“Good Neighbor Chemstone”? - Maybe Once, but This is Hardly the Quarry of Old

Open Forum Commentary, Winchester Star, 6/17/06

by Larry Hamilton

Then, in 1955, a BIG steel company bought 639 acres of farm land surrounding the old quarry. They bought it to buffer the town from the quarry and as a place to dump waste materials. But they never did anything else with the land. In 1986, Chemstone Corporation, an out-of-state company, bought the land. In 1996, a big international company called Global Stone acquired Chemstone and they took over the property and processing plant and did not do anything with the land. And in 1998, an even bigger international company, O-N Minerals Inland Division, took over Global Stone. All along the lovely rural acres were taxed at lower agriculture tax rates and leased to local farmers. And all the companies watched as homes were built on the land right next to their property lines all around the community.

I’ve heard the old quarry was a good neighbor. Maybe that was true 10, 15, 20 years ago. But O-N Minerals is not the old quarry. O-N is not a local business. They’re still in serious financial trouble having just come through Chapter 11 bankruptcy. They do not own a quarry in Middletown, they LEASE the mineral rights to the old quarry from Redland Genstar.

Now, they want all this elegant countryside rezoned for extractive manufacturing. Do they really need a 2/3 mile wide and 2 ½ mile long quarry, when they already have quarries in Strasburg and Clearbrook? Shouldn’t we all study their Ogelbay Norton Co/Ohio, 10-K Report for 12/31/05? Do we have to wonder very long why they’ve deregulated from the SEC and no longer have to release financial information to the public? Shouldn’t we all be asking why they want to turn our community into a toxic mecca complete with every heavy, industrial and/or public utility plant imaginable?

This isn’t the old quarry – this is an international company looking sell off beautiful countryside to make high profits at County taxpayer’s expense. Many of our cherished farmers have taken off their rose colored glasses and really don’t like what they see. Maybe we all should too.

This isn’t once upon a time. O-N’s blasting has caused cracks in foundations, lighting into the quarries has not been mitigated, drivers transporting quarry materials are speeding all over back roads to avoid the weigh stations - dropping limestone dust and gravel materials as they go, ugly white and brown ‘mountains’ stand out like ugly cancerous sores, toxic chemicals are spewed into the air we breathe, the water we drink and the land we live on. This isn’t my definition of a good neighbor. Write your Board of Supervisor member and ask them to put a stop to this application by O-N Minerals – Now!