By HOLLY GASKILL
The Wells County Commissioners have not yet decided on a detour of County Road 500 West, requested by the Rock Creek Stone Quarry.
During public comments during Monday’s regular meeting, Chase Fiechter of the quarry asked when they could revisit the item. The commissioners had last discussed the proposal on June 17, with verbal plans to decide at the following July 1 meeting.
The commissioners advised they were under the impression that County Attorney Ted Storer was awaiting further information from Rock Creek’s counsel. Andrew Heck of Beers Mallers was present in Storer’s place on Monday but couldn’t speak to the particular issue.
Both parties said they would check in with their teams.
In their most recent presentation, the business proposed travel be diverted east just before the Whitelock Ditch, continuing east over the ditch and turning north toward County Road 100 North. The quarry would incur all project costs and wait until after December 2025 to allow the 100N as a detour for previously scheduled construction.
The business plans to expand the quarry across the road and stated that the permanent road closure is the most cost-effective and efficient. An initial proposal to only close a portion of the road received pushback from area residents but there have been no further public comments from residents regarding the prospective diverted route.
On June 17, Storer stated he did not believe the item would require another hearing before approval.
Also during the time for public comments, Lisa Dan of the Center for Energy Education invited the commissioners and the public to participate in a “Solar 101” event at the Wells County Public Library. The event will include two sessions on Aug. 22, the first beginning at 4 p.m. and the second at 6 p.m. Dinner will be provided during the break.
Dan stated the sessions can be attended separately or together, as they’ll both cover solar energy basics but expand on different topics. The C4EE is a nonprofit educational organization based out of North Carolina and with an office in Huntington. The group also hosted “Solar 101” workshops at the Wells County Chamber of Commerce in 2022 and 2023.
The C4EE will also host similar sessions at 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. on Aug. 21 at Huntington University.
“I did attend the commissioners meeting in Huntington last Monday, and they made it very apparent to me that the public needed to be a part of (an informational session) if they wanted to be,” Dan said.
Commissioner Blake Gerber asked if the organization was going around the state with similar presentations. Dan replied, “I wish we were that proactive, but it seems like a lot of it is, right now, it’s trying to get ahead of the narrative. And in a lot of communities, things are moving so quickly that it’s hard to do that. But, yeah, eventually we’d like to be in every county in the state.”
Pre-registration is required for the workshop events and can be completed at c4ee.org or by emailing contact@center4ee.org.
holly@news-banner.com
