{"id":1315723,"date":"2019-10-16T17:51:29","date_gmt":"2019-10-16T23:51:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/?p=989377"},"modified":"2019-10-16T17:51:29","modified_gmt":"2019-10-16T23:51:29","slug":"new-castle-gathering-information-concerning-rmr-limestone-quarry-expansion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/new-castle-gathering-information-concerning-rmr-limestone-quarry-expansion\/","title":{"rendered":"New Castle \u2018gathering information\u2019 concerning RMR limestone quarry expansion"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
The back of the RMR Quarry located below the Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park.<\/strong>
Chelsea Self<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

New Castle Mayor Pro-Tem Grady Hazelton had a message Tuesday evening for those who thought the town was not supporting Glenwood Springs in its fight against the quarry expansion proposed by Rocky Mountain Resources (RMR).<\/p>\n

\u201cI want this to just be on the record that, that\u2019s just not true,\u201d she said.
Instead, Hazelton said the council was gathering information ahead of potentially voting on a resolution in support of Glenwood\u2019s ongoing battle against RMR.<\/p>\n

Snowmass Village, Basalt, Carbondale, Silt, Rifle and Pitkin County have already approved such resolutions. Additionally, Glenwood Springs officials will go before the city of Aspen on Nov. 12 to petition for its support, too.<\/p>\n

New Castle has not drafted a resolution of support but may do so at a later date for the council to consider.<\/p>\n

RMR has plans to vastly expanding the existing Transfer Trail limestone quarry on federally leased land north of Glenwood Springs.<\/p>\n

Tuesday, to assist New Castle in its gathering information phase, Glenwood Springs City Manager Debra Figueroa, Mayor Jonathan Godes and Councilor Rick Voorhees delivered a presentation to the town council concerning the potential quarry expansion\u2019s regional implications should the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) approve RMR\u2019s plans.<\/p>\n

\u201cGlenwood Springs has lived in harmony with the existing mine for many, many years and would\u2019ve continued to do so,\u201d Voorhees said. \u201cHowever, this proposal, we think, is outrageous.\u201d<\/p>\n

Voorhees, who represents West Glenwood Springs, painted a grim picture of what 450 truck trips per day and around-the-clock operations would mean for residents, tourists and businesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of shale, it will be tourism,\u201d Godes said referencing Black Sunday when Exxon in the early 80s abruptly shut down its Colony Oil Shale Project in western Garfield County. \u201cI just don\u2019t think that we as a region, whether it be water or it be limestone, need to be the place where the Front Range continues to go to extract and to damage our way of life and our economy in order to build theirs up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following the presentation, New Castle resident Jamin Heady-Smith voiced concerns over the fact that the town of New Castle\u2019s attorney David McConaughy was also representing RMR.<\/p>\n

The law firm of Garfield & Hecht, which McConaughy works for, represents the town of New Castle according to Town Administrator David Reynolds.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy first reaction was, \u2018How is that even possible?\u201d Heady-Smith said. \u201cHe needs to figure out what side of the fence he\u2019s on and if he can\u2019t do that, the town of New Castle needs to find an attorney on its side of the fence only.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attempting to avoid a back and forth, Hazelton defended McConaughy\u2019s record as the town\u2019s attorney for over two decades and felt that there was \u201cnot a direct conflict of interest.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe steps aside. He will not be here. He\u2019s not here tonight,\u201d Town Councilor Bruce Leland added of McConaughy. \u201cYeah, it\u2019s unfortunate. It\u2019s too bad but as [Hazelton] said lawyers do this all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

McConaughy told the Post Independent Wednesday that he had disclosed the potential conflict of interest regarding RMR to the town of New Castle and had recused himself and the law firm Garfield & Hecht, P.C. from advising the town on \u201cany matter involving RMR.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additionally, according to Reynolds, any legal advice, discussion and documents related to the strip mine proposal will be developed from sources separate from Garfield & Hecht and all associates.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe law firm of Garfield & Hecht has diligently represented the town of New Castle for many years,\u201d Reynolds said. \u201cDue to a current and clear conflict of interest Garfield & Hecht has recused themselves from communicating in any way with the town of New Castle regarding any issues related to the proposed strip mine in Glenwood Springs.\u201d<\/p>\n

New Castle Mayor Art Riddile and Councilor Scott Owens were unable to attend Tuesday\u2019s meeting.<\/p>\n

mabennett@postindependent.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The back of the RMR Quarry located below the Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park.Chelsea Self New Castle Mayor Pro-Tem Grady Hazelton had a message Tuesday evening for those who thought the town was not supporting Glenwood Springs in its fight against the quarry expansion proposed by Rocky Mountain Resources (RMR). \u201cI want this to just be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1315723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-06 18:20:43","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1315723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1315723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1315723\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1315723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1315723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1315723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}