Stop the Pit rally, town hall meeting Wednesday at McHenry’s Veterans Memorial Park

Billed as a “Stop the Pit” town hall meeting, residents on Wednesday night aired concerns about a proposed gravel mining operation at Chapel Hill Road and Route 120 near McHenry.

Some concerns voiced by residents included the possibility of contamination to their private wells and what the mine, which proposes to use a hydraulic lift to dredge sand, would do to the water table.

“This issue is throughout the city,” McHenry 3rd Ward Alderman Frank McClatchey said. He and 4th Ward Alderwoman Chris Bassi emceed the meeting at McHenry’s Veterans Memorial Park.

His concerns, McClatchey said, include the number of gravel trucks that would use Route 120, as well as the depth of the water table there.

“It is just a bad location, and we are going on the record about it. People do not want it here,” McClatchey said.

“It is just a bad location, and we are going on the record about it. People do not want it here.”

—  Frank McClatchey, McHenry 3rd Ward alderman

He and Bassi promised to vote against the proposal when it comes in front of the City Council again.

Jack Pease, owner of Super Aggregates, last appeared at the June 5 McHenry City Council meeting seeking a zoning change and annexation into McHenry, as well as a conditional use permit for mining, processing, asphalt and concrete recycling, outdoor storage and construction of a lake.

According to the proposal, once the site is mined out, Pease plans to build estate-style homes around a central lake on the site.

Pease withdrew his petition at that meeting, asking for more time to talk to neighbors and the council about the proposal. It is expected to be back in front of the council July 17.

Because McHenry’s Planning and Zoning Commission did not give its nod to Pease’s annexation request, a supermajority vote is needed to annex the site into McHenry.

Neighbor Mike Alva lives in the unincorporated Val-Mar County Estates. He said his house is the closest to the proposed mine.

He met with Mayor Wayne Jett on Friday, and has met with Pease as well. If it is ultimately approved by McHenry, Alva said he would figure out how to run for mayor himself.

“It is way too big; there is no need for another gravel pit there,” Alva said.

Tom Foss, a member of the Friends of Volo Bog board of directors, said that as the proposed pit is in the same watershed as the bog, he and others are worried that any drop in its water level would harm the bog.

“We are concerned ... there is not environmental impact study on what this will do to the Volo Bog.”

The event was promoted on social media by Facebook group Stop the Pit, created last year by Spring Grove residents Ron and Linda Bryant.

While their home is not near the proposed McHenry pit, they are fighting the same fight, Ron Bryant said.

Pease bought 110 acres between Fox Lake and Spring Grove, near the Sundial Farms subdivision. Although neither of those towns has seen a proposal, the Bryants understand Pease also envisions estate homes on the site after it is mined out.

Not everyone at the rally was against the gravel pit. One man, who would only identify himself as Tom and a business owner, said he grew up near a gravel mine and on a private well, as did his children.

He told those assembled that the gravel mines are in McHenry County because it is “rich in gravel.”

McHenry has grown, and the council is working to make it a great city, McClatchey said as the meeting wrapped up.

The gravel pit “is not right, and it is not something McHenry wants,” he said.