Longtime opponents of a gravel mining operation in the Eureka community are vowing to fight on after the Board of Supervisors loosened more restrictions on a new plan by Rockco Mining.  

Many members of the Eureka community remain opposed to “industry” operating in the rural community, said Martha Lynn Johnson, who is leading the opposition along with her husband, Harold “Pee Wee” Johnson.

“There are several legal options available which we are considering at this time,” Martha Lynn Johnson told The Panolian.

The Johnsons were present February 11 when supervisors voted to drop restrictive haul routes and operating times for Rockco Mining, LLC.

At the same meeting supervisors tabled a decision about allowing an asphalt plant to operate on the same property.

Batesville physician Mike Havens, who owns Rockco, urged the Board of Supervisors to drop restrictions imposed last December by the Panola County Land Commission.

Havens was seeking a special exception permit to mine sand and gravel, and to operate a wash plant and asphalt plant on the property. The gravel operation is a $3.2 million investment, he has said.  

The land commission voted to grant Havens a permit but imposed the same restrictions imposed on two adjoining landowners a year earlier.

The Johnsons said they supported the permit, viewing it as a compromise. But Havens took his appeal to the Board of Supervisors, where he has been successfully challenging the restrictions since January.

Supervisors voted January 14 to overrule a 10-load daily limit imposed by the land commission, when Havens appealed to Board of Supervisors. Rockco must sell 40 loads daily to break even, he said.

The haul routes were meant to protect county roads from heavy trucks, but Havens argued that was not legal because he will not own trucks that will travel the county roads.
Havens also argued the operating times — meant to restrict truck traffic when South Panola school buses are traveling – were unfair. Other companies do not have restricted operating times, he said.

He said the business will operate Monday through Saturday from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Plans for a gravel mining operation began in 2009, when Memphis Stone and Gravel announced plans to purchase more than 100 acres for what it considered some of the best gravel in Panola County.

The company said it planned to eventually move its current operation from Highway 35 to Eureka Road, and opposition immediately sprang up and split the community over the issue.  
The Johnsons organized the community to oppose the plan and the organized group hired an attorney that summer, when Memphis Stone was appealing to the Board of Supervisors.  

Reached after last week’s Board of Supervisors meeting, Martha Lynn Johnson said opponents remain concerned about road safety, decreased property values, dust and noise pollution.

“We have always respected (and still do) the rights of landowners to sell their gravel,” Johnson said in a written statement.

Some restrictions imposed by the land commission remain unchanged. Requirements to erect a berm and plant trees between the road right-of-way and mining site, and to show ingress and egress onto Eureka Road, were not voted on last week.  

District 4 Supervisor Kelly Morris pressed Havens over a road bond, which would set aside money if heavy trucks damage the county roads.

“Will you also put up a (road) bond?” Morris asked Havens.
 
“If we’re hauling,” replied Havens, who had already stated Rockco would not own gravel trucks.
Morris, whose district includes Eureka, voted in favor of both motions.  

Havens and his attorney, Mike Graves, also complained to the Board of Supervisors about board minutes from the commission meeting, suggesting they failed to receive timely documents to prepare for their appeal to the Board of Supervisors.  

Attorney Roy Percy represented the Johnsons and other opponents at the supervisors meeting.