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DR/GR Steering Committee Bus Tour - Feb. 27th,
2008
County Staff organized a tour of the DR/GR for the
steering committee on 2/27/08. Sites and areas visited:
·
Youngquist Brothers Rock – mining operation
·
Mallard & Devore Lanes – residences located within
historic mining corridor
·
Corkscrew Wellfield & Water Treatment Plant – operations
·
Burgundy Farms Rd. - residences / Airport Mitigation
Park
·
Old Corkscrew Golf Club
·
Six L’s Farm Road - residences / Six L’s Farm – Farm
worker housing
·
Corkscrew Country Store
·
Carter Road / Lazy D Farms Road residences / Ultimate
Ski Lake RPD
·
CREW Trust Headquarters
·
Wildcat Farms Road - residences
·
Green Meadows Road - residences, future N-S connection
with Lehigh
·
Florida Rock (Vulcan Industries) mines & haul road
My overall impression of the tour was “fair to
middlin’”. If the goal of the tour was simply to see the DR/GR
first-hand, then it was successful. On the other hand, if the goal was
for the committee to gain a better understanding of all the varied land
uses in the DR/GR, then it was only partially successful.
Youngquist Brothers Rock (YBR) hosted us
for lunch, and CEO Richard Friday did an outstanding job of explaining
their daily operations, their various products, and their
state-of-the-art facilities and equipment. YBR is a very impressive
and well managed operation. However, there were some aspects of the
visit that I believe may have created false impressions on the part of
the committee.
Blasting: YBR conducted a blast for the
committee to experience. It was what I would call a “Public
Relations” blast staged for the benefit of the uninformed. There was
no detectable noise and no ground vibration. It was a non-event that
was absolutely nothing like the blasts that residents near the
Westwind mine experience regularly. It’s unfortunate that the group
couldn’t experience the real thing. If this was a normal Youngquist
Brothers blast, I wish they’d share their technology with Westwind.
Mine Activity: At the present time
Youngquist Brothers Rock, like most growth-dependent industries, is
at a virtual standstill. The crushers, loaders, conveyers, and
processing facilities were not operating during the tour, so the
committee wasn’t able to experience the noises and dust associated
with this and other mining operations. They also didn’t experience
the 1000 dump trucks per day that enter and leave this mine during
normal growth economy.
Corkscrew Country Store: Owners Connie
Carter and Buddy Carter, along with store manager Debbie Halcomb did a
great job in welcoming the committee to Corkscrew’s “commercial
district”. They provided refreshments and a goody bag which included
an interesting history of the Country Store. The Corkscrew Country
Store is a community icon and landmark with a distinct atmosphere that
we’d obviously like to preserve.
Agriculture: It’s very unfortunate that
there was no presentation to the group about the current and future
role of agriculture as a land use in the DR/GR. Together with
conservation uses, agriculture remains the dominating land use with
thousands of acres employed in the production of citrus, winter
vegetables, and beef cattle. Operations like cattle grazing are
inherently low-impact land uses, and many of the more intense
agricultural activities employ best management practices that conserve
water and minimize the use of fertilizers and pesticides. It’s too bad
the economic, aesthetic, and environmental value of agriculture to Lee
County was not addressed in any significant way.
The tour route was excellent and covered nearly
every easily accessible area of the SE DR/GR. The county staff did well
to include organized presentations by mining and conservation /
mitigation stakeholders. Unfortunately, presentations from the
agriculture industry and rural residents were notably absent.
As the bus drove through residential areas and past
farms in Corkscrew, there was very little supporting information being
shared with the committee. So I hijacked the microphone and talked a bit
about the Corkscrew Community as we drove through. I tried to give some
brief background about the history of the road & community, the idea of
one neighborhood as opposed to “residential clusters”, historic drainage
patterns, important wildlife corridors and connections, importance of
farming to the community, etc. Peggy Schmidt also related some of the
impacts from the Westwind mine that she experienced at her former
residence. It probably could have been done better if we had been more
prepared, but I hope we at least filled some of the void for the
committee.
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