Lyon County Board Meeting

The Lyon County Board of Commissioners on April 21 decided to pump the brakes on the approval of a Conditional Use Permit for Action Rocks, LLC to process sand and gravel in an area northwest of Russell near Coon Creek.
The board moved to make its final determination until next month, after it has the opportunity to get an up-close look at the area in question. That area surrounds a non-participating homestead (Carey Johnson), and a couple concerns were raised about the effects mining that area would have, such as noise and dust.
Because of that, additional stipulations were added by the Planning & Zoning Commission to the typical list of CUP conditions, such as what the hours of operation would entail, which would be from 8 a.m.-6 p.m., Monday-Friday.
“There was some controversy with this particular gravel pit,” said Lyon County Planning & Zoning Administrator John Biren. “There’s a number of things going on with this gravel pit that we don’t see with others. Those conditions did not make everybody happy. In the world of zoning, we have different districts — we have an ag district, we have shoreline districts, we have highway/commercial … in each one of those districts, we have uses that are allowed permits. There are some uses that have the potential to impact neighbors — gravel pits, large feedlots, asphalt plants, pipelines, power lines, things like that.”
Biren said the standards to allow a CUP are pretty high, but it’s his job to address the legitimate health, safety and welfare concerns with those conditions.
“If at the end of the day, one of those conditions are being broke, it’s (the county board’s) job to revoke it … that has not happened very often in Lyon County,” said Biren. “That’s where the rubber meets the road.”
Biren said the area in question goes up against a county road (66) and is near a designated public body of water, which falls under DNR jurisdiction, meaning a public waters permit might be necessary to do work there.
The landowner, Gary Thooft sold about 16 acres of land to Jim Swenson, who has an easement on Thooft’s property to enter onto County Road 66, which is also a township road.
“The applicant (Swenson) agreed that he would stay out of the shoreline protection zone,” Biren said. “There has been a request from the landowners to have this board physically look at this site before approval.”
Board Chair Rick Anderson suggested before the board acts on the CUP, one or two of its members physically visits the site to get a better grasp on the situation and hear from anyone affected by future mining there. The board will revisit the issue in April after their questions are satisfactorily answered.
“We can also add more conditions if we want to,” Anderson said. “We still have that authority. I would like commissioners to get out and look at this area a little bit.”
Commissioner Paul Graupmann said concerns over the value of Johnson’s house is legitimate, and brought up the potential for dust in that area when the wind kicks in from the west.
“They said they would be very conscious of making sure they keep the dust down,” Graupmann said.
Biren said as much as 99% of the dust that would cause an issue with neighbors would come from trucks hauling on gravel roads.
“What we said was, ‘OK, if you’re going to use this township road, you’re going to go south to 66, you’re not going to go north past any houses,’” said Biren. “I’m talking about the equipment that comes in and out of the gravel pit.”

In other news from Tuesday …
• The board did move to approve a CUP for Brett Muecke to process sand and gravel on a 40-acre area between Garvin and Balaton.
• The board approved a resolution to adopt and implement the Des Moines River Watershed Comprehensive Watershed Manage Plan.
• A low bid of $185.38 per tanker load ($0.0299 per gallons) by Brian Roberts Trucking, Inc. for wastewater (leachate) transportation from the landfill to Marshall was approved. It will be a three-year agreement. It was one of two bids received.
• The board approved a proposal from the Park and Recreation Board to allow the County to apply for up to $3,500 in grant monies from the Minnesota Trail Riders Association to be used to relocate and add paddocks and tie-outs for horseback rider camping in Garvin Park.
• The board approved two hirings: John Xiong as Accountant II with an hourly rate of $30.52 and start date of March 22; and William Giannelli and Correction Officer with a starting rate of $24.65 and start date of April 3.