By GEORGE ROGERS
of The Gazette
With stiff conditions, the Portage County Board of Adjustment has approved a sand and gravel pit near the Tomorrow River southeast of Amherst.
Making it a sensitive issue was the site's close proximity to the Tomorrow, the county's best-known trout stream, and to Otto Road, part of the state's Rustic Road system.
The board acted at the Courthouse Annex Monday after a hearing of nearly three hours, during which some neighbors said the pit should be permitted only with restrictions and others said it shouldn't be allowed at all.
The pit will be on a 10-acre site, scaled down considerably from the 45 acres originally proposed. It will be at least 500 feet from the Tomorrow, much farther than called for earlier.
The excavation will provide material for the Highway 10 upgrade in the eastern part of the county. The Board of Adjustment, in granting permission, said materials from the pit can be used only for the highway project and that use must cease by Nov. 1, 2003.
Among a long list of other conditions are:
The pit can operate only between the hours of 6:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday; no fuel storage will be allowed on site; and no batch plant or washing facility will be permitted on the property.
The site will have to be reclaimed after excavation stops, using state Department of Transportation criteria, which are expected to require it to be leveled and seeded.
The pit will be on land owned by Robert and Judy Dambroski, and Somers Aggregate will operate it.
It is within a big oxbow of the Tomorrow near where Highway 10 crosses the stream and is across the road from a now-closed wayside. Nearby is Otto Road, part of the state Rustic Roads System, created "to help citizens and local units of government preserve what remains of Wisconsin's scenic, lightly traveled country roads for the leisurely enjoyment of bikes, hikers and motorists," according to a brochure published by the Department of Transportation. Most of those at the hearing were Otto Road residents.
Trucks will enter and exit the pit from Highway 10, and one of the conditions established by the Board of Adjustment is that there will be no access to or from Otto Road.
Wayne Misener, chairman of the board, read a number of letters from neighbors, and others testified in person. The only one from outside the neighborhood who spoke was Stu Grimstad, town of New Hope, representing Trout Unlimited. Grimstad said the pit should be allowed to operate only during the Highway 10 project. He called the Tomorrow River "legendary" and "one of our county's most valuable natural and recreational resources," and he said it should not be jeopardized by a long-term, large-scale pit.
Roger Cook, representing Somers Aggregate, said the pit will not damage the river and may help it, because in reclaiming the site, runoff which now enters the Tomorrow will instead be channeled away from the stream.
At the outset of the hearing, Misener said, "We hold this river to be sacred and we always will."
The board took the position that the Tomorrow, Otto Road and the neighbors won't be damaged by the pit under the conditions it imposed. Members of the board, besides Misener, are Bernard Liebe and Pat Casey.