Don’t let Lafarge mine at Cedar Crest

To the editor:

The old Cedar Crest farm is east of Missouri 291 on Kentucky Road. One was able to purchase milk at the little milk stand at the side of the road in times past. The farm now appears empty. However, it looks as if a sign should be there advertising land for sale, excellent family residential land.

But, alas it is not so, for the entire 163 acres had been sold. Lafarge has purchased the land to mine Bethany Falls limestone for the concrete it makes. Sugar Creek has annexed the farm. After all this was complete, Lafarge petitioned Sugar Creek for permission to mine there. Sugar Creek did not allow that to happen, however.

The farm is encircled by residences and is in a residential area (1,400 homes). The blasting and mining of the rock is quite devastating to an area. The blasting will cause damage to foundations, and the prices of homes will depreciate. The story that was told to me regarding the Sugar Creek Aldermen follows. I was told that the aldermen did not want to impose something upon Jackson County and Independence that they would not impose upon the city of Sugar Creek; mining was not allowed.

Lafarge is approaching Sugar Creek once again to be able to mine there. It is the desire of Jackson County and Independence that permission will not be granted. It would turn the farm in to a 163-acre mining-and-blasting operation. The country environment would disappear. The millions of dollars invested into the residential environment would be damaged and depreciated – 40 years of building would take a big hit!