Company officials at Monday night’s council meeting reassured residents that while they will hear and feel the blasts from excavation work, company practices are controlled and safe and will cause no damage to their properties.
“Cemex is committed and has an excellent track record in safely extracting these much needed resources and being responsible for not only the safety of our own employees, but the communities in which we operate,” said Sara Engdahl, Cemex USA communications director.
But residents living near the land aren’t buying the company line.
“We all know what that’s going to do to our property values; We all know what that’s going to do to our peace of mind; We all know what that’s going to do to our quality of life — and none of it’s good,” Xenia Twp. resident Jan Smolinski said.
EARLIER REPORT (Aug. 5)
Cemex is trying — again — to expand its mining operation in Greene county after several failed attempts.
In July, Fairborn’s planning board rejected the cement company’s request to rezone hundreds of acres in Xenia and Bath townships for mining use. The company is now asking city council to overturn the decision.
“Without rezoning, the plant has a very limited future. But if this is passed, the plant will continue to provide quality jobs for hundreds of workers over the next 40 years,” Fairborn plant manager John Miller said at Monday night’s standing- room-only meeting.
Dozens of plant employees, each wearing the Cemex logo, stood up to publicly express their side of the issue for the first time.
“Growing up around Fairborn, we saw signs that said ‘future quarry site’… It was a place where I thought I could find job security for my family,” said Fairborn resident and 13-year Cemex employee Nathan Myers. “Right now, if we don’t get the rezoning — that dream is kind of gone.”
But the plant’s neighbors said they are concerned for their families, too.
“We have documented information showing how (the plant) disrupts our lives now,” said Robin Malone, who lives on W. Hyde Rd. in Yellow Springs — just 250 feet from a proposed blast site. “The beeping of their trucks every evening, the blasting that you feel a couple times a week — like thunder rocking your house. We’ve all been through this!”
Richard Stockton is raising a young family along the same road. “The reason Cemex has not had accidents is because they don’t have a quarry that is this close to a residential neighborhood — because it is insane!”
Cemex previously sought rezoning through Xenia Twp. and was rejected twice, once in 2011 and then again in 2014. The company then pursued the annexation and rezoning of land through the city of Fairborn.
“I don’t know what you’re going to do moving forward, but what I do ask is that you keep the public safety and the public good in mind,” Xenia Twp. Trustee Dan O’Callahan said Monday night. He was not a trustee when the township voted on the issue.
If Fairborn does agree to rezone the land for mining, blasts could begin as soon as 2019. If not, the company has said, 100 jobs and a long-standing relationship between the company and the city of Fairborn could be lost.
“What’s really important about making an informed decision is hearing from the citizens that are impacted by those decisions — on both sides,” Fairborn mayor, Dan Kirkpatrick, said.
A public hearing on this issue is scheduled for Aug. 17 at Fairborn City Offices, 44 W. Hebble Avenue.
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