For those of you who were fortunate (or unfortunate) enough to sit through the more than six hours of the public hearing to determine the yes or no to the permit for an industrial sand mine, I hope you noticed how one sided it felt.
I don’t believe the committee was any happier to sit through long hours of testimony than we were.
For those of us opposing the mine felt like everyone was about ready to call it a night after four hours of listening to testimony about how wonderful this mine was going to be.
And it did sound like the best thing since sliced bread.
But I would like to mention that the terrific economic benefits had numbers in great part provided by the mine company.
Those numbers were spun into charts that the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) spokesman showed as proof of how inseparable the mine and the foundry are.
I would like to point out that WEDC isn’t always right, they were so sure the LeRoy Butler Ford dealership was a “terrific” thing that the county loaned them $100,000, and $82,000 has yet to be paid back.
It has been shown that KPS Capital who bought the foundry is in a sound position, investing in several mining related industries and even projecting a year better than 2012.
If there are layoffs or a shut down it will not be due to lack of sand.
The foundry currently gets sand from multiple sources, even from out of state.
The “need” is not for new sand but cheaper sand.
Fluctuating material prices are something all manufacturing companies deal with and those opposing the mine feel it can be done without damaging both the farming and forest in the proposed area.