County supervisors approve Wiltgen quarry permit modification

The Winneshiek County Board on Monday unanimously approved a modification of Wiltgen Construction's conditional use permit for its Canoe Valley Road sand quarry.  The vote allows Wiltgen to quarry limestone for 15 working days a year.

Supervisor Mark Kuhn said after touring the quarry recently, he believes allowing Wiltgen to crush limestone at the quarry "makes perfect sense."  Wiltgen has been trucking in loads of limestone to use at the quarry--even though there is a layer of limestone at the site.

Supervisor Dean Thompson praised Wiltgen Construction for being good neighbors by reducing truck speeds in the area.  But he raised several issues apart from the Wiltgen application.  The original construction permit called for Wiltgen to put down water on Canoe Valley Road to lessen dust issues.  Instead Wiltgen was allowed to decrease the speed of its trucks.  Thompson said he was troubled by the way in which that was handled.  Now the trucks from Wiltgen are driving 30-35 miles an hour while other traffic is going fast.  "That hardly strikes me as a safe situation," said Thompson.

Supervisors seemed to agree with Thompson's suggestion that the county do a speed study and a traffic study on Canoe Valley Road and other roads near the quarry, in an attempt to learn whether overall speed limits ought to be lowered.  Thompson voted in favor of the conditional use permit modification, but strongly recommended doing a speed study and traffic study and enforcing the watering provisions of the original conditional use permit in the meantime.