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Public Comment Sign-in Sheet v `v ` 1` �I N � W O IN W 0 Q i es', - \ U on c a ca a G I 0 N O W - - - f N w a Z Z 4 I O ►_ 1 Z ..b I u Z W a o N * 7 v W cc d, 0 N a. cc I Z E W _- g �_ _ I cu O �! tn C) v w I ! 1E V a = N. I o .1 u a ate) m 4- (V\ a t - -- - --I- - -. C I .474 Z 1 co \_ L I C• a) M j I I a Q , i L) �� 0 0 t �1 0 U 1 C 7 O `) r N CO d- LCD CO N 00 CD T N CO N_ 3 r r 3--' r r CU J i�-.` , Board of cou Y D •�; !-', ?'i:.;ti.,, X112 My name is Scott Crossfield and I live at 241 Foster Creek road. Thank You for „ this opportunity to speak. Forgive me if I get a little emotional readi `t 4 _f I have been living a nightmare for over 8 years. As a disabled vet with PTSland g g Y just wanting to live in peace, my nerves are pretty frayed. I am here to address the commissioners about the proposed gravel pit expansion of the 20 acre mining pond at 451 Mandy Road Toledo WA. I represent 8 families who are directly impacted by this mine and our group is growing. I have not met the new commissioners yet. I would have met you and brought this mine situation to your attention when you were elected, but the owner ensured me last year that they were out of gravel and would be closing in the next couple years. I didn't expect the owner to lie to me again but I was wrong. I don't want to trouble you with this but my neighbors and I have to act if we want any sense of sanity in our homes. I still do not know the details of the expansion but numerous people have told me it is underway. The owner himself told me the permit was a done deal. I have asked the County Permit section as well as Commissioner Stamper for details but I have yet to see anything. If a major expansion involving invasive noise issues was being done to the property next to you do you think you would want to be informed about that? For over 8 years my neighbors and I have been subjected to non-stop noise from beeping trucks and a rock crusher at all hours of the day from this property that is ironically still zoned agricultural. It was a Christmas tree farm when I moved in almost 9 years ago. Some neighbors have had to endure layers of dust and speeding gravel trucks, one taking out a mailbox. We have sought help from the county on noise and operating hours but the county has said it was the DNR's responsibility because it is their permit. We have sought help from the DNR only to be told that they don't monitor permits anymore and that the State law requires the county to monitor mines permitted by the DNR. For EIGHT YEARS we have been blown off by both the county and the DNR. Eight long years. We reached out to the owner to reach some compromise only to be told that,"He was going to do what he has to do and we had just better learn to deal with it." How's that for a good neighbor. We tried everything for eight years but to no avail. I petitioned the Commissioners to enact a noise ordinance and they did, but decided to exempt gravel pits. After that we had accepted the fact that no one was going to help us and that we might as well wait until they were finished with their 20 acre pond. Now to find out that a pit expansion is being back door-ed through the county we are outraged. You have already condemned us to 10 years of misery in our homes, and now you want to extend that 15 more years? Some people have said, "why don't you just move?" Who in their right mind would want to live next to a nightmare like this. What will that do to our resale values? I even asked the county auditor to lower my taxes because the county allows for a public nuisance to operate nearby. They told me that was not allowed and that my taxes could only be compared to a house of equal size that has sold recently. My neighbors and I have had enough of government inaction and being assaulted by noise in our own homes at all hours of the day. At this time we are demanding that the county immediately stop the expansion of the gravel pit or else we will take legal action. We don't want to go this route but it is the only option left to us after 8 years of government inaction. This is a major injustice and it needs to stop. How would any of you like to be treated like this. Thank You for listening. Board ' _a, Bo of County Corr.,;lissionrs Lewis County Washington e APR 1 3 WI