Commissioner resigns after vote

By Billy Davis
Memphis Stone and Gravel Co., after failing to win a special exception permit from the county land commission, plans to appeal its loss to the Panola County Board of Supervisors.
Memphis Stone president Hal Williford confirmed the company’s plans in an e-mail to The Panolian.

The land commission, meeting Monday night in Batesville, voted 6 to 3 to turn down Memphis Stone’s request to mine gravel on a tract in the Eureka community.

A courtroom filled with approximately 100 spectators, including county supervisors and county administrator Kelley Magee, witnessed the land commission’s action.

A majority of the spectators were recognizable as Eureka area residents.

County rules allow for an appeal within 10 calendar days after the commission votes on the permit request.

The Panola County Board of Supervisors hears the appeal, ultimately deciding whether to uphold the land commission’s decision or to overrule it.  

Supervisors could hear Memphis Stone plead its case as early as June 15 at the board’s “second Monday” meeting in Batesville.

Past zoning decisions made by supervisors have proceeded to a circuit court, and some of those court decisions have been appealed to the Mississippi Supreme Court.

The proposed mining site is located on 200 acres southeast of Batesville on Eureka Road, about a mile west of Good Hope Road.

The acreage is split almost evenly in two tracts between two landowners, Lamar “Boss” Johnson and Martin “Slick” Willingham.

Memphis Stone geologist Alan Parks has said the company plans to mine gravel on 95 acres. The operation would also include conveyor belts for moving materials and a plant to wash and clean it.

Memphis Stone’s application fell under old business Monday after the land commission tabled any action at its April meeting. When the topic resumed, discussion among commissioners gobbled up 40 minutes before Lana Douglas made a motion to turn down the request.  

Douglas timidly explained her reasoning after commissioner Johnny Fowler, who would resign minutes later, demanded an explanation for the motion.

“Why?” Fowler asked. “You’ve got to say why.”

Douglas then cited “safety issues” related to fast-moving gravel trucks on Good Hope Road, and the lack of speed limit enforcement to slow them down. She lives on nearby Mt. Olivet Road.

Douglas, before she introduced the motion to deny the request, had informed commissioners that she visited Memphis Stone’s Highway 35 site at 5:30 in the morning to view the trucks awaiting entry into the plant.

“They were lined up along the highway, eight or nine trucks, on a rainy day before it opened,” she said. “When it’s pretty weather, how many trucks will be lined up?”

Memphis Stone has assured the commission it would not allow trucks to idle along the highway, and just across the highway from residences, before it opened for business.

Williford, asked after the meeting about Douglas’ observation, admitted in an e-mail to The Panolian that she was “absolutely correct.”

The trucks were mistakenly dispatched too soon in the morning for an order of materials, he said.

After Douglas made her motion, Donna Traywick provided a second. Douglas and Traywick then voted for the motion along with commissioners Danny Jones, Sledge Taylor and Verna Hunter.

Commission chairman Danny Walker also voted for the motion, belatedly adding his name to the tally. As chairman he normally does not vote but is allowed to do so per commission rules.

Bob Haltom, Tim Holiday and Fowler then voted against the motion.

The commission’s decision to turn down Memphis Stone was not too surprising. At the April meeting, commissioners voted down, in a 2 to 4 vote, a motion by Fowler to allow Memphis Stone to receive its permit.

Only Fowler and Haltom voted for that motion, and Fowler solely voted against Jones’ motion to table any action until the May meeting.

Traywick, also at the April meeting, had made a motion to deny the permit before she withdrew her motion and ceded to Fowler.

At the Monday meeting, several commissioners methodically built a case against the mining operation, zeroing in on the fast-moving gravel trucks that would visit the site.

Memphis Stone officials have said five-mile-long Good Hope Road would serve as a main route to Highway 6 although Eureka Road would also be used to reach Highway 51.  

Commissioners had also heard Williford predict at the April meeting that 100 trucks a day could travel Good Hope Road during “peak” times.

Both Taylor and Hunter, during the commission’s discussion, said they visited the area for the first time to view the truck routes.

“The route is a lot further than I thought, and the road is pretty hilly,” Taylor said, referring to Good Hope Road.

“There are a lot of houses on Good Hope Road with elderly people,” observed Hunter. “It would be hard to control those trucks if they’re speeding.”

“Seven or eight trucks is an agricultural operation,” added Jones. “With as many as 100 trucks, it should be considered industrial.”

The commission also viewed a sketch of South Panola bus routes in the Good Hope area, following up on a concern raised at the April meeting.

Safety concerns over the gravel trucks dominated the commission’s discussion. Mostly unmentioned was the gravel pit’s proximity to Mossy Oak Cove, a subdivision that adjoins Willingham’s property.

Several Mossy Oak residents spoke against the proposed mining operation at the April meeting, voicing concerns about property values, noise and dust.