Quarry dispute delays completion date for school in southwest

WILLARD, Mo. -- A dispute over the site of a proposed $20 million high school has pushed the southwest Missouri school's target completion date back to late 2005 or early 2006, as tensions mount between some residents and owners of a local rock quarry.

On Wednesday, school officials told Conco Quarries the district was no longer interested in a 40-acre plot of land the quarry had offered to donate for the new high school. A condition of the donation originally was the rezoning of 40 acres adjacent to Conco's existing quarry for future quarry development and the possible closing of two roads.

Earlier in the week, the Willard Planning and Zoning Board voted unanimously to recommend that the city deny the request to rezone the 40 acres of land, which would have placed future quarry operations 1,300 feet from the school.

In response, Conco dropped its request to rezone the land. Instead, the board of aldermen will consider requests from Conco to close portions of two roads.

Since the 1970s, Conco has insisted the two roads are dangerous. Quarry officials point to a portion of one road that runs through the middle of the quarry's operations. At an intersection where 40-ton trucks cross from one side of the quarry to the other, there are no signs warning of oncoming traffic.

A public hearing on the subject will precede a board vote.

The proposed deal, the public response and subsequent fallout have a community and a company warily considering their relationship.

Conco insists the company has played the role of a good neighbor since it began operations in Willard nearly four decades ago. Conco purchased two existing quarries in Willard, taking over the Rose-Hollis Quarry in 1964 and the Masters-Jackson greystone quarry in 1975.

The quarry, which employs 40 workers, takes 1.5 million tons of limestone out of the ground.

In Willard, sales tax makes up 30 percent of the city's total operating budget. Of that 30 percent, Conco Quarries is responsible for 30 percent.

'All kinds of cracks'

But several residents don't like what having a quarry on the edge of Willard has done to the community. Others point to damage that has come from quarry blasts. They say they now have cracks in their walls and in home foundations.

"If you lie on our bed, you can see all kinds of cracks," resident Wilma Ross said.

Mayor Joe Cosby said he has been opposed to Conco's proposal from the beginning. At Monday night's Planning and Zoning meeting, he not only made the motions to deny Conco's request for rezoning, but he is now pushing for a study to determine if open-pit mining in Willard should continue.

"No city wants open-pit mining," Cosby said.

But Conco's community donations, quarry officials say, have been significant.

Baird points to a city hall and community center where quarry concrete was used for building foundations. He points to a popular recreational trail, which Conco helped fund.

"They have just touched so many lives," said Brian Fogle, director of community development at Great Southern Bank. "I don't know of a more generous family. I just don't."