06/04/2025
I hope that you will pardon me for using this platform to comment , not on grooming, but about an issue of vital importance to the Scottsboro community. Only a few days ago, I became aware that there was to be a planning committee hearing on 6/3 to discuss a new quarry to be opened just across the field adjoining Phillips Animal Clinic on highway 72. My heart sank...my first thought was "another eyesore like what Gurley has become at the doorstep our our city? " Although the Animal Clinic is a stone's throw from the quarry site, we had received no information about it prior to the meeting. Some, ( not all ) residents of a nearby subdivision had received at letter stating that Lambert Contracting LLC had filed an application requesting site plan approval for a proposed quarry; inviting them to "attend a meeting on the matter and voice your opinion or make comments in favor or in opposition of the request".
Since May, the construction company has already been clearing trees and bulldozing the property, so I feared that this meeting was only a formality, but I attended, along with a roomful of other locals; many of whom voiced concerns about the effects of this quarry on our local home values, health and environment. As I had feared, the first announcement from the Planning Commission was that the area that Lambert Contracting purchased was already zoned as a heavy manufacturing district and that the hearing was NOT to weigh the pros and cons of a quarry. After over an hour of sometimes impassioned statements of concern by locals, it turned out that the gist of the meeting was to send a recommendation to the City Council on whether or not to rezone MORE of the mountain leading into Scottsboro for "heavy manufacturing".
As a sidebar, I bear no ill will toward Lambert Contracting .Cases can be made for or against a quarry, and by Mr. Lambert's own statement last night, the land he currently owns will supply 25 YEARS of material. What they are asking for is rezoning a large section of the REST of the mountain so that there will be 75+ YEARS of quarrying there. My question ultimately was what, then, is the RUSH to rezone? Can we not at least postpone that decision for a few years? See what the impacts are (of having now 2 quarries in a mile of one another) before we irrevocably commit to 75 years of gnawing down that mountain?
The Planning Commission's vote was tied (with one abstaining), so this matter will be decided by the City Council in a meeting in less than 2 weeks. My concern is that the citizens of Scottsboro are not even aware of this issue (which will affect this city for the better part of a century. ) Whether you are for or against the expansion of a quarry, PLEASE help spread the word to your friends and neighbors about the issue; let the mayor and the City Council know how you feel, and make plans to attend that meeting. At the very least, I would hope that they would vote to postpone the decision to rezone. This matter is too important to rush into.
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