Personal friends of the proposed mine owners spoke in favor tonight at the Bradford County Board of County Commissioners meeting in Starke. Reasons given by both were the jobs the mine would bring and the good character of all the owners.
Two spoke against, Courtney Snyder and your OSFR historian. Courtney has studied carefully the process through which the mine application has traveled and has found several discrepancies which might be considered sufficiently irregular to warrant rejection of the application. She pointed these out with exact locations so the commissioners could easily find them.
Your historian took excerpts from the state’s website for the Florida Industrial and Phosphate Research Institute (FIPR Institute) which clearly show that much mined land (up to 40 percent) is never reclaimed. Another negative aspect admitted by FIPR is that counties in which mining occurs have difficulty finding “income-generating uses for mined AND RECLAIMED land.” (emphasis mine)
Bear in mind that this is the industry’s website making these detrimental comments, not an environmentalist.
Mr. Paul Still repeated his request from the last meeting, for a workshop on Land Use Regulations (LDRs.) Mr. Still also has supported the mine in the past because of new jobs.
Dear (emphasis mine), you got a name?