Rutland quarry owner responds to area residents

BY APRIL KELLEY
Everyone who could possibly have a say in the Rutland quarry has had their chance to talk. The townspeople affected, local businesses, the Supervisors, the attorneys, except for one person, Cole Anderson, the owner of the quarry.

Anderson, 24, bought the quarry in July of 2023 with the hopes to reopen the site. He applied for a special use permit from the Humboldt County Zoning Board and was denied in October. In November, Anderson’s lawyer Ernest Kersten found a flaw in the zoning ordinance. Zoning ordinances which changed the area around Rutland from an area for mineral extraction to farming in both 1996 and 2015 were done incorrectly, thus making those zoning ordinances unenforceable.

Kersten also discovered at the time that the Humboldt County Board of Adjustments was not in compliance with new regulations since 2020 and that several of the board members were not eligible to serve on the board. A temporary injunction was filed while a new Board of Adjustments was convened and trained. On July 1, the new Board of Adjustments convened yet again, hearing arguments from both Anderson and his experts and those who were against the special exception use permit. He was denied again. The temporary injunction was dismissed without prejudice on July 10.

With the injunction lifted, Anderson planned to blast and sent 10 certified letters to the nearest residents offering to have their homes inspected as well as texting several others that he had been in contact with.

“I had two people participate in that letter, but the others did not. I had two who said they didn’t want to participate, and the others just refused to talk to me,” Anderson said.

Anderson stated he messaged everyone before he blasted, however, the time was changed from Thursday to Friday due to initial issues with drilling at the site.

“I was in communication with the Mayor of Rutland days before we blasted,” Anderson said.

After the initial text message that they would be blasting on Thursday, Anderson stated he had sent a follow-up text that the blasting would be delayed until Friday. Anderson said he then called or texted Tille on Thursday evening and again on Friday morning, not hearing a response on Friday morning.

“I did this thinking that the Mayor would communicate the information with the members of the city since she has a city phone and contacts. I obviously don’t have everyone’s cell phone in the city,” Anderson said.

Anderson said he texted the neighbors that he had their numbers on Friday and let them know.

He does admit that the first blast did not go as smoothly as he had hoped.

“We have been inspected by MSHA already and we are in compliance with everything we need to be in,” Anderson said.

Read the full story in this weeks issue of The Humboldt Independent