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Meeting Held to Detail Proposed Quarry in Faraday

There was a line of people out the door hoping to learn more about the quarry that’s proposed to be built in Faraday.

Right off the top, it was said that the meeting was for information purposes only. Justin Harrow, the Director of Planning for Hastings County, added that no decisions would be made about the quarry at the meeting.

Along with Harrow, all of Faraday council attended the meeting with Reeve Carl Tinney acting as Chair. Hastings Highlands Mayor Vivian Bloom attended as well. Lou Freymond, owner of Freymond Lumber, was there along with his family. Freymond Lumber are the applicants behind the quarry.

Brian Zeman, President with MHBC Planning Urban Design & Landscape Architecture, represented Freymond Lumber at the meeting. He said the purpose of this meaning is to clarify what is going on. He said there’s information that’s being spread about the quarry that’s false. The quarry, which is proposed to take up a 27.7 hectare area around Bay Lake and Highway 62, has been reduced in area by 10-percent since 2015. Zeman detailed the work that will be done monitoring blasting so it has no negative effects on the environment. It’s a four phase project with the fourth phase starting 44 years from now. The first phase will be 14 years of extraction work. They want to do it this way so that site disturbance is minimized and rehabilitation is maximized. Zeman says that extensive work has been done to make sure the residents around where the quarry will be won’t be affected negatively.

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A resident brought up something Zeman had mentioned in his opening remarks. Zeman mentioned that the 10 trucks going through the town an hour on an established route would not increase overall truck traffic. The resident said that, “insults the intelligence of everyone here.” Zeman responded and said he wasn’t clear and should have said it would increase traffic in the quarry’s exit area that goes onto Highway 62.

Sharon Cowling, a Earth Science Professor at the University of Toronto, took had a prepared statement ready. She mentioned she attended the first meeting held to talk about this quarry in 2015 and objected to it then. She talked about the multiple fissures in the bedrock where the quarry would be. Cowling warned of the flooding that could happen if blasting happens in rock containing fissures. She said she is still against the quarry and asked council to reject the application to change the land-use classification of the site.

All the reports and assessments Freymond Lumber has had done this year are available on their website.

My Bancroft Now will be reaching out to Lou Freymond to get his thoughts on the meeting and what the next steps will be for his application.

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