DeAtley gains asphalt permit despite protests

After a two and a half hour debate, DeAtley Construction was awarded a 10-year permit to operate an asphalt plant outside Colton at the Entel Rock Quarry.

The county board of adjustment granted the permit at a public hearing April 15. Two families living close to the quarry protested at the hearing. They contended heavy, loud trucks moving in and out of the quarry for the asphalt plant would be a major nuisance.

Representatives from DeAtley, the rock quarry, and local residents each presented their case to the board at the hearing.

Last month, the board had been prepared to grant the 10-year permit but decided to delay this while county planner Alan Thomson informed all residents within 1,000 feet of the proposed asphalt plant.

Thomson made this choice last month after the same two families protested that residents within 1,000 feet of the plant should be notified, not 300 feet, as had been originally notified.

DeAtley Construction claimed they applied for the permit because they wanted Poe Asphalt’s business.

Poe Asphalt is providing the asphalt for the current resurfacing of 8.5 miles Highway 195 from Colton south to the state line. DeAtley wanted Poe to use their potential asphalt site but lost that business because of the county’s delay, DeAtley spokesman Greg Graybill said.

Graybill told the board Poe has since located at a different site during the month the DeAtley permit was in limbo.

Board members questioned Graybill what DeAtley’s will now do with the permit, saying they had been under the impression DeAtley had immediate use for the asphalt plant.

“I must admit, I looked at this as a short-term project to support the asphalt batch plant, as opposed to ‘whenever I please,’” said board member Jim Lemon of Colfax.

Graybill told the board they had an immediate use for the plant with Poe, but when the board delayed their permit they lost the project. They now do not have an immediate project for the plant.

“Had the permit gone through that last month, we would have gotten the project,” Graybill said.

DeAtley will not directly operate the asphalt plant. Instead they will contract the site out to another company.

In response to the residents’ complaints, Graybill pointed out most asphalt plant projects last a short time.

Richard and Justine Rupp said they were most concerned with the truck traffic near their home.

“What we’re most afraid of is they’re going to have an enormous amount of traffic running down the road,” Richard Rupp said.

Last December, DeAtley was issued an administrative use permit for their portable rock crushing operations at the Entel Quarry. In March, DeAtley crews set up a portable rock crushing machine.

The Rupps and the Olsons are appealing that administrative use permit which was an extension granted by Thomson on a 1999 permit.

The appeal protests the hours of operation for the quarry and protests the use of N. Meyer road for quarry trucks.

Their appeal will result in a public hearing in front of the county board of adjustment next month.

A message left with the Rupps was not returned by press time.