2016-08-11_PERMIT FILE - M2016009

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But gravel pits are nothing new to the area. There is one just a few miles to the west of Nancy Pritekel's home, and the proposed Fremont Paving project is about the same distance from the farm to the southeast. As her son Tom Pritekel pointed out, mining gravel has always been a permitted use under agricultural zoning. i j "This is an allowed use and a beneficial use. It will generate money for schools (from state land board fees) and improve school safety," he said. "When you talk about defending your property right, what about our property right? We have to coexist and adjust." While some neighbors have complained, others have nothing but praise for the current proposal. i "Our family had a gravel pit," said Tom Bregar, whose back porch would overlook a proposed haul route north to U.S. 50. "The county is not getting taxes from that land now, so the county would benefit from this project. . . . How are you going to repair all the potholes in your roads? With imagination, chewing gum or gravel? We've got to fix the roads" Bob Centa, who either owns or farms much of the land directly downhill from the proposed gravel operation, opposed an earlier version of the project. "At the time they proposed it, we fought it tooth and nail," he said. "They were going to cut down the hills right up to our fence line. But (Fremont Paving owner John Paul) Ary has bent over backward to accommodate us" The new proposal will leave the hillsides intact, and Centa can't see how that will have any effectone way or the other on periodic rainstorms that dump water into the Bessemer Ditch or across local roadways. He's seen firsthand what good and bad land reclamation looks like. The good areas have been restored and look just like the other pasture ground in the area, a standard Fremont Paving would be required to meet. The bad? An old pit mined near the Bessemer Ditch — Centa himself is a board member — cut down a hillside near his farms, closer to the ditch than Fremont Paving's proposal. That mine was not subject to the same standard of reclamation. "I didn't complain, but it did change the way things look," he said. "It's not a problem." Driving through his farms, Centa points out two rows of high-voltage transmission lines that stretch across the fields. "These power lines, I didn't have any choice. Remember Super Slab (a proposed highway east of Interstate 25)? Guess whose land it would have crossed. And now the Arkansas Valley Conduit. I guess I'm in the right place," he said. "This gravel mine will take out maybe a half acre of farmland for a road across one of my fields. We're never going to harm the farmers with this project." Dan Henrichs, who owns some of the land in the gravel pit project site and has grazing rights to the land, isn't concerned that the project will harm his property. "They're talking about saving the Bessemer Ditch, but some of those protesting this have sold their water rights," Henrichs said. "I live there and know what the dust coming off the fields looks like. That would be worse than a gravel pit. They're not a problem." cwoodka@chieftain.com SHARE ©V© Powered by TECNAVIA Copyright © 2016 The Pueblo Chieftain, Pueblo, CO. 08/07/2016 Click here to see this page in the eEdition: