The editorial staff of the Burlington Standard Press compiled and ranked the top 15 news stories of 2020. The complete list appears in the Dec. 31 edition of the newspaper. The top 10 stories, presented in descending order, will appear on this site:
8. Gravel pit defeated in Spring Prairie
The Walworth County Board of Supervisors needed a mere two minutes, if that, March 10 to agree with the Zoning Agency’s decision to deny a proposed gravel pit in the Town of Spring Prairie.
The decision comes after nearly nine months of debate, hours of residents voicing fierce opposition, a divided Town Planning and Zoning Commission and, ultimately, a vote against the quarry by the Spring Prairie Town Board.
Union Grove-based Asphalt Contractors, Inc., which initially presented the proposal in 2019, planned to rezone three parcels near the intersection of Highways 120 and 11 for the purpose of mining gravel.
The issue sparked heated debate, turned neighbor against neighbor and resulted in a shakeup to the Town Board.
Asphalt Contractors presented comprehensive studies purporting to show the proposed gravel pit, which planned to mine in 10 to 20-acre increments, would not cause any disruptions to the Town of Spring Prairie and its residents.
However, many residents begged to differ.
“This pit is a bad idea for many reasons,” resident Mary Grossman said at one of the meetings. “There will be traffic, noise, dust, loss of property values and loss of rural atmosphere.”
Despite the denial in Spring Prairie, Asphalt Contractors was granted approval earlier this month to open a gravel pit along Highway P in the Town of Burlington in Racine County.
-
-
-
-
-