Eudora ? Bob Miller figures that a few strands of barbed wire fence are all that stand between his two-bedroom home and the looming expansion of a quarry operation 1,000 feet away.

But if officials at N.R. Hamm Quarry Inc. want to tack another 129 acres to their 72-acre operation southeast of Eudora, Miller wants them to understand that he’ll be around to complain.

“It don’t shake the dishes now, but you’ll feel everything rumble,” Miller said, of the blasting’s effects on his 17-year-old home. “The place rocks. And if they move that much closer, it’ll probably start cracking concrete.

“They’ve got to do what they’ve got to do. I don’t have the money that Hamm quarry’s got to fight it. If my foundation cracks, or my floor cracks, I don’t think I’ll be able to do anything — other than voice my opinion.”

Miller and others will be able to make their cases next month, when the Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission is scheduled to consider Hamm’s application for a permit to expand its quarry northwest of North 1200 and East 2400 roads. The meeting is set for 6:35 p.m. Feb. 26 at Lawrence City Hall, Sixth and Massachusetts streets.

Perry-based Hamm says it needs the expansion to handle its growing demand for rock. The quarry produces limestone used in concrete and asphalt, which in turn is used for road and highway projects in northeast Kansas.

The site is active anytime Hamm lands a major project. Recent work on the Kansas Turnpike, for example, sent 70 to 100 trucks a day into the quarry for up to six months, with each truck hauling away about 25 tons of gravel.

Marvin Zielsdorf, Hamm’s sales manager for quarries, said the company had been planning to expand for years. Four years ago, Hamm secured a lease for use of the property, located directly north of a quarry that has been operational for at least 40 years.

“You have to plan for the future,” Zielsdorf said. “That’s what we’re trying to do here: Zone an area that will have rock products available for the next several years, the next 40 to 50 years.”

Dave King also is planning for the future, and he’s worried about the additional blasting, dust and truck traffic that could be on the way.

King owns 50 acres of undeveloped property north of the quarry’s planned expansion. And while the telecommunications manager knew of the quarry’s presence when he bought the property 30 years ago, he didn’t expect the industrial operation to push for grinding up more of the rural setting.

King’s hoping that his visions of upscale homes on his property won’t get lost in a cloud of dust, drowned out by dynamite blasts or overrun by dozens of trucks.

“They call it a ‘conditional’ use permit, but it’s not a temporary thing,” King said. “I don’t imagine it’ll stop. This is not just for three months. It’ll go until they use up their property.”

Brian Pedrotti, a city-county planner, said planning commissioners would balance a number of issues before making a recommendation about Hamm’s application to the Douglas County Commission. Among the issues: Hamm’s business needs, community demands for resources and area residents’ expectations for peace and quiet.

“It’s agriculture and other industrial uses clashing up against residential (uses) in the county,” Pedrotti said. “This is at ground zero of the clash.”