There will be a public hearing this Thursday, October 7th at 6:30 pm – location the Ishpeming Township Hall – 1575 U.S. 41 West, Ishpeming, MI.
The subject of the hearing is to take public comment relative to the need for a NEW public county road from U.S. 41 north to the AAA road. We understand that the county is not presenting any alternatives – but rather just wants to query the public about the NEED for a new county road.
The background conversation is about this new road being paid for by a developer – Kennecott Minerals – and that they would pay for everything including the permitting processes. The county would ostensibly be selecting the new road way, going for all the permits under county name and ownership, determining costs, imposing county standards, working with all landowners along the new routes – easments or condemnation – as the case warrants, and accepting maintenance of the roadway after its completion.
We need friends, neighbors and any interested persons to attend this meeting and JUST SAY NO to any new county road from U.S. 41 to AAA. Period. Just state NO and then say that there are plenty of roads for getting from here to there and that Kennecott needs to follow the route they indicated in their mining application:
AAA to CR 510 to CR 550 to a railhead.
There is no conversation in their permit about trucking through Marquette, Negaunee and Ishpeming. If any money is to spent – have them “improve” this stated route and have them “develop” a rail head and use the rail to get the ore from north of Marquette to their Humboldt Mill.
The other statement that needs to be made is that the County and Townships can and should impose a restriction for travel on any roads they use to haul ore.
Caravan the ore trucks in groups from 12:00 am to 5:00 am.
That way there are no safety concerns for most folks traveling back and forth to work, children getting on and off buses, etc.. Noone wants to see these ore trucks pass by their homes – but have them do it in the wee hours of the morning in a caravan to protect our children and citizens.
There will not be a safe route for the public whether on an old road or a NEW road – but have them haul their ore on existing roads and not create a new road through our last remaining wild places for a short term mining operation on the Yellow Dog Plains.
Thank you and see this gets wide distribuiton.
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Cynthia Pryor
Yellow Dog Watershed Preserve
906 360-2414
Jim took a two day ride up and down the proposed woodland road and observed many surveying crews and men drilling bore holes. He tried to inform them of what really was going on-as most of them were not from the area. He also talked to hunters who were discouraged about the lack of game! Kennecott has “an extensive ongoing program of exploration, not only with a view to extending the life of the Eagle Mine but also looking for additional nickel ore bodies in the region” as per a Business Excellence article .
The Western Upper Peninsula will be the new Mining District. Over 1 million acres of mineral leases are owned by the mining industry in the west U.P. That’s 1/3 of the west U.P.