TOWN OF COOKS VALLEY
Special Town Board Meeting
October 11, 2018
The Special Town Board meeting of the Town of Cooks Valley was called to order on Thursday October 11, 2018 at the Cooks Valley town hall located at 15751 40th Street at 7:00 pm by Chairman Darrel Fehr. Supervisors present were David Clements and Matt Borofka. Other town official present was Victoria Trinko-clerk.
Review of Frontier Sands non-metallic mining permit with public comment:
Bruce Durand, representative of Frontier Sands, reported the wash plant has cleaned and refurbished. They have washed about 150,000-200,000 tons of sands. He gave the board a check for about 9,000 tons left from Preferred Sands that was under contract and hauled as of this year. A road agreement between Chippewa County, Frontier Sands, and the Town of Cooks Valley has been completed. There has been a slow down in the market but have potential orders. Chairman Darrel Fehr commented from what he has observed the road is clean from sand. Bruce Durand stated he has installed a screener which keeps the dirt off the road and made a shale road in front of the sand pile. There has been blasting done. Barb Arendt commented that the blasting has been felt at her residence.
Barb Arendt: Will there be reclaiming done when moving the overburden?
Bruce Durand: Preferred Sands move the top soil and then covered the topsoil with overburden. So the overburden has to be removed, placed in another area to have access to the topsoil for reclamation.
Barb Arendt: Will there be notification of blasting?
Bruce Durand: He will notify Barb Arendt of blasting times. Barb provided her phone number and address to Bruce Durand for notification of blasting events.
Barb Arendt: Will you be working on the high wall?
Bruce Durand: When the mining goes back to the east, there will be work done on the high wall.
Review of Chippewa Sands non-metallic mining permit with public comment:
Zach Schimmel and Mathew Heath, representatives for Chippewa Sands, gave information about production of the mine during the last year. As of September 30, 2018, they have hauled 530,000 tons of product. There are 25 employees at the wet plant. They have shut down the wet plant and are closing it for the winter season. There are about five acres with topsoil and seeded. No area has been 100% reclaimed. They need to talk to the County about mowing and maintenance of the seeded area. After the seeding has been established, they will plant trees. There are eight acres that need topsoil and seeding.
Darrel Fehr: How is it holding?
Matthew Heath: There was some wash-out on the west side.
David Clements: Will the berm always be there below the hill?
Matthew Heath: The berm will eventually be part of the slope when the entire hill is reclaimed.
David Clements: So is it all to be reclaimed?
Matthew Heath: The bottom half of the hill will be included in the whole reclamation of the hill. The north side of the hill will be worked on later as it is being used in the next phase of mining.
Chippewa Sands is working on the permit and the board will hear from them on a new Non-metallic mining permit application by the end of October.
Wells will be drilled on the east area when that phase of the mine site is entered. At this time, no additional wells will be drilled.
They have had the sweeper updated and it is working better. Chippewa Sands is looking into options to knock the sand off the trucks, other than using water, before the trucks enter onto County Highway A.
Chairman Darrel Fehr commented the amount of dust clinging to the haul trucks coming from the mine site onto County Highway A is better but not satisfactory. They will be hauling three days a week until spring, which has been the present schedule of hauling.
David Clements: Did you address the high wall as stated in the reclamation plan? The County has a condition in the reclamation plan regarding the high wall-Chippewa Sands has to do a test plot, see if it is stable, and monitor is for growth, erosion, and stableness.
Chippewa Sands has enough area stripped at the present time for mining for next year.
Darrel Fehr: Have you been taking any samples from the reject material?
Matthew Heath: They will take sample of by-products, storm water, etc. as did not think it was part of the new permit, so he didn’t do it.
Darrel Fehr clarified his point by reiterating he had asked Chippewa Sands to take samples of the reject material last fall of 2017 and again in the summer of 2018.
Matthew Heath admitted he had not conducted any test samples in the last year.
Adjourn: Darrel Fehr made a motion to adjourn at 7:35 pm. David Clements seconded the motion. The motion carried 3-0.
Typed: October 15, 2018 Respectfully submitted
Approved: November 9, 2018 Victoria Trinko -Town Clerk