Ligonier Township supervisors Tuesday balked at a local coal company's request to close a portion of Myers School Road for up to two years for a proposed strip mining operation.
After some discussion, the matter was tabled.
“Two years is unrealistic as far as I'm concerned,” said supervisors Chairman Wade Thomas.
Bob McDowell, who lives on a section of the road not directly involved in the mining plans of Ligonier-based Coal Loaders, noted the section of road suggested for closure — between Peoples and Woods roads — is used by many students who drive to classes at Ligonier Valley High School and is a shorter alternate route into Ligonier Borough for residents who would otherwise have to use Route 259.
“I'm not opposed to the strip mining,” McDowell said, but he suggested the extended road closure would be “too much of an inconvenience for the whole community.”
Coal Loaders engineering manager Mark Klonicke said the two-year closure is the company‘s “wish list.” Company Vice President Don Lupyan said he would prefer completing coal extraction along two 750-foot sections of the road within one working season — from April through mid-October, preferably in 2017. But, he said, depending on weather conditions and the extent of remaining coal in the previously deep-mined area, a second season might be needed.
He indicated the company would want the road to be reopened during any intervening winter season so that it could be plowed by township crews.
He suggested the project “can be broken up into two six-month sections.”
Lupyan said Coal Loaders has conducted seven mine reclamation or surface mining projects in the township, several of them near the proposed Mellon 5 strip mine.
He said the company wants to mine through areas of Myers School Road that already are undermined and would be able to fill in beneath and stabilize those portions of the road as part of the restoration process.
Township manager Terry Carcella confirmed there are no residents living along the area of Myers School Road involved in the proposed project. Klonicke said Coal Loaders has submitted a pre-application to the state Department of Environmental Protection seeking a mining permit for a total of 340 acres leased from Seward Prosser Mellon and the Old Colony Sportsman's Association. Actual coal extraction is proposed on 88 acres.
He said Coal Loaders needs township approval of the road closure as well as a variance from the normal 100-foot setback of mining operations from a public road.
In other business, the supervisors voted 3-2 to grant an hourly $1 raise to administrative assistant Laurel Ross, who has completed her first year of service with the township.
Voting against the raise were Gary Thistlethwaite and D. Scott Matson. Matson said he intends to vote against all employee raises during the remainder of his term as supervisor. He said he believes township employees are well-compensated.
Jeff Himler is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 724-836-6622 or jhimler@tribweb.com.
