller than what opponents alleged. He said the pit would service only Merryman Excavation construction projects, would be open up to 100 days a year, and that 400 one-way trips a day was an absolute maximum number and not the average.

“The operation I’m proposing is not the same as the big operations they’re thinking of. It’s a small operation that will be open 100 days a year, if that, with two employees,” Merryman said. “We are not going to open our stone sales to the public. We’re only going to make the stones we need.”

Seneca Township officials oppose Merryman’s proposal, and the McHenry County Soil and Water Conservation District is concerned about the loss of prime farmland and potential contamination of shallow aquifers and nearby Franklinville Creek.

Several opponents asked the county for protection if members approved the pit. Township Supervisor Ersel Schuster asked the board to start a well-monitoring program for neighbors, and a neighbor asked that the county to guarantee surrounding land values.

“Conditional use is a privilege,” Schuster said. “It is not a right.”

Residents, many of whom have packed the zoning board hearings on the matter, said they did not believe Merryman’s assurances that that impact on the area would be minimal.

“How many of the people in the area have to suffer just so Mr. Merryman can make more money?” neighbor Tom Meyer asked the County Board.

The county conducts public comment after zoning matters to ensure that members’ decisions are based on sworn testimony as required by law.