Lecompton ? A plan to build a new quarry to help expand the Kansas Turnpike has pitted a contractor against a community steeped in history.

Lecompton residents have collected about 200 signatures on a petition seeking to prevent N.R. Hamm Quarry Inc. from putting in a quarry on a 175-acre lot near the intersection of North 1825 and East 350 roads in northeast Douglas County. The site is on the north side of the turnpike.

Paul Bahnmaier, who owns 242 acres next to the site, said nearby residents — inside and outside of the small town’s city limits — had huge concerns with the planned venture.

“The bottom line is this is not the location for a rock quarry,” Bahnmaier said. “It could be detrimental to the rural area and also the city. And to have your heritage threatened under no volition of your own — it’s just devastating.”

But officials with Hamm Quarry have made it known they need a quarry near Lecompton, which was once the Kansas territorial capital.

The Kansas Turnpike Authority designated Hamm as its rock supplier for its widening of Interstate 70 between Lecompton and Topeka. Though the company operates about 40 quarries in northeast Kansas, none of them is close enough to the road-building project, said Lawrence attorney Daniel Watkins, who represents Hamm.

Putting in the new quarry would spare city, township, county and state roads the heavy traffic of trucks hauling rock, Watkins said.

Ramon Gonzalez, of the Hamm Co., declined to comment.

In order to operate a quarry at the location, the company must first receive a conditional use permit.

Paul Bahnmaier looks over his land near where a quarry is proposed. The quarry would be on a 175-acre lot near North 1825 and East 350 roads in northeast Douglas County.

The Lawrence-Douglas County and Lecompton planning commissions will consider the conditional use permit request during a joint meeting at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 23 in the Lawrence City Commission Room on the first floor of City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St. Their recommendation will go to Douglas County commissioners, who will make final decision on the permit.

Area landowners and Lecompton residents already have started lobbying planning commissioners and they’ve started a formal petition, which would require the county commission to have a unanimous vote in order for Hamm’s to get the conditional use permit.

Debatable consequences

Watkins wrote in a letter to Lawrence/Douglas County Planning Commissioner Sheila Stogsdill that “there would be minimal to no visibility of quarry area operations from adjoining properties, though some quarry operations would be visible from the turnpike.”

He said in an interview the quarry likely wouldn’t be in full use once the turnpike project was completed.

“A Hamm quarry in Eudora has operated two times in 10 years,” Watkins said. “It only operates when the rock is needed.”

He also said the company would follow specific guidelines when blasting occurred and make sure that air quality and drainage systems weren’t compromised.

But area landowners — north and south of the turnpike — aren’t buying it. They say they think they will see the quarry operations and feel the repercussions when employees are blasting for rocks. They said the dust would be unbearable and that there would be problems with water run-off.

“Even though the land looks empty and unused, it’s within a local community and it’s going to impact the quality of life and the look of the land,” said Lucy Kaul Hurst, who resides at 1795 E. 400 Road. “We have every right to expect to remain free of industry out here. It just doesn’t fit.”

Historic and scenic

The area is made up of old farmstead homes and new houses, said Kaul Hurst. She also said she had concerns that the quarry could negatively affect the agricultural land in the area, as well as livestock.

Residents also haven’t taken kindly to the idea of a quarry in a community where people deem history one of its most bankable commodities and view the rolling hills of the area as nice scenery. Lecompton is home to the Constitution Hall, the old Lane University and the state’s first Democratic headquarters.

Bahnmaier noted that Gov. Kathleen Sebelius has said she doesn’t want wind farms in the Flint Hills because they would destroy the scenic beauty, and that the state just spent $1.7 million to promote the state and help increase tourism.

“And then we welcome them to the area along one of the more scenic parts of the interstate with a rock quarry?” Bahnmaier said. “It doesn’t make sense.”