Arguments against Buckland saw mill not credible: Reeve

Aug 16, 2018 | 3:00 PM

There’s continued concern from some of the neighbours about a saw mill enterprise setting up soon on Pulp Haul Road in the RM of Buckland.

The RM recently voted 5-1 to approve Lorne Renouf’s modest operation which involves a modern low-noise portable saw mill that will be housed in a new building. But the lone dissenter at the political table, along with some others, figured the local government got it wrong.

“We have concerns about noise and dust but also why the land is not being used for farming,” Division 1 councillor Arthur Brandolino, who runs a grain farm near the planned mill, told paNOW. “We need land for food, so why do they put something like that in there when we could farm it?”

Brandolino added other neighbours who live even closer to the planned site than he does, still have reservations about the mill’s noise output, dust and chips, and the noise from logging trucks. He said people deserve their peace and quiet.

“We can’t go out in the evenings after a day’s work and sit outside without having to listen to that.” he said.

The operator of the equipment which will be in use evenings, weekends and over the summer, has assured the public that the modern machine is relatively quiet at around 70 decibels, or the audio equivalent of a dish washer or vacuum cleaner.

In clarifying why the RM overwhelmingly approved the operation, Reeve Don Fyrk told paNOW “none of the arguments [against] held water.”

“One of the main reasons we approved it is because there’s an identical saw mill set up in the RM of P.A. and there have been no noise complaints about that at all,” he said.

Fyrk added there would be minimal saw dust because the new state-of-the art machine is far cleaner-cutting than the old buzz saws and the existing operation in the RM of P.A. has proven to require little removal of debris.

As for Brandolino’s complaint about the need to have the site used for farming instead of a saw mill Fyrk said it was a relatively small lot and the RM would have looked at things differently “if a whole quarter of land for a big logging company” was being considered.

Fyrk noted the irony in some of the complaints about the noise from trucks that will be bringing in logs and hauling away the product from the new mill.

“Where were the complaints when the pulp mill was running and all those log trucks were running up and down the road? You move out to the country to get peace and quiet …well get off the Pulp Haul Road if you want peace and quiet,” he said.

 

panews@jpbg.ca

On Twitter:@princealbertnow