AMERICUS, Ind. (AP) - A company has put its plans for a stone quarry in a rural area near Lafayette on hold after facing opposition from many nearby residents.
The Tennessee-based Rogers Group announced Monday it would withdraw its request for zoning permission to build the quarry on 524 acres bordering the Wabash River near the Tippecanoe County community of Americus.
The company will continue talking with residents about their concerns, Rogers Group Vice President Andy Williams told the Journal & Courier.
“We have been working on this project for four years,” he said. “There is no reason to rush this.”
Quarry opponents have formed the Americus Area Community Coalition, raising concerns about noise, more truck traffic on county roads and possible lowering of water levels for private wells and the river.
Kay Miller, who lives across a road from the quarry site, told WLFI-TV that residents don’t expect to see much change in the company’s plans.
“There are 230 homes within a mile and a quarter that would be affected by this,” she said. “The noise is not something this area is accustomed to. We won’t be able to hear the squirrels run across the roof, we won’t be able to hear the birds wake us up in the mornings.”
Williams said the company would only do daytime blasting in the quarry and that the 200 to 300 trucks a day traveling from the site would be far fewer than the 10,000 vehicles a day that traveled the road when it used to be a state highway.
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