Some residents of one small Warren County township say they are struggling to find harmony living beside the quarry next door.
Complaints include that gravel strewn along the road has turned into projectiles capable of shattering car windows. Residents told officials the heavy truck traffic created by the company has been a risk to their safety, property, and peace of mind.
At a Dec. 8 meeting, Harmony Township committee members agreed the situation had become a problem and voted to put new regulations in place.
The new restrictions target operations on Route 519 near the quarry. The ordinance will limit truck traffic at Harmony Sand and Gravel to roughly 25 trucks per day, down from upwards of 100 per day, Mayor Brian Tipton estimates.
Scott Wilhelm, the attorney for Harmony Sand and Gravel, called the decision to limit truck traffic “anti-Harmony Sand and Gravel” and “a mistake that could potentially put the company out of business.”
Wilhelm claimed that neither the township nor the business had provided a traffic study or engineering report to support the new limits.
Tipton called those statements “laughable,” saying the company’s operations are exporting and “they always have been exporting, not importing.”
He accused the quarry owners of stockpiling more fill than they require and said the issues only arose several months ago.
