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Y .._ ~ recewed demand for the rock. That construction, however, has also brought new homes and residents to the valley. Some of those residents don't want a revived stone industry ripping up their sce- ~ Nc view. They mnlend the noise, traf[ic and blasting from the quarries is undermining the value of their homes. AL the heart of the issue is a debate over. whether the quarries have been mined ac- tively since county zoning laws went into effect in 1973. U the quarries were inactive Eor a year or more, residents maintain, they cannot be etempted from the zoning law. The gmrry operators maintain history is 0o their side. Tbey say the quarries have been miced, at (east intermittently, long be- fore there were zoning laws. l~ponents plan to submit aerial photographs and affidavits to prove the quarries were dormant [or peri- ods of a year or more since 1973. "Why would people move in here and bWld >iE0,000 and ;100,000 houses, across from an active quarry?" asked Steve Sycks, oce of the neighbors seeking to close the quarries. "They weren't active." "I wouldn't Gave moved from Lyom, which is heavily quarried, and build a house nezt to a quarry;' he added. "It's insane." Neil Sprague is the middle of a three- generatlon quarry family. He's worked with stone for 33 yeah, beginning on his [ether's quarry In Lyoro. His two sum have followed him into the business. Sprague and his wife, Judy, own Arkim Part Stoce Co., the largest quarry operation in the valley. When they worked in Lyom, the Spregaes gdarrled several 6mdred tom of stoce for the UNverslty o[ Colorado-Boulder. Nell Sprague passes by those baildinga without feeling a Certain pride. "I don'tcare what job I did or where it V, trhekber It's there 1 year or 50 years," 6e batd~, ~Wheo I gd' 8eek, it's still my job." ~itll~• Mid, he. doesn't ~~~~wd the Jn1a1 OOIIDOM/aadtY Mpwnak, Na The Arkins Park Stone Co., which uses broken rock as riprap, is an eyesore to some Buckhom Valley residents. t]uarries in the Buckhorn Valley have raised a lot of emotional "dust," with homeowners and business people arguing economics vs. quality of Ilfe. "You can take the same rubble pile that's on the mountain and haul It down and put it on the Loveland goH rnurse and Itb heauti- fal;' 6e said. The quarry Wue ignited last fall after Sprague's son, Philip, and his two partners applied for a quarry permit. ()ppositloo to that quarry brought in a state mine inspecWr, who temporarily shat down several other gaarrles last December for operatlag without a permit restriMiom on their operation. The history o[ the valley's stone industry was a [actor in that decision, said comfy planning adminis- trator Jerry White. "H we were looking at a vlrglu area where 0o mining had ever tekm place, where quar- ries tfrere not obviom wben people moved there, then I think we might have looked at it a IitUe differently," he said. the last 10 months is unbelievable," m Robert Rnaub, a homeowner In Glades We a 35-home subdivision built in 1977. Rnaub said blasting at oce quarry site la fall shook nearby houses and frlghtecei children. Quarry owner Douglas Bachll, how said most o[ the quarries require little or blasting. He also Doted the state regalra quarries ultimately to reclaim the land. The quarry fight erteods beyond villa. The owner of the Ring Ranch, south the valley, applied [or a permit to prods crushed decorative stoce tram a quarry county began in the 1930s. Some residents along the gravel road f ing the 3,000-acre ranch oppose the saying the operator will raise dmt, o0 and traffic. Ranch manager Dean Ackerman sold neighbors may see all that and more if quarry is denied. Without the Income quarry would produce, Ackerman said ranch owners may opt to divide the land 1 35acre parcels for new homing. Quarry owners rnntend that more l6~ livelihoods are at stake. They say the stoi they sell wholesale for between ;35 to ;75 too goes for valuable uses. "A paR of that mountain is in the camp or in somebody's home or in a [Ireplaa Judy Sprague said. "That momtaln isi goce, it's jmt hceo replaced and pat to better use." But ceighbors like Marian FYank are n convinced, and want their momtaln left I tact. But opponents say the gsarrles have a:- "The rock may be valmble, buL so ere t~ oded sigNticaotly beyond what was done residents "she said. "I 6elleve our rnnM ~0111~ ouwuow/Xaxy raaumsin Haws