| Unimin mine clears hurdle |
By: Paul M. Malchow
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Posted: Wednesday, July 28, 2010 4:08 pm
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LE CENTER – A proposed expansion of Unimin’s Ottawa mine took another step forward as the Le Sueur County board of commissioners accepted the project’s final environmental impact statement (FEIS).
At the board’s July 20 meeting, County Planning and Zoning Director Kathy Brockway passed along the planning commission’s recommendation the FEIS be approved.
Brockway said the FEIS will be posted for public viewing on the Environmental Quality Board’s web site this week. There is a 10-day period for public comments. The county is not required to respond to the comments. However, the county may take the comments into consideration when setting conditions in the conditional use permit process.
Once the comments have been received and reviewed, the FEIS may or may not be amended. The county board will have one more look at the document. Brockway expected a final decision on the FEIS to take place some time in September.
After that, there will be a public hearing in October where public testimony will be taken on the issuance of a conditional use permit. Unimin is requesting a conditional use permit which would allow the company to expand its mining operation by just over 1,000 acres. The request covers an area in parts of sections 15, 22, 23 and 27 in Ottawa Township.
• Scott and Barb Wardell, owners of the Montgomery Orchard, were granted a conditional use permit allowing them to establish and operate a commercial outdoor recreational area in an agricultural district. The Wardells are hoping to allow gatherings at the site and are looking to stage three to four events a year at the orchard.
• Dave Tripp of Sauk Rapids received approval to grade and fill approximately 125 cubic yards of material on Lake Jefferson in Elysian Township. A conditional use permit is required as the property is in a recreational residential district on a recreational development lake.
• Jim Murray of the accounting firm Baker, Tilly, Virchow and Krause presented the commissioners with the annual audit report. Murray said the county was on solid financial footing and his firm found no glaring omissions or shortcomings during the audit.
• As part of a federal economic recovery program, the county has the opportunity to bond $808,000 through Recovery Zone Economic Development and just over $1.2 million in Recovery Zone Facility Bonding.
County Administrator Darrell Pettis told the board he has shopped the bonding offers around to municipalities in the county, but none of the entities were interested. Pettis explained there were three reasons to turn down the bonding authority. First of all, it would cost about $20,000 to finance the bond sale. Interest rates for this type of bonding are higher than most cities are able to attract on their own. Pettis added the federal program actually reimburses bonding measures created by the county/cities. Although unlikely, there is no guarantee the county or cities would get the federal money.
Counties who choose not to accept the bonding authority are required to relinquish the funds to the state. Pettis said the state will pool all of the county allocations together to create a bigger bond for a large project.
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