March 28, 2008
To the editor:
During my nearly 10 year residence in Sparta, I have read stories about the Limecrest Quarry in the Sparta Independent. Initially, local residents, from an affluent neighborhood, complained about the noise, dust and potential health risk. After studies disputed the residents concerns, the quarry news seemed to subside, until…..the quiet purchase of the quarry by the township. Coincidence? Hmm….I wonder. This quarry provides no benefit to residents in Sparta, but it does to Andrew Mulvihill and the quarry workers. He has now offered to buy it back, get the township out of debt, promise never to develop the land, and donate it back to Sparta after it’s usefulness as a quarry has diminished at no expense to the town. The continued operation of the quarry has the additional benefit of providing tax revenue to a tax-burdened community. The residents of Sparta cannot lose. Let Mulvihill have his quarry back and get Sparta out of debt.
Had the purchase of this land, as well as the municipal garbage utility, been put to a vote, significant time, energy and money would have been saved. We go to the polls several times a year. Don’t you think, council, that you could have given us a say in the matter? It was not Jesse Wolosky and his band of garbage protesters that cost the town nearly $20,000; it was the council who neglected to put the proposal up for referendum during a scheduled election before costing the town more money. The passing of the mandatory trash service had nothing to do with residents knowing that they must “think outside the box” as Spekhardt so smugly claims. It had to do with personal preference for trash removal. So council, before you’re every move is analyzed, scrutinized, criticized by residents, start listening to us and ask our opinion before making costly decisions that result in increases to our taxes and utility fees.
Beth A Carswell, Sparta
