My husband, Gary Hart, and I attended the Montezuma County Planning and Zoning Commission meeting Oct. 14, regarding Ironwood Group LLC permit amendments.
As homeowners in rural Montezuma County, what we witnessed, was not what we expected.
While the assembled commissioners politely listened to my testimony regarding the noise, light and air-pollution impacts as I worked in my garden last summer, the assembled leadership was not consistently respectful toward the assembled citizens.
It seemed to me that Ironwood operations violations and permits requesting operational modifications without approved comprehensive, engineered mitigation plans were at the center of increasing community ire.
Pre-constructing living quarters for workers and their families and threatening to proceed with constructing huge, concrete wood-heating vats, without a permit, seemed belligerent acts toward the rural community and, as if, the permits were going to be approved anyway.
Ironwood representation made a lot of verbal, productive statements and did a lot of hand-wave pointing at displayed photos. I noted that nothing was in writing, even though the comments were important clarifications to the permit amendment intent.
The recommendation threshold we stood at seemed to be more about rubber-stamping Ironwood proposals and delaying critical technical, environmental impact reviews of proposed mill process changes for later, after those proposed high-impact projects were too far along to reasonably deny.
Ironwood representation implied to the commissioners that, had they known they would meet so many requirements, not discussed during the original land-use permit approvals, they wouldn’t have invested their money in the mill.
That, is a classic bully tactic, if ever there was one.
As citizens who have consented to our elected officials to represent us, and also recognizing the inherent integration the Ironwood Mill performs for the beneficial logging of nearby, otherwise fire-threatened forests, we are simply asking for a technically compliant Ironwood Facility Master Plan, which mitigates pollution insults to our rural quality of life. This view is fully in keeping with the spirit of Montezuma County’s Land Use Code 20.
Deborah Gentilini
Dolores
