Published: August 29, 2017 |

Wisconsin Proppants' frac sand mining operation in the town of Curran.
[Click image to enlarge]

The Alma Town Board approved a mining agreement, resolution and road use agreement with Wisconsin Proppants earlier this month, formally accepting the variances sought by the company.

Wisconsin Proppants had been working on a mining agreement with the town for more than 18 months leading up to the Aug. 16 for a sand mine at the juncture of the towns of Garden Valley, Alma and Cleveland in Jackson County and the town of Mentor in Clark County.

Wisconsin Proppants has a license to mine in the town under the current ordinance, but it’s seeking variances from the ordinance. The vote was 2-1, with the dissenting vote coming from Thomas Gearing.

“The people that have spoken to me about this particular mine would choose not to have another mine in the county and our township,” Gearing said. “As a duty to uphold that health, safety and welfare for the residents of the township, I would be opposed to it.”

The president of the town board, Charles Smith, disagreed and voted in favor of the agreement.

“I think we are elected to represent the majority, and I think the minority in this case is probably more vocal, but at any rate that is the way I see it. I find it interesting that only five people have called me against sand mining and two of those are from the same family. One of them doesn’t live in the town of Alma,” Smith said.

The issues discussed during the meeting did not come without disagreement from the crowd.

At the onset of the meeting, Jack Mitchell, the owner of Wisconsin Proppants, provided a new petition he had circulated with 187 signatures in favor of Wisconsin Proppants mining in the town of Alma.

Smith was presented with a petition two days earlier during an open meeting that had 124 signatures against sand mining in the town of Alma.

Bonnie Comstock of the town of Alma provided a reason for the high number of signatures in favor of the mine. “When the people against the sand mine handed you the petition a year ago, nothing was looked at at all, like it didn’t really matter.”

In exchange for the variances from the ordinance, the town would receive additional funding and property value guarantees for town residents whose property is next to the mine boundary.

Source: (August 28, 2017) Lacrosse Tribune

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