TOWN OF COOKS VALLEY
SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING
March 31, 2014

A special town board meeting was called to order at 7:30 pm by Chairman Darrel Fehr at the Cooks Valley Town Hall located at 15751 40th Street.  Officers in attendance:  Darrel Fehr-chairman, David Clements-supervisor, John Sykora-supervisor, and Victoria Trinko-clerk.
Review of EOG Non-Metallic Mining Permit with Public Comment:
Mark Berge expressed the same concerns he has had since the inception of the mine about noise and truck traffic, especially in the summer. He remarked, “If these mines were so great, why has no one bought property next to the mines?” There was input that Nancy Schindler’s property has been sold.  EOG rejected the offer on the Johnson property even though the offer was a fair market price.  A comment made- EOG decided to retain the property in the EOG holdings.  There has been no word from Sonnentag’s since December of 2013.  Question: How is the run-off being handled this year?  Ans.: The snow melt is being contained in the ponds and within the system.  EOG has supplied the air monitoring report for the town.  Question:  How many air monitors are located at the mine site?  Ans.: One monitor is located upwind and two monitors are located downwind.  Mark Berge had concerns about the air quality offsite of the mine.  The monitors are placed on the mine site to get the greatest amount of particle concentration.  Was Dr. Richards asked about off site placement?   EOG is following the protocol set by Dr. Richards.  Question: When will the reclaiming start?  The reclaiming will start this summer.  100,000-150,000 tons of material has to be moved before the reclaiming can begin- approximately one month.  Trucking will be a majority of material from the DS mine with a time period of the end of April till December.  A noise control survey will be conducted this May according to the permit.  Noise meters will be set up on the mine site.  The consensus was that the survey should be conducted during the hours of truck hauling to maximize the impact of the noise emanating from the mine site for the survey.
Dust control is going according to plan.  There are two water trucks at the mine that will put up to 100,000 gals a day on the work site when it is windy.  Question: how high is the hill that can be seen from Highway DD?  The hill is 1300 ft.   How can the dust be contained with a North West wind? Mark Poirier, who is located between the SS and DS mines commented that the field was brown in his valley and is wondering why this is happening.  With a 30 mile wind and the hill elevation, what is the amount of dust blowing off the hill and how far will it travel?  Tom Maul said the hill is matted and should be green in the spring, so no dust should be blowing off the hill.  Blasting-Mark Berge had a higher concentration of lead in his water last fall but the next test showed a lower concentration that was within the state standards.  He was concerned the blasting shook something loose.  The property value protection has been completed.  The Land conservation office visits once a month and as it gets drier or during spring run off, the office will visit more often.  The first step in reclaiming is seeding with grass and allowing the soil to become packed before planting shrubs or trees.  The hills where mining is not occurring should be all matted down by the end the summer.  The final plan is to return the hills to trees for deer hunting.  There are no plans to increase the number of trucks hauling this year.  Reasonable levels of traffic are predicted.  758,901 tons of product were hauled last year.  There was a product change and that affected the amount of trucks last year.  The demand is for fine sand this year and this fine sand has been uncovered and will be the product hauled this year.
Inspection of the mine site was held by the chairman on a tour last week. 

Adjourn:  Darrel Fehr made a motion to adjourn the special town board meeting at 7:32 pm.  David Clements seconded the motion.  The motion carried 3-0.

Typed:  March 31, 2014                                                 Respectfully submitted
Approved:   May 12, 2014                                    Victoria Trinko -Town Clerk