County Commissioner & Board of Adjustment - Regular Meeting

This conference will now be recorded.

is a mic Bruce on this computer. Okay. But I we need are we are we recording it the meeting? It's very important that we record it. Yeah. Yeah. On that he didn't log out of your original. We just are using a mic on this one. Okay.

Okay. So, Jesse just texted and said she can hear us now. I'm going to try um Randy So, did we get it solved? I think so. I haven't heard back from Randy, but Jesse said she can hear us now. All right, I can hear you guys. Okay, Deb just said she can hear us.

8:25. Brenda, this is a board discussion and action public hearing resolution 2025-29 vacation a portion of right away. Mr. Chairman, if I may. Yes, please.

So, yeah, this is the time and the place for public hearing regarding the petition to vacate a portion of section 9. Dennis and and Margie are here in the audience. I will defer to them. I think I would just generally characterize that the location is in uh Spearfish Canyon and uh they they're going to remove part of the structure as shown on the diagram and want to add a new room on the existing structure. That would be the purpose of the vacation and I think as you can see I think currently probably the uh existing building might not meet the setbacks but solve solve some problems that the section was with that Mr. Sure. I would refer to any comments like that.

Okay. Did you have anything to add, folks? Really, other than the section doesn't seem to be um something that most people anyone would want to use, but All right.

Thank you. Okay. This is public hearing. So, at this time, we will allow the the public in the room or online to participate. If they would like to speak for or against this uh vacation of the section line, we would ask that you would please uh if you're in the room, stand and state your name and address for the record. If you're online, please state your name and address. Is there anyone in the body of the room would like to speak to this body? Okay, see none. Can you folks in the back hear me? Okay. Okay. Anyone online would like to speak to this? It looks like we've given an opportunity to everyone. No one wants to participate at this time. We'll close the public hearing and offer to the board.

Yes, sir. Um, looking at this, this is out in Elmore. All around it is forest service. It it it doesn't access anything behind it that's not accessible by the road that's there. Elmore is kind of tied in and it cuts through their lot. So this to me makes perfect sense for vacation. So I would make a motion to approve what is it resolution 2025-29. Okay. I have a motion by Flanigan and a second by Jennings to approve um the section line vacation. Is there any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor of the motion will say I.

I opposed. Motion carries. All right. Mr. Pay, sir. I don't really have any uh any permits or any uh any kind of uh utilitations or anything like that. We do uh we did receive yesterday the signed documents for the schedule a cooperative cooperative agreement for service and that will be run through 2030. So that's been received. I got Tim here. Here we have a change order at the public service safety center, our utility building out back. Um, we did have some issues with some of the roofing materials and some electrical and I'll let Tim tell you about that. Tim, so the first item on the change order, the 11,800 for the electrical. Um, so when we put it out to bids, the electrician bid it off of the the drawings that RCS gave them and uh they didn't have the asbuilt drawings. So he did not know that he had to run the wire um 280 ft and that there was not a transformer set. Uh so that increase in cost uh is because of that. Um he has to run longer and heavier wire. Um, and then the next item on there, the for the OSB for the roof. Um, we decided that it would be a better roof if we went ahead and added this, although it is not required. Um, we feel the roof would be a lot stronger. So, that amount there, the 6332 is for the labor. And then we're going to buy the materials, which is also listed at the

bottom off to the side. He didn't include that in the total because that was not uh in the bid from Clearary. Um so the OSB is not required but we feel it would make for a better road system if we had it. Uh well I think up here in the snow country that makes good sense. Yeah Tim, I think Mr. Chairman I think OSB is $1,600 to buy the product. Yeah, the pro the material is $1,600 for the OSB and the underllayment that we'll buy buy ourselves and have the product here. Mr. Chairman, I think Tim he can take it out of his budget. Yeah. Okay.

Bruce. Yes. Motion to approve the request. So second motion by Flyman, seconded by Dannies to allow the U extra. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor of the motion will say I. Opposed? Motion carries. Um the only other thing I do I do have some bridge updates.

Pending our presentation from our consultant on our bianual inspections. We do have some updates on the four bridges that are currently being uh worked on right now. There will be more of that coming forward in the five-year plan. as well

at the next meeting. But just to kind of give you a heads up on the like the Christensen Drive bridge, the structures are all of the pre-cast lot structures are are complete now. Um they are we're just waiting on the seasonal limitations that we had for easements with the one landowner to go back in and start working on that. Uh I do fully expect that that that Christensen Drive road will be open, but I don't know that it will be 100% done as far as paving goes because of seasonal limitations. Uh the Mland Road, that structure, we uh just yesterday signed some agreements with the uh the EPA for some storm water uh issues as as construction begins. So that one is is slated to be uh completed yet. this this next month and the following month. Um, our Elmore bridge that's been in the works now for seven years. It's supposed to go to bid by the end of of this year. I don't know, it's still up in the air. Um, we did have an issue with the American dipper. There's a nest that was put on that bridge years ago. And because it is a protected species, we we are we we now can remove that nest after July. The end of July was the the window for that to be removed. So hopefully that bridge will move forward and we'll get that bid this year. It's the plan. Okay. And then our Whitewood Service Road bridge. This is a drift a mile east of Whitewood. We also kind of had some issues there with some environmental and uh archeological stuff when they did their their digs there. They found some some pottery out in the field. So, we're still waiting. That is

also slated to be bid yet this year to go to a bit. Other than that, uh I did have to we'll talk about it at our five-year plan, but those those bridges had to be moved around a little bit. If you remember our fiveyear plan from before, some of these keep reoccurring on our five-year plan. But, you know, just unfortunately, we have to move them forward, you know, as we go. They they don't get built in our time frame, you know, we're just kind of our hands are tied a little bit. Um, other than that, I don't really have anything else for you guys. If you have anything for me, certainly let me know. Any questions for John? The Whitewood Bridge, that's on the south side of the interstate.

That's correct. It's in line with the bridges that they're currently working on on the interstate. So that's going to be replaced with a a cast in place box. So Bruce, you have a question. Well, Mr. Chairman, there's one more thing after you're done asking questions that we need to take care of. It's the Avid for Engineering agreement as well.

Street, right? Uh later on we'll have a public hearing for you. Have you looked at the road up there and the proposal from pro of doing some paving and have you have an opinion on that? We have some preliminary uh inspections that we did yet as far as some right away and some things like that we have.

Okay. And I do believe what Bruce is referring to on our avid boards was some site work out here for this building as well. I overlooked my apologies. And Tim, you refer to that as well. Hey Tim, you want to go ahead with that?

So we're going to dig So the utilities already ran for the new building the uh the power and the gas and uh data. Uh we're going to dig the water and sewer line in ourselves to save a little bit of money. Um, so we solicited A4 engineering to do some site work layout for us so that we know where to dig and how to eat so we can get these utilities hooked up the sewer and water. Um, so they have gave us a quote a not to exceed price of $8500 um to do the site work for us. So that's what we're asking for um with that. take that out of my budget.

Look for a motion to authorize the chairman to sign the agreement. All right. We have a motion by Tisdale, seconded by Levian to allow me to sign the agreement for further discussions. You have an estimate of what the pipe will cost. Uh we already have the water line which was minimal $300 and I do not have the price on the 4 in sewer line yet. I'll get that. That's part of what we need from them. It's the estimate of you know that would be part of their service. Do you anticipate the possibility of rock at that depth?

Uh for the sewer line? No, cuz that didn't have to be blasted. And we believe that we can dig next to the trench that RCS dug when they put the utilities in for this building. Um, worst case scenario, we're hoping if we can only get the water line down 4 feet, that's fine. We just have to insulate it. So, we're hoping no, we don't have to deal with any type of rock. You'll do a utility locate, too, right? Yep. They'll they'll do the whole layout to make sure that we're getting where we need to be. And Okay. Further questions or discussion? And so this is just to get water and and sewer to the building. Yes.

We didn't previously think we needed No, originally from the getgo of this project, we were going to do just a dry storage with heat. And then we decided, well, if we're going to go that far, we may as well add, you know, floor drain and a bathroom and do the entire, you know, complete the whole thing that way. So, um, we did not have the sewer and water ran with this project. Tim, is the water so originally wash off equipment and so forth as well, then it made sense as long as the water is there, you put a bathroom in there. Y sequence of events. Okay. All right.

All those in favor of the motion will say I Richard was opposed. Thank you.

Anything else? John, that is it for me. Yes. Okay. Uh, we've got a short agenda today and the next item is the public hearing which is scheduled at 9:00 a.m. So, we're going to go into recess until 9:00 a.m. to give everybody the opportunity to be here.

For those of you that have joined us, uh, this door over here on the left hand side of the room that you go out there and down the hallway is the restroom. Yeah, if you also plan to speak, I hope you signed up on the sign up. Thank you. I have no idea.

Hello. They're on break right now. Um, the public hearing will start at nine. Okay. Can you hear me? Yep, I can hear you. Okay. I just wanted to make sure I I was in the meeting, so I will hold. Thank you. Yep. Perfect.

before the scheduled public hearing, but there's a little bit of housekeeping I'd like to address. Uh for those of you that have just recently got here, there's restrooms off that side door and down the hallway. Uh, I want to ask that when people are speaking for the folks in the audience to please uh not make any noise or comments. Uh, it's hard to hear, you know, for everyone else. We'll, uh, call upon those. I think we've got a list made of those that want to testify. We'll ask you to come up to the podium and state your name and address for the record. And these things can become contentious. So, I want to ask, you know, we're all neighbors. We pretty much everybody knows one another. Let's be kind today. I don't want to have any issues or problems. Don't uh pick a person out and start going after them because we're not going to allow it. Um, but that said, it is Yes, please make sure all your phones are on silent or pleased. The online people uh if when the time comes if you'll get a flag yourself on the chat line Amber will let you know um she'll call upon you to speak at that time. So also for the board members here we do have a couple folks from DNR that are listing in. So, if the board members on the county commission here uh have a question, uh they'll be there for us to ask a question. So, at this time, I would ask that someone make a motion that we recess as county commissioners and reconvene as board of adjustments.

Second. Okay. Motion by Flanigan, seconded by Slee. All those in favor of the motion will say I. Opposed. Motion carries. Also, today this hearing is on the gravel core. It's not on the board of adjustment. So, please keep your your uh comments and questions pertaining to the uh gravel. Um I don't know if I'm

Yes. um if someone gets up and speaks and touches heavily on a certain aspect of the topic, we would ask if if that's what you're here for, if you'd stand up and just agree with it or disagree with it. Please don't uh we we've been through quite a few of these hearings and uh there's no sense in beating a dead horse to death here. So, at this time, 9:00 a.m., this is the time and place for the public hearing uh on the delivery of the time and zoning board recommendation on CUP 498. Amber, if you want to start us off, please um conditional use permit 498. It's for Larson Family LLP and Croll, Inc. Um everybody knows location of it is off of Homestake Road. Uh it is for a smallcale sand, gravel and rock extractive industry query. Um the total acreage is 101.63 but it's a 10 acre um 10 acres at a time is what can be gra can be mined. Uh the public hearing is um there in the packet you had the uh digital copy which was basically the big packet looked like this one. It's available online. There are a few packets at the back of the room. Um but that is what was presented. We also had uh submission of proposed findings and facts from the attorney. We request those usually prior to the county commission meeting. They actually did do their first draft set prior to the planning and zoning meeting and then they did an edited version um in in front of county commission. So they can do it both ways with the board of adjustment. So they did do that. Uh opposition letters. Um, I'm just going to read a list of those that we've already received and you guys have copies of those. Um, so everything from

the planning and zoning meeting, we always forward those on. So we had an email from Barb Running, Bonnie Gart sent two of them. Bruce Wing, Cheryl Velis, Cindy Upurch, Eric Van Horn, Gerald Marcelen, Greg Mosel, Janelle Powell, Kristen Wing, Liz and Harvey Fyer, Matthew Hensley, Naomi Merchant, Pat Roie, Sabrina Heredia, I'm probably not saying these names right. I apologize, but Shelby Lond, Steve Beck, Tim and Christy Per, Todd Akes, William and Sandra Johnson, Kristen Matsuda, Joseph and Becky LOL. And then after that meeting, we also had a letter of support from Eddie Farms. And then since that meeting, we have received an additional letter from Barb Browning, um, Bestie Bigger Staff, another letter from Bruce Wing, another letter from Cherylyn Veladis, uh, a letter from Emily Bush, another letter from Eric Van Horn. We had one from Jane White, um Joe Velis, Judith Lamb, another letter from Kristen Wing, another letter from Pat Roie, another letter from Tim and Christy Per, another letter from Todd Akes, and another letter from Steve Beck, and then Darcene Mitchell. Um, and then we did receive a letter of support from John Hog. And then I think that's everything to date as of this morning at 7:52 a.m. Um, other than that, I mean, I wasn't planning on going through the packet in general. The the land owner and Croll is here if you want them to make a presentation. Um, with all of this, the conditions that the uh staff put on it are on here. Obviously, you guys can look at those and edit them if you want to. There is

going to be one change on that. The minutes are also included in here um for your review if you need them. But that is all I have unless you have questions specifically for me. Brian from Would you like to give up give us a short presentation please? And I would ask that everyone speak when you come up to the podium. I hope everyone in the room can hear us. All right.

Very good. I'm Brian Marchin. I'm general manager for president 685 Government Valley Roads Nance, Wyoming 8279. And I'm we're here in front of the board today requesting additional use permit for gravel pit state road. The gravel pit come through this current board a couple years ago. It's the same request in its entirety except for one uh change. I'm requesting the uh ability for local deliveries go north and east down Home State Road uh and Wyoming deliveries to go to exit two. Uh and in exchange uh we would be willing to improve that road up the hill, widen it, make it safer pavement uh for us to have that ability. So, uh, nothing else has changed with the permit from what you guys seen the previous time. Um, I'm here for any questions that you might have at any time.

Okay. Thank you. And when you do come up, please address the board and not the audience. Mr. Larson, would you like to speak at this time? Speak for the family. All right.

Good morning. I'm SP Larson Durks. My address is 10437 Home State Road. I'm representing the Larson family today. I think the black holes pioneered a really great article laying out the facts of this pit, so I would not be going into details about that at this time. I'm here to express my support for the proposed gravel pit. My family has ranch in Lawrence County for six generations. Our home is near an existing quarry that has never caused any problems. Agriculture land is where we grow crops, raise livestock, harvest timber, and source aggregates. Without ranchers and farmers, we wouldn't have food on our tables for materials to build our homes or roads. This site is in a small canyon, which helps limit the impacts of dust and noise. Travel extraction here will save on transportation costs, reduce truck traffic, cut emissions, support our local tax base, and once the work is done, the land can be reclaimed and return to productive use and sometimes even improved. Ground quaries have long been allowed use on agriculture land. And with proper insight, this project can be a win for our community. Thank you.

All right. Thank you, Amber. Do you have the sighting sheet there? I do. Yep. Can we just go down through that to allow folks to speak? Yep, we can. You go ahead and just call out a name and we'll we'll start there. Folks, I think we're we'll actually start because I had one only one online so far that has said they wanted to speak. It's Neil Bowman. So, if Neil, if you wanted to turn your mic on and go ahead and uh speak, that would be great. Uh can you guys hear me? Yep. All right. Neil Bowman, 1 19864 Datam Creek Place. Um, I am propo. Um,

Neil, could you give me up a little bit? Okay. Uh, let me see how I can do that with my mic. Just a second. Go ahead and go with other other people. I can do it here in a little bit. Let me uh get my settings up. There we go. Neil, go ahead. We turned it up on this end, too. Okay, there you go. Thank you.

All right. Um, I don't know how to put this. Um, I think this should be put on hold until the court case that is going through the courts on how these cups are um finalized and if uh the citizens of Lawrence County can speak their mind and also speak at the ballot box. Um, I I just don't know why we're trying to push this through when there's something through the South Dakota Supreme Court, which would change every every every way that we're going to be doing this on these cups and these uh gravel pits. Uh that's all I need to say. Thank you.

Thank you, N. Okay. I don't see anybody else so far that has commented on the line. Um so we would start with in the room we have um Doll Man. Hey doll. Would you like to come forward sir? You're hearing you on the floor. Good morning. I'm D. Sorry,

I don't you guys name address 853 road. Thank you.

I've been a land owner here since 1993. I've been here, you know, most of most of my years I've been here buy the property 1930 and you know I get you know a little upset when I see somebody put up a sign on an interstate or billboard or I get upset when somebody erected a cell tower in my in my viewing. So those kind of things are are important.

This is the view. I like my property and the college and temper and everything else. So I understand how people get upset when they buy property and not realizing that their neighbors could decide to put in. We did us, we the people decided in in the 90s that there'd be a comprehensive development county and it was from spearfish out, white wood out, leaf out, deadwood out and all this stuff, all this development all of a sudden just started popping up all over and then and then the next, you know, somebody wants to do something with their property and then they have all these developments that have been authorized and put in not realizing that some a neighbor could want something that they wouldn't agree with. I think it's I think it's been a problem if that comprehensive plan would have been implemented and utilized back in the 1990s put in place that we wouldn't have a lot of this conflict that we have now and we would be losing our a lot of our ranch land and our open spaces and all those things. It's sad to see this the development and it, you know, it conflicts with businesses and I understand if you're a property owner, do you would like to take advantage of the resources on your property, but sometimes you have to take in consideration what your what your neighbors feel about and you may not be able to do what you want to do. It comes down to that.

I it's my property is is is my is you know it's a big asset something [Music] people buy houses and you know their life is based on those houses. So put in the gravel pit will authorize that it's going to affect those people and and the property values. I think it uh really needs to be looked at closer that may not be the best thing to do for those property. That's all I have. Thank you. Thank you. Steve Beck [Music] and I'm going to ask everybody that's in the room because we are having to bypass. This is the speaker here. So, if you can I mean people are can't hear online because this is the speaker over here. So, if you can maybe look at me and it might help instead of going to the back of the room just so online can hear.

Okay. Thank you. I appreciate it.

Sure. 22984 Cedar Berry Road. So Dylan, I'm quite a mile away from where this proposed pit is and we're building a house and we've noticed noted where the prevailing winds come from and typically it's west northwest. So, what I see the pit is going to eventually do is it's going to boil sand and dust and noise and that type of pollution for not only us, our neighborhood, but the town itself. So, I I'm definitely opposed to what's happening here. trying to understand why we can't uh postpone this until the cup decisions have been made. But I guess in in a quick sentence from what I'm seeing here that we need to consider what it would do for the land values for the health of the people of Spearfish. Um considerations of the road itself and what it needs to it needs to do as far as traffic on it. Um I hope you're considering how big of trucks that are going to be going through there. We're saying about 15 trucks a day from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. or so. Uh consider what's going to happen with that. Um so if this does get pushed forward and pushed through on your side, I would strongly suggest that all the trucks get routed west on Homestake up to the Red Oak Road, the Highway 2X. That keeps everything away from going east into town. It goes west and then up to 90. Those are my points. I appreciate your consideration. Okay. Thank you.

Okay. Um, we have Mary and Denny or Margie and Denny maybe. Brandon, if you want to speak, it's your time now. If not. Okay. Um, Janet Eastston, if you No. Okay. Thank you. Um Jay, is that Frey?

J Fry R E Y

1997 Gler Road. I oppose the PIT. I live uh approximately a mile. I think it's east of uh where the proposed uh pivot is going to be. My wife and I have to say that I'm a a new resident to South Dakota and Spearfish. We moved here um about uh eight years ago and we built our dream house and we feel like it's been sort of a switch and bait situation. Uh it was the property that we purchased is wonderful. The house we built is great. And now after everything and settled in, we find out that this pit is going to be going in not too far from the house. And I agree with the prior speaker that the winds prevail and we get heavy wind uh from and I have a a view of the direct view unobstructed of uh the road that the pit is going to go onto. So there's nothing there probably won't be anything built between our home and that area because we have a ranch right behind us. and then the Cedar Berry development on the back side of that and then uh Home State Road. So, thank you for your opportunity and again I post this.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Um Karen Turjan Morning. Morning.

My name is Karen Duran 19963 Mariam. My challenge in life has been to inspire and lead children to love others as they love themselves. Teach integrity and respect. And when not in this classroom to be a good citizen and live that life. As I taught some of your children and family members, I know they came from good homes. the great values. Now, we have been challenged to protect the health, safety, and welfare of our neighbors. Because the citizens have cared about these values, they have already voted to say this location for a gravel quarry is not suitable. I listened to the Spearfish residents and followed through with petitions and expected leadership to care about the health, safety, and welfare of all of us. The air needs to be of great quality and we can see from the testimony of many that the quaries in the area, including Croll's Wyoming site, continue to pollute. The Homestead Road in our area serves a hundred families in the Crow Peak location. It is not suitable for dozens of trucks. It is unsafe for width and bridges. It is used by bikers, four-wheelers, and runners. And there have already been accidents on this location. I remain opposed to the Larsson Crow quy and even worry about the wonderful Larsson family and the accidents that that can happen right there on their very narrow area. And I would uh request that the rest of my time be given to Kristen Wing. Thank you for listening.

Thank you.

Okay. less turent. My name is Les Turen. I'm the 19963 Mariam move. And I don't know where to start because there's so many legal issues here. I would hope that you would take time to take look at them. One of my questions would be is if Mr. Fleet and Mr. Yuing should be sitting on this board this time for a conflict of interest. Nobody mention the conflict of interest. However, I could probably say all of you have some conflict of interest or otherwise you'd be doing what constitutions say we the people. You would be raising us the people instead of sexual interest which is what you're doing. The other thing I need to talk about is that road and we're talking 15 trucks a day of talking with 30 tons of load. You multiply that out, you end up with 135 t,000 tons a year and you've approved them for 250 tons. So now suddenly you're going to have to jump to 57 trucks a day, 300 days a year in order to get to 200 50. And you really need to stop putting pencils to things and some consideration to what the people were. the one that they've already issued. One of them was over 1,700 people and then two over a thousand people. And supposed to be here representing the people, not special interest. And it really is disturbing

uh to see people I know, guys, not standing up for the people. The other question, and this would be for Mr. I guess and his comment said that the county commissioners were never allowed legally allowed to issue a conditional use permit and yet he said board of the board's condition you've issued over 500. Now something wrong here somebody's speaking out of both sides of their mouth here. You can't have one thing that you people confirmations are not legal and turn right around and do it. Sir, I specifically ask when we began to address your concerns to this gravel court, not the board of adjusted. Please keep your remarks and comments to the topic. I would do that except we're talking about the for problem and it's talking about the board of adjustment. I'm not talking about the board. It's talking right here. It's also disturbing that from past when you talk to a interview random said I believe we live in aique area and must continue preserving and fostering this representing Orange County. Well, we know he didn't do that, do we?

Eric Johnson said respect the culture of resident. We know he hasn't done that. So, you know, you think you're not about your mouth when you do that and create your hearts when I know people. Please, I'm going to ask you one more time. Stick to the topic. Don't make don't take personal stabs at the board members. That's not what this hearing is about.

I just read what they they said, not mine. One other thing that, and I'm not sure that Mr. um Barton is aware of because there's two different aspects to this. Number one, the loss of value. Two things. One will be the loss of taxes on it. We got million dollar homes. They're not very far away. And according to the scientific studies, they'll lose about 19% of the minute that goes in. Or like for a $350,000 home, they're going to lose $67,000. On a million dollar home, they're going to lose $190,000. So if they take it to the court and get the taxes reduced and then from there understand from there they're going to be a lawsuit for so it really needs to set some time and discuss before you prove anything that is thank you. Okay. Um, Brenda Venice,

Brenda Venice, 1 19890 Gobler Road and I the where it's at. And I yield my time to Christine. Okay. Thank you,

Lynn Leven. Good. Excuse me. Charge 11 good 1035 home safe road purchase. Well, first of all, I ask for adjustment member and sleep to recuse themselves for kind of conflict event. They both own joining the property to the mine site and previous hearing Mr. Sleep said that he wanted his land mine and Mr. Husel on the previous goound of this exact same issue and at that time he was leasing the property that he now owns and joins current mindsite that issue.

Yeah, that's enough. I'm sorry. The this new pit, excuse me, this new pit is not needed. Croll is opening and developing two pits at the end of Brightful Pit Road, which is about 6 milesi into Wyoming where they could haul their haul. The spearfish would be on I90 and not be at risk of pedestrians and traffic on the gravel home state road. If this mine's passed, it will look like exit 55 near Rapid City, where the densest plumes of dust appear daily moving west to east. When Penn County commissioners or the board of adjustment, I don't know, modified their conditional use permit. Then, like a good neighbor, troll mining was there to sue the county, Pennington County, for $10 million. If you drive to Sundance and you see the huge dust plume at the end of Rifle Pit Road about six miles across the border, that's where the coal mine coal mine currently exists. that's operational and they're developing two more and they and that mine say they violated the allowable emission standards and they violated the 10 acre limit. Moreover, this particular line is going to have very little benefit for Lawrence County. As they testified previously, the truck serve licensed in Wyoming and housing home in Wyoming. Drivers are largely in Wyoming. They are insured in Wyoming. They are field in Wyoming and repaired in Wyoming. If this line is to be treated equally with the other line on Homestake Road, the

Hall agreement is 5 cents per ton. And so for for 30 ton loads, Lawrence County would get a buck and a half and that would take 60,000 loads to pay for one $90,000 mag chloride road to 4,000 days of hauling which is 13 years to pay for one mag. Moreover, the the crossing is in the W. Moreover, the interstate commerce law provides that all the material they haul into Wyoming is exempt from state and local taxes in South Dakota. And you just heard him saying that they're going to Wyoming with with their western trucks. So you could make the conditions that the point of sale is at the mine site which would then benefit Lawrence County with taxes. But if he did that, my guess is like a good neighbor, co mining would be suing Lawrence County citizens like me that pay taxes because they want to pay Wyoming taxes which are a lot less than tax. So what what is the benefit? nothing except the Lawrence County safety of the citizens is your job number one. And for that reason, this the risks are far outweigh the benefits. Let's talk about rock crushing. First of all, rock crushing should be done, this is the 20 first century. or a customer should be not inside a closed portable

building with water spray so that the silica dust is not allowed to escape. Portable tubular frame polycovered buildings exist in the industry that easily cover all crushing operations. They make them big enough to cover airplanes. They should be required to mitigate noise and stop the dust plumes. So, if it's done inside, it'll be less noise, no dust. And it's just a portable building off other side of this room. A little bit bigger. It's done in I've seen them in other states. I've seen them in other countries. The noise, you know, people say I'm against mining. No, no. I love mining. We need money. We have to have mining. But if I can see it, smell it, hear it outside the mining location, then it's interfering on the quiet enjoyment of life of all Lawrence County citizens. Volvo freight line make electric. You have no breaking. You have quiet power. Portable buildings would do away with noise and dust and silica put into the environmental environment around spear fish. As one of the other uh a couple of other people suggested, this should be tabled until the Supreme Court rules on Orange County modifying their CUP ordinance to transfer from the commissioners to the board of adjustment because if the Supreme Court rules against the county, then this this hearing is is moved. We believe the controls application

which limits the the hall route travel to 15 trucks per day is absolutely necessary and should be mandated. Uh I just currently looked at their proposed findings and facts and conditions. Uh there's nothing in that limits the number of trucks. There's nothing in that that requires noise abatement or mitigation. Nothing on that document required dust abatement or mitigation. And it it allows crushing operations from 6:00 a.m. unlike 7 a.m. that was the planning and board mandated are found and suggested to this body. Uh and also they put in they can do 24 hours of operations on the line site administrator. So they can load trucks, they can fix trucks, they can do whatever they want to. And according to them, they want to start crushing at 6:00 a.m. Back to the the dangers of the of this of the Hall Road going west. Well, first of all, let's go east. There's two canyon crossings that may or may not be able to be widened. There's been two accidents there. one that I know took a lady to the bottom of then you go down a very very steep hill a loaded mine truck will not be able to stop for school bus on that hill and one of those canyon crossings don't occur and at this time I'm going to incorporate by reference all of my prior written and oral opposition to the troll lararsson and QP applications prior and this one because in that submitted and quoted the National Transportation

Safety Board's table which were unrefuted that loaded mine trucks at the speed limit take approximately 400 ft on level ground asphalt to stop. There are going east one visual restricted cross single lane crossing which round trip would take would be the opportunity for two head-on collisions because the curve only you only have 200 ft of going west. Three of the four single lane restricted choke points have visual restrictions of about 200 ft and most of them want downhill. One west of runs at the Larson Creek crossing single lane bridge on a curve on a downhill coming west round trip. That's two potential head-on collision. The next one is this Damon Creek Road where the large, excuse me, the Edward Pit drives on to Homesake Road and they have an uphill stop sign. They take the whole road to turn onto Homesake Road and the trucks traveling over the hill only have 200 feet to avoid the head-on collision or the T-bone at the bottom of the hill where those trucks are ending the roadway. They can't stop on gravel and downhill at feet speed. Okay, the next one after Damon Creek is the Crow Creek Bridge, which there's been two fatalities and it's on a down coming east. sits on a downhill curve and so the truck traveling left a loaded truck traveling west speed limit would not see the cars

coming to the west to avoid a head-on collision there another two round two opportunities for head-on collision road the next one is on Red Hill Road that one you can see it's single lane bridge see pretty well on both but let's let's do the math So, three or four visual restricted single link crossing choke points. That's six possible head-ons per round trip of one truck times 15 trucks. That's 30 round trips. 180 potential head-on collisions per day. the wrist 1,080 per 60 week and 4320 possible heading collisions per each month. Lawrence County citizens do not want this mine. Another lady will tell you we have cabinet cut excuse me collected over 1100 signatures of bony residents and residents aren't trying to propose. You cannot pass this proposal without a hollow agreement because as I said at the current conditions right now there's no requirement for any mitigation of noise dust or the number of trips though they say they're only going to do 16 15 excuse me there's nothing in the actual document that you would prove that submitted for your approval. No need of it. No. So, or was that going to be found in a hallrog? Is there one? No.

We haven't got to that yet, sir.

Understand? That's what I'm saying. You need one because half the people I understand. But half the people here may not oppose it if they get to see that there's protections to the citizens of the county in the hallway. uh penalties under 1123.002 is $500. So every time they put up a vest plume, they don't care. It's only 500 bucks. So I pose it. I told it stated it should be tabled until the Supreme Court rules and the risk far outweighs the benefit. Very little economic benefit. This is okay. Thank you.

Next one is Curtis Mcwigan. If you want to talk, South Dakota, sir, can you say it again, please?

McGuigan, 2350 Dairy Lane, South Dakota. Um, I'm a farmer in agriculture. My my son the sixth generation go to the house today. All of us here in agriculture has been here for that long love this area take care of it. We're trying to do what's best for it. This is a great thing for the county and economics and the development. And we don't do this to do anything to harm or anything. Why would we be here for just generations if we were doing that? That's all I have to say. I approve this. Thank you,

Mike Mcwigan. Michael 2350 L, South Dakota. I'm here to support the Larsson on their endeavors. Looks like a good thing for Mors County, good thing for development, good thing for agriculture. Also, I've operated a gravel pit up top of a hill northwest of Spearfish for 17 years. and all the regulations on toys and dust and everything that had to be things. We never had one complaint about any of those things in 17 years. I think uh it's very well regulated, controlled. I think be a good thing for everybody. Thank you.

Thank you, Shelby Lund. Good morning.

Good morning, guys. Um, Shelby L, 1993 Red Hill Road, Spearfish. Um, I'm here to ask the board to represent me and the fellow county people. Uh, I do oppose this gravel pit. I grew up on a gravel pit and um it's dirty, nasty, the trucks are terrible. Um, so I do know a lot about it, the gravel pits and we already have two in our area where I live and that's enough. Um, I have talked to one of the gravel pits um that is in our area and they did tell me that they do have enough gravel limestone to support our area and our growing area. So, um I just want to mention that. Um but also, you know, and I do rep I do respect the generation five-year generation. Um, that's a beautiful thing. Um, but I did purchase my land. I work hard at my land. Um, and it's something I'm I'm here to protect. That's my goal is to protect my land that's out there um west of Larsson's. And uh my children ride the school bus on Red Hill Road. Um there is like Nan was saying there's blind spots. Um they will be driving in a couple years and it is scary. Those loggers, those trucks go fast. They don't mind. They take up the whole road. Um there's quite a few blind

spots on that on those roads. And so um I do see accidents in the future with it and it worries me. And so I just hope you guys take us citizens in consideration when making your your decision. And thank you. Thank you,

Naomi. [Music] Imagine it near jail was kind of scary. Well, gentlemen, good morning and thank you for the opportunity to voice address. Oh, sorry. 19941 Doppler Road Stripfish. Your name? Naomi March. Thank you.

Sorry about that. Um, thank you for the opportunity to voice my opposition to cup number 498, the Larsson crawl graph. How how are cups being voted on when there's current litigation at the South Dakota Supreme Court challenging the board of commissioners administrative versus legislative decision to approve cups via a board of adjustment. If the court rules in favor of safe centennial valley, I wonder if the intention is to somehow wiggle a grandfather clause to proceed. Or could this be could this premature decision putting Lawrence County at risk of a potential lawsuit? I quote, "In my opinion, all cups should be tabled until a decision is rendered by the South Dakota Supreme." Yet here we are again opposing the Larsson crawl pit for the third time. The overwhelming public disapproval of another gravel pit is clear, but this third time the zoning ordinance was changed after the Northstar pit suffered a loss at the special ballot election. There were cries of wasted taxpayer money to hold the election and um it was thrown at these accusations of wasted money was thrown at citizens for exercising their constitutional right to petition the government for a redress of grievances. And then to address wasting taxpayer money, there is a line item for elections in the annual budget. every single year, which all of you sign. Good neighbors create better communities. Not so good neighbors

create stressful communities and degrade quality of life. Just because someone has the right to do something doesn't necessarily make it right. Citizens are against cup number 498 because we all want to protect our peaceful way of life in a scenic and quiet environment. I, like most people, don't care what anyone does on their private property as long as I don't have to see, hear, smell what they're doing, or have anything from their property make its way onto my private private property. My private property rights should not be infringed upon. Approving this cup will do all the above and cause harmful side effects to our spearfish community. Complaints in the past about gravel pits have been scanted only because those pits are not located in areas that's a stone throw away from housing developments. I think last year there was an article in the Black Hills Pioneer by Eric Jennings about community involvement in their local government. It belongs to those who participate. He said we have and it feels like it really doesn't matter. Mr. Jennings, I read you received training as a conflict resolution facilitator. Your training in this area would be a valuable asset that we could use for a community conversation. Pitting Lawrence County residents against each other tears a community apart. I've been threatened to my face for engaging in grassroots conversation with neighboring development about these pits. Yes, an angry man threatened a

4'11, 105 lb, 61year-old woman. But just think about that. Did it get my attention? Absolutely. Local local control feels broken. is currently too concentrated with no representation from other towns in Lawrence County. The county needs to be divided into districts for equal representation on the board of commissioners, St. An, and Whitewood, Lee, Deadwood, and Nemo. Spearfish perhaps have two and maybe even one at large. And I would request consider moving public meetings to the evenings so those who work during the day may participate in local politics. We can work together to do better. Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you. Next one would be Emily.

Uh my name is Emily Part. I live at 10189 Home State Road. Um I oppose this gravel pit. Sorry.

That's okay. uh voters have already rejected similar pits and yet this application is here in fact back before the same board. I'm not here to point any fingers or make any allegations against um anything improper but I simply agree with others that there might be circumstances surrounding this that could give the appearance of a conflict of interest which would invite judicial uh review at county and thereby taxpayer costs. Additionally, there's already a gravel pit within a mile of this site. Adding another multiplies truck traffic on narrow roads with blind corners and hills. Roads my kids walk on and drive on. My dog plays on. I walk on and run on. Bikers bike on. Um, it increases Oh, sorry. Let me go back. There's increased traffic on school bus routes and over narrow bridges to the west. And I wonder whether those bridges have had engineering done to confirm that they can sub uh handle the substantial load that this would cause. Um it increases dust and noise and further degrades farmland and the rural character that spearfish has. That cumulative effect cannot be reasonably squared with protecting quality of life, protecting agriculture, and minimizing land use conflicts. Of course, we should be concerned about economic development, but we should also protect our farmland and preserve our rural character and discourage any incompatible development. Apparently, another gravel pit in this location tips the scales entirely toward development in my opinion and away from protecting the rural community that we have built here. You you have all built here. And on that note, I have not been here for generations, but that was my goal in buying here assuming my children and their children want it. Um, we wanted that five generation farm. It's an amazing thing you have and I'm here trying to protect that future for my children. And I think someone just on another

note, I think someone who's been here for one generation or less or five to 10 deserves the same consideration because they're a member of the community. They pay the taxes and they see the beauty that Spearfish has to offer. On a final note, you don't know me personally, but I recognize all of your names. I recognize that each of you have served our community for years in one way or another and I don't envy the job you have in front of you today. Public service is often a thankless job and you're never going to make everyone happy. But in that vein, I urge you to listen to the overwhelming opposition to this gravel pit. Contemplate the cumulative impacts of multiple pits on the same road. consider what we want our agricultural zone areas to even look like and prioritize protecting our citizens and their interests that they've made loud and clear and prioritizing our safety. Please deny this conditional use permit. Thank you.

Thank you. Next would be James Mezer.

My name is James Mezer. I live at 10563 Home State Road. Not going to talk long, but I we moved down here to South Dakota probably going on five years ago from western North Dakota. As a lot of people know, North Dakota's oil rich stuff. A lot of people have mineral rights up there. I've never heard of a neighbor complaining about another neighbor getting mineral rights and not them. I do approve this. I think it's good for the county. That's all I have. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay. Um Martha Martha Whispy 1106 North 10th Street and I support the Larson family and the gravel pit. Thank you. Meta Paulson morning send 20399 Blue Ridge Loop Whitewood. Um, I would just ask all of you this morning to um, take into consideration the concerns that people that are here, the people that are online, um, people that have submitted written correspondence to you, um, just take that into consideration. Um when this meeting is done today, if you are going to be voting on it, um we'll see. But I have a suspicion that prepared statement will be read. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay. I'm going to ask a question and then you guys can decide. Kristen, do you want to go now or do you want to see if anybody else I know you've had a couple people give you a little extra time. Would you like to wait? There's only a few left. No, I don't want Oh, okay. So, Kristen,

Kristen Wing, 22986 Cedar Berry Avenue. Um, I guess I must be known for being long- winded because you've heard a number of people concede uh uh give me their time. I actually probably don't need it this time. I am going to read my remarks so that I can respect all the folks in the room and the time that they have. One thing I'd like to bring to your attention first though, this is not actually part of my speech, but I did read the Pearl Lararsson conditional use application and it actually does not follow ordinance 2405 because it says the application the application form states that the Crow gravel pit application should be sent from planning and zoning to the county commission. That's on page 15, page 42, and on the signature page. So, since the purpose of ordinance 2405 was to make a distinction between the commissioners acting as county commission and the commissioners acting as board of adjustment, I assume this is relevant to the issue at hand and perhaps legality. So, you might want to change your process and make sure that the application states uh is in conformity with the ordinance. I'm an administrator by training, so I kind of notice these things. And finally, uh, before I start, I want to go on record as incorporating by reference all of my previous testimony and documents given to you in opposition to the 2023 Larsson pole pit. Um, I think that at that at those hearings, we presented a lot of data. It didn't seem

to matter. So, we are in the interest of time and probably getting uh the fact that we're a little tired listening to our own voices, we're not providing that anymore, but I refer you to all that. I I handed in a pack of information since I have a medical research background. I actually do have some standing in that area. Now my testimony. The state of South Dakota defines agriculture land according to South Dakota codified law 106112 as the land's principal use is devoted to the raising and harvesting of crops, the rearing, feeding and management of farm animals, the production of bees and apiary apiary products or horiculture all for intended profit. Now, we heard at the last meeting that we all we should have known what to expect when we purchased our land. Wrong. If real estate agents do not know about the 33 cups, then they need to be informed and they need to inform their buyers. To the average person, agriculture means what I stated and what and and the way the South Dakota law defines it. It doesn't mean gravel pits and wind farms and helipads to the average person. So when we do purchase our property here, it's almost borderline fraud that we're not informed that when when we say, "Oh, this is a beautiful view. I like this site. What how is this zoned?" And we're told, "Oh, agriculture. What you see is what you get." That is not true. So the um the developers and the real estate agents in this community need to to uh accurately inform people. I can

assure you probably wouldn't be worrying about development then because there would be a lot of people who wouldn't purchase there that there lot I we surely wouldn't have purchased ours if I'd known that there was a potential for that. I I can f I can assure you that the lot purchasers in Cedar Berry and Wild Turkey were not informed that egg land is not really eggland in Nor County. If homeowners sell a property, we're obligated by law to reveal its flaws to the prospective buyer. I would expect developers and real estate agents should be obligated to do the same. When we were circulating our three petitions for signatures, most of the people we met were shocked to learn about the cups. People don't know. The people of the county have spoken resoundingly against the placement of gravel pits on prop. We won a referendum on December 19, 2023. We rejected the Grand Northstar pit and we were on our way to doing the same with the Larsson Pearl pit. When that cup application was put in, we gathered 1,730 signatures against the county doing an end run around our ability to redress our grievances and take our concerns directly to the people. We should not even need to present our point of view at a public hearing. The public has been speaking directly to you about this issue for two years. We also object to the weight given to the Larsson request because a family has held the property property for five generations. I heard today six. It would be wonderful to inherit land rather than need to save for a lifetime to purchase our homes in retirement. However, we are all equal under the law. Nowhere in the Constitution does it say all men are created equal unless they own generational land and then they're more

equal. The Larssons are one family and their request for a gravel pit on their property will negatively impact hundreds of other families. Cannot control dust and noise so that our quality of life remains as it is. They don't even propose to. At the last meeting during the discussion session and prior to the vote, we heard that the board of adjustment needs to quote mitigate polls activities so they have the least effect on their neighbors as possible. And who determines this least effect? You have already conceded that there is no compliance enforcement process in the county. And according to the Pioneer article dated August 23, 2025, quote, "The only way a complaint can be enforced is if we end up taking that person to court. Therefore, you have admitted in advance that you cannot in reality protect our health, safety, property values, and property enjoyment. If you approve this application, you can only hope that we experience the least effect, whatever that is. Your own planning and zoning ordinance states that your purpose is to quote promote the health, safety, and general welfare of the count of the county. It further states the regulations are intended to preserve and protect existing property uses and values against adverse or unharmonious adjacent uses. If you follow your own zoning ordinances, you cannot approve this cup. Yes, there are 33 conditional potential conditional uses allowed within a one in this county. It was implied during discussion at the

last meeting that a cup application that fits into one of these 33 categories should be approved with mitigating conditions. Wrong. If a property fits one of the zoning requirements, then the county needs to apply the lens of no adverse impact or unharmonious use. You were elected to do a job for all residents of the county. You move the decision making process from the county commission which is elected to a board of adjustment which is appointed but you argue that the board of adjustment members needed to be the county commission because you were elected and thus accountable to the people. Double speak. You have heard from thousands of voting residents on three occasions that we do not want another gravel hit because you cannot guarantee our health, safety, and well-being. Bottom line, there is absolutely no upside for existing homeowners if you approve this gravel pit. Only downside, we only lose. We are expected to accept the inconvenience so that the Larsson family and Croll, a Wyoming company with pits in nine states in the deep pockets, can make a profit. We have as much right to enjoy our property and protect our investment as the end.

Thank you. Okay. Um I think it's Paula. Oh, Paula Hollson.

Morning. Good morning. Hallstead 4425 road. I'll keep this short. I approve the PIP with the license. And uh I'd like people to remember that a great part of study in this part of our country had to do with mining. Thank you. Thank you. Barbara running

up running uh 69 bridge water court. Uh we are neighbors to Larsson's and have been for since the 1960s. And I I'm sure you all read my letter letters. Uh I just want you to know that um our family is opposed to this. Thank you. Doug Hayes. Okay. Donna Holstead.

Good morning. My name is Donna Holstead 126 Washington Street Southakota. I am in favor of the gravel point of the gravel pit. Thank you. Okay. And then Mark Mark Rizzy Mark came in at the end and asked me to add his name. So [Music]

y I appreciate you guys allowing me to do this. Um, I tried to get here on time. They're doing road work on Brownville Road. 25 minutes get um marker is 11 457 Brownfield Road. Um, first of all, I want to tell you guys I really don't have a dog on this bike. Um, but I've been watching coming to your meetings and seeing what's happening and I I'm concerned about people of Lawrence County, which we are moving to. Um, revoking home. Um, you guys authorize these cups and I and I've sent letters. I've sent emails. I I I've talked to Bruce. Who enforces them? And what are the penalties for not being compliant? And nobody has answered my questions. And why? In order for these cups to be effective, they have to have and I'm and I'm not and I'm not being negative here. I'm just stating a fact. In order to have a a speed limit provided by if you don't drive the speed limit, you get ticketed. I sat here and watched you guys change the cups of a gravel pit that I live next to that hadn't been compliant in 30 years and change it so they're compliant instead of say you even took out a condition so that they could be compliant. And I'm and I'm looking at it and going is this what is this what these people are going to expect with a laren pit? Well, you're not compliant. We'll just change it.

These have to have teeth. I'll work with any of you or all of you on this. Like I said, I don't have a dog in this particular fight. He the challenge here is protecting the people and providing for the growth of the of the county. And it it can happen both ways. One of the commissioners at the last meeting said there's going to if you live in uh rural areas, you're going to have a little bit of inconvenience by by what happens out in a little bit to some person might be a lot to the family who has a kid with asthma or somebody fighting COPD. A little bit of dust may be too much for them, but you can coincide. It can work, but you guys can't put cart before the horse and approve CUPS without having these things in place because if you do, you have no jurisdiction there. There's there's no recourse for not being compliant. This is I mean, so another thing I want to bring up. They bring up silica. Cor brought up silica. The gravel pit that I live next to is very high in silica, very high in crystalline silicon. Limestone is without a doubt the best for road base.

Please address

I'm sorry. It's the best for road base. No two no two ways about. It's low in silica. It's low in crystalline silica. But not all limestone created equal. Some limestone has more. Some limestone has less. Why not require before they start crushing this tests that show how much crystalline silica and how much silica content is in the limestone so that the people know put their minds at ease because some of it's more toxic than other. At the last meeting, one of one of the crow people brought up that silica is the new buzzword. That's not the new buzzword. Tell MSHA, OSHA, the CDC, American Lung Association, National Cancer Society, Department of Health and Human Services. Tell my grandmother who, if you could, my grandfather died of silicosis from silica. It's not a buzz word. I take offense to that and everybody in Lawrence County should take offense to that. That's trying to sugarcoat something. Bruce Al has said that we need to be the eyes and ears of the county. If you see something, call in. At the last meeting in planning and zoning, they said, "Come in, sign a complaint, put your name on the dotted line." I did that. Not too long after I did it, I get a phone call from a fella that says, "You better stop this complaint and drop it now. You might find yourself in a medical helicopter on your way to Sou Falls after we beat the hell out of you." That's what I thought. They said, "We

don't need you in this country. We don't need you here. We don't want your type here." Ran into a friend, Cool Deadwood Nights last week. Lives up here. been here for years. And he says to me, "Oh, here comes the talk of the town." I said, "What are you talking about?" He said, "You know how many people you've angered over filing a complaint against the Hall's Pit?" I said, "What? You mean?" He said, "They didn't anger me. Your complaint didn't do anything to me. I don't care." He said, "Well, we're still friends." He says, "As a friend, I'm telling you, watch your back. Every time I go to the grocery store now, don't you think that's in the back of my mind? I'm walking to my car after Cool Deadwood Nights in the dark. That's in the back of my mind. Am I going to get jumped? I get a phone call saying I'm going to be lifellighted to Sou Falls after I get the hell beat out of me because I made a complaint. Why? Why do you expect the people in the county to do your job? Your job is to protect people in the county and enfor you enforce these cups then it takes that responsibility off people in the county. I sent you Mr. Yuing I sent you an email that said there's ways to go to to to s this hire somebody all these CPs char there's other ways to raise revenue to pay for that person. It's not it's not a it's not a tough problem to solve. And I'm not here to complain. I'm here to solve problems. Everybody can can live together. It just takes time and it takes a little work and it takes a little effort. This is what it looks like at my pit. Not my pit pit across from me.

They said, "Oh, we didn't see a dust problem and this is blown right to my house. Is this what the people are going to look at? Is this what people are going to see from the crow pit? I hope not. Okay, last but not least. And like I said, I'm not here to complain. I'm here to help. I want to help. There's problem. Don't put the cart before the horse by approving this cup before you have conditions and policies in place that actually penalize that actually make these people conform to the cups because they don't if if there's no consequences for not being compliant. Why be compliant? And I don't know the Larssons. I've never met them. They may be great people. I don't know. But they have no right to put anything on anybody else's property without their permission. That includes their dust that created. That's all I have to say and I appreciate the time.

Thank you. Um I have no one else on the list to talk and no one online has.

Is there anybody in the room that didn't get signed up that would like to speak at this time? Come forward please and your name and address for the record. I'm Jim Lar. I live at 13artish and I'm here to support the Larsson. And I think Miss Lee made a good point about um you know people not understanding that when you build next to egg land that things can happen, right? Um Larsson's could develop all that. You guys might have 200 new homes or four cars per household driving by your house every day. That's going to kick up some dust. That's going to be dangerous to bicycles. People aren't going to like that, right? I live in the valley. I have egg status. The housing development came in front of me. I see that as an eyesore. I don't like the housing. I have a shower. Well, they came in spraying pesticides all over their lawns. Um they're poisoning my well because I have my own well probably and it's shallow and then the city allowed one development to drain everything into our irrigation ditch which is contaminated but the city allowed that and so there's a lot of issues that happened with houses and the houses encroached on the Larsson the Larsson didn't encroach on you it's been the opposite I want people to understand that horses just want to work their land. I want to work my land. I grow produce for the valley. You probably buy my produce if you go to any other, you know, valley which was used to be rich soil and was agriculture land and now was a Halloween development. So, we're going to have

this issue. I'm talking about being able to have conversations instead of being angry at each other. Have a conversation about why I don't like your way of life and you don't like my way of life. You know, we got to live next to each other. I don't like the Helen. I had a view. I had this gorgeous view and I don't have it anymore. And that might happen to them. They think they're looking at this beautiful bench up there that you own and Larson's own and it's gorgeous. Every time I drive up there, I'm like, "Oh, I'm so happy I get to come up here." But um back in someday and these people that are complaining about these two gravel trucks for a short amount of time would have many many cars driving by them too. So I just wanted to make that point because I feel it's the opposite. I mean we don't like the way you live. You don't like the way we live but we got to get along. So let's try to make some common ground and work it out and just try to be good neighbors to each other.

Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else?

Good morning. Uh Daddy 4610 Old Bell Road. I'll make it very short about we support the Larsson's uh application for the quarry. And I'd like to reiterate the last speaker said because we feel exactly the same same way. We are in agriculture and we have housing developments that are affecting our our operations. So um we all got to work together. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? Anyone else that would like to come speak? How about online? Is there anyone online that would like to address the board during this hearing? Okay, one more time. Anyone in the body of the room that would like to speak?

If I wanted to make one, would that be okay? Sure. Come forward, please. Restate your name and address. real quick. Emily Pokar 10189 Home State Road. Um the gentleman in orange who doesn't know a dog quite reminded me of something that I meant to say and that is that my twins were born at 28 weeks premature and my daughter has chronic lung disease of prematurity and reactive airway disease. And I'm not saying that this is going to aggregate aggregate those problems for her, but it is something to consider. there are real people that are going to be impacted by this as well. That's it.

Thank you. All right. At this time, I'm going to close the public hearing and to the board for their discussion, questions or uh prior to doing that, I'm going to allow uh the applicant that is there anything you'd like to add or to to this before we start our discussion? No, we're just here to ask whatever questions that you have and if you have any questions, I'll defer to my Thank you. Okay, folks are still online as well. Any questions?

I'm just going to start this off. I uh I do own land up there close to it. I have an egg operation and it's going to remain an egg operation. And I'm a firm believer in property rights and values. Uh, I think we've got a lot of conditions on this proposal to very well protect it. I trust the landlords. I trust the contractor. Uh, I think it's amendable that that crows have offered to pave and widen out the road. I think that's a a big plus for the county and the community. You know, that's a a good uh offer of faith of what they want to what type of operation they want to run. And I'm confident that we're not going to have these issues that have been brought up. So I will be one uh I will vote in favor of this today because of everything I've just said. I think it's uh uh Lawrence County's got uh if you all read the paper last week that uh Sarah Morgan wrote on she done a lot of research on this and and the true story of how many pits are in Lawrence County and there's only two limestone pits in the county and I know for a fact that one of them utilizes quite a bit of their own product and the other one in the near future is going to have to get reermitted. So, uh, we need the resource. We need the limestone. All of the folks that all of the folks that are opposing this need to stop and realize that their footings and foundation and their floors and their roads all there because of this this product and it's something this county needs. I don't think this county should have to go outside into the other state to get their product. So, I'll leave it at that and leave this

up. Oh, one more little item. The Home Safe Road keep getting brought up that it's narrow and it's dangerous and it's not built for trucks. Well, way back in the day before my time in this community, Homestake Mining Company built that road for heavy trucks to bring their their timber from Moski to Spear Beach to their mill. So, that road is one of the best built roads in the county. It will certainly handle the truck traffic and it has truck traffic on it today. Anyone else want to comments? Uh if I may, Mr. Chair, if we could have the state uh departments on just give a brief rundown of what it takes to get a mining permit in South Florida. Even Mike or Brett, could you address that question for us, please? Uh hello, this is Brett Graves. Uh I work for the South Dakota Department of A Natural Resources in the Minerals and Mining and Super Fund program and I am the manager for the construction aggregate mining in South Dakota. Um could someone repeat the question? I sometimes have hard time hearing what you guys are talking about. I was just wondering, Mike, uh, what what or Brett, what what does it take to get a mining permit and what are the conditions that you're going to look at to approve or deny a permit?

Sure. Um, it's actually a construction aggregate mine license. It's not as an extensive process uh compared to a permit. Um the construction aggregate mine license is a statewide general mine license. As long as the operators meet the requirements, uh they are issued a mine license. Um those requirements are an application, a notorized certificate of applicant disclosing any environmental infractions. uh shy in the form of a CD, a letter of credit, bond or cash. Publish a notice of intent in the nearest circulating newspaper and send that notice of intent to the Department of Egg and Natural Resources, the Historical Society, Minerals and Energy Coordinator, and the local conservation district. Thank you. Questions either members of my family there 140 years and lived or had a problem with cut gravel there less than a quarter mile away from the cattle all good and I'd like to reiterate roads

there that's why they put I want to go some change. So I decided [Music] to have a comment just make a general comment about the whole proceedings. Uh I just I want everybody to know that that we do all the testimony and we do read all the letters. There's been quite a stack of them. Um, while I can't I probably don't remember who wrote what, I I can assure you that that I have read all the letters. I'm guessing the other commissioners have. Um, and who who who you are does not affect my decision. I try very hard to be objective in these decisions. Looking at the facts, not who the people are. Um, and I know too that we're not going to please everyone, especially on these issues where there's uh a lot of contentiousness. uh no matter what decision we make, somebody walks away unhappy. And so, you know, just because we didn't go your way doesn't mean we didn't listen. I I guess that's what I want to make sure that everybody understands. I do appreciate public participation. Uh it's not a an easy process at times, but it is uh this is necessary to make our system work. Uh we have these public hearings for a reason and that reason was demonstrated today. Okay.

I'd like to ask D&R whichever one um what the process is when you do get a complaint on dust. Okay. M Brett

uh yeah this is Brett Graves again. Um when we refer to dust um we're we're talking about two separate when you look at it two separate ways. It's e the dust is either coming from the crusher or the actual pit operations itself. The department can only regulate dust coming from a crusher and associated conveyors. All other dust is considered fugitive dust and is not regulated by the state. If we receive a complaint, we do address that and see it where it is coming from. Uh if it's coming from the crusher, we address it that way. or if it's coming from the pit itself and no operations, uh, we refer that complaint to the county to let them know that is a county issue.

Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Um our correct me if not if I'm wrong but we are complaint based county on anything as in renting out two houses in a nonperforming area thus control the whole right it has been during my entire tenure with the

so it's important when citizens be willing to put their name on a complaint and come forward It is potentially they could be a witness uh that they may have the best information uh to provide a court if and when we ever had to go to court. I should have that. Rarely do we ever go to court. Mostly we do complaints except things like nuisances and those sorts of things. We've had very good luck working planning and zoning and working with folks to resolve those short of court. And so we begin to go out and enforce things and respond to complaints. What does the applicant do when they get a dust complaint not from the crusher but from the site? What what is your process complaint form planning and zoning? We look at it and we investigate.

Okay. But I'm asking the applicant what they do to mitigate that. So anytime we get a complaint, we're going to call out on site. Your name and address. Oh, sorry. Bill Boxendell. My address is 1129th Avenue Boo South. Okay. Thank you. And maybe you should step up the podium just so they can hear better since the mic up.

Yeah. Whenever we get a dust complaint, um, of course call out on site to see what's going on, see, you know, speak with the supervisor to see if it's coming from a crutch or if it's coming from the site. Um, and we have water trucks that we can um, you know, run the water trucks around the site, get that dust calm down, and that's usually how we evade the dust problem from the site. Pressure. Um, it could be a malfunction if that's the case and then shut down, fix that. Um, also we we have uh on on our sites um, water hooked up to those crushers as well. Quite a few of the letters mentioned the aquifer. So where do you get water? I see off that well at one time I seen your home some of it in but

all of it in Y. But does it come from the Madison alert? No. We're done with the public hearing or are you hauling it in? Um I guess Brian Mar. So the water has a lake and we're ranch water truck be transferring it probably 11 miles west of Sundance and we'll be hauling it from there to So did you say late as in serve as well?

Yeah serve. Yes. And that's what we use for our current the Rogers pit currently using center comes from the same same spot. We have water rights to that property and a lot of times like the pearly pit in Rapid City where they're crushing there now and you got everybody's worried about the water. It's usually or the dust if it's usually the dust that's coming up from the kick up from the from the hall trucks or the trucks traffic and down the road. If it's too too dusty, we actually shut the pit down for the day because there's times when like kick up a little bit of dust, it it gets really dusty. So, we just shut down for the day. And that's what Rapid City is. We don't want the call coming to us. And in Rapid City, they have a how how it works there. They have a dust complaint. It goes to uh they have an administrator. Administrator calls us dust complaints. They run out and look and see if it's really dusty. And a lot of times when they go look at our at their dust at our pit, it's not it's it's a little dust, not a lot of dust.

Question. [Music] I was going to ask you is there not a case for credit are you wanting to do a hard circumstance agreement on the hill there that's pretty steep hill but in winter time when the sun was shining on part of it didn't shine at all but definely get pretty slick

that's it's what county prefers I'm offering a hard service road there if you don't want it lighting. It's what you prefer. That's the that's the most that I'm going to do is pass. Yeah, we [Music] no matter what we do here today, we'll still have say we do approve it, we'll have to work on the the whole road agreement. That's not finished yet. So that question got brought up during his testimony proposed suggestion says epidemic necessary necessary [Music]

Mr. chairman.

I'll make a motion that we approve the Okay, we have I'll second it for further discussion. Commissioner, um I just want to say thanks every for coming. Uh there's a few people that like to editorialize and not speak to the specifics. There's a few people like to accuse officials of of malfeasance or or impropriy that I don't think is warranted. I don't think it's necessary. I think there's better ways to handle that. And I think if you had all the information that we have, it might be a little bit better to understand what we're doing. Um, I will flat out say that I am pro mining. I was born in lead. I grew up here. My dad was underground from the late 60s and got hurt in the 90s. I was underground six years. That being said, I think there are ways I think in in the conditions we can do some things to make it a little little more palpable, if you will, a little easier for the the neighbors to work with. And I know there was some discussions on that last time this came along. And it kind of got pushed by the wayside that we were trying to work together. One thing I'm stuck on that I can't get past. And I talked to an attorney. I talked to the attorney and my understanding is with the pending Supreme Court case that probably should have been filed a uh basically a morator B that we wouldn't hear conditional use at least on this one item until that was decided but it was not filed uh and it's too late to file it now is my understanding that being said I am not comfortable voting for this based on that So, not to say that I'm not I don't think that this isn't an appropriate area. Not to say that I don't think

there's ways we can mitigate some of the some of the people's concerns up there. My personal thing is I cannot vote for this until that case is decided because I think we just I think we end up with a weird legal conundrum. So, I just want to put that out to everybody. I have a question for Bruce on this tunnage fee. Is that under the world of agreement? It could be in conditions but uh I think it's probably appropriate for the borrow agreement as well. Power agreement would be incorporated by reference into the into the conditions. So it's it's it's a condition in that fashion. Tell me about the point of sale.

No, there's no condition. The question was the point of sale being whether it's going to be in Wyoming or in South Dakota I think is what you're referring to. Correct Rick? Correct.

Scale house. That's where we do activity. Okay. Thank you. Further questions or discussion? Uh Mr. Chairman, uh the conditions I to amend their conditions to believe number

would you add language uh it's appropriate that use is compatible with the comp plan as well

are you referring to adding a new condition. I believe Bruce we're not in the findings though. Put that language in to replace the language in the Pentagon one that is listed as right. Well, two two things are going on here. You guys some of you guys are looking at the conditions in this document. That's what Bruce is referring to which this is the written findings and then the conditions in my staff report. One of the notations that I made is if you have to approve the conditions in the staff report first and then you would incorporate that in because there are edits that need to be made to their conditions based on what you guys decide for conditions

because like their conditions are different than my proposed conditions. Theirs are their proposed conditions, not mine. Okay. I'm just making sure because I think that was one of the questions. And so Bruce is referring to he would like to see the language added as part of your consideration. I think we would want to add it in our condition so that it gets updated in the written findings. Is that correct, Bruce?

Is there a motion in a second? I can't remember. Yes, there is. So um I would ask you to consider a motion more like this and this adds more context I think maybe to what your discussion here is is if you're going to make a motion to approve that based upon the planning and zoning recommendations for approval and the concurrent recommendation of on staff as reflected in the staff report which is incorporated here in and the applicant's findings of fact findings of fact um and then also uh the proposed conditions that you have that you decide on that's sort of the context to make your decision does that make sense to everybody is that what your motion is so that it takes into consideration all these things so you can discuss the conditions and so forth I seconded it for the discussion. I'll agree with that as well.

Any further discussion conditions? I mentioned the home number two. [Music] We change that condition satisfaction. Yes. with everybody. Is everyone in the motion that that the approval would be contingent on approval of hall?

I I think your condition takes care of that because it says the hall route shall be approved by the highway superintendent and the board of adjustment prior to start of operations. So, they can't do anything until that hall route is in place. I just point of clarification as Miss Wing brought up there are some discrepancies in the findings of fact as process that at minimum if it's going to be incorporated should be correct. Is that is that not correct? Which one are you looking at? um CDC referenced something said that it said it went to the county commission instead of the board of

which the the reason why I question that is um August 14th the applicant submitted a updated um submission of proponents finding conditions and recommendation and within that it talks about the board of adjustment they did catch that between the planning and zoning and county commission and I think that's the document you were referring to um document yep and It it did get updated. This was added. So there's actually there's two. We left the old one and we put the new one in there. So there is two of them in there. I just wanted to make sure. So I I believe that's what you were looking at. I just I did want to ask that question, but I think it has been at least you know we do.

Yep. That's fine. Is there any further discussion? Seeing none with uh all those in favor of the motion say I would like you to do a roll call vote please. Flanigan Disco hi Dennings hi sleep hi and hi. All right one passes. Uh I guess we'll continue working on the uh home road agreement and go from there. When we're ready, we'll have it on the agenda specifically listed so people

can I ask a question. Bob, can I ask a question real quick just so I know for clarification? So this document, Bruce, the one that we have a signature in there, but I think it needs to be updated before we can have the board sign it. Correct. Yes, it says proposed on there. Okay. I just wanted to make sure. Okay. have a proposed draft. We'll make that one change that 20 um and then we'll have them resubmit that.

I I think I just that's why I'm asking the question because the motion was made with 18 and 20 of the staff conditions. They did not utilize all of my staff conditions. So, I'm assuming any condition that they have in their written findings, you want it to be the same as what you approve the staff conditions because theirs is not accurate. So, I I just want to clarify. So, we'll make sure those all get updated. Okay. Okay. Next item is you have to adjourn. Thank you.

Okay. items from the public here again. We'll allow folks in the audience to come before us and speak. Uh obviously you're not on the agenda for any particular thing. So 11 to 3 minutes and uh we will not be taking any type of action whatsoever. Is there anyone in the public that wants to speak about so close items from the commission? question for uh are you going to give us a new sheets for the budget? What's the in the process of working on that at the moment? I got that my central assess properties utilities yesterday at about 10:00. Okay.

So, I worked on that yesterday. Probably spend tomorrow. It's going back over. Make sure everything looks good. And I'll have that probably Wednesday or Thursday morning to get to you. I want to thank those online from the state that joined us today in case we have questions. So, thank you for taking the time to be available. Thank you guys.

Okay. Not yet. [Music] We're journ next