KAUFMAN COUNTY, Texas — Win or lose, neighbors of a rock quarry who recently filed suit to reclaim money spent on damages to their homes —allegedly caused by surface blasting— are left wondering, “Do we continue to rebuild or move on?”
KAUFMAN COUNTY, Texas — Win or lose, neighbors of a rock quarry who recently filed suit to reclaim money spent on damages to their homes —allegedly caused by surface blasting— are left wondering, “Do we continue to rebuild or move on?”
One homeowner, Cory Shidler, said he purchased and moved into his home on County Road 3804 in September 2013. The next May, blasting began on what will likely be a 20-year mining operation at Trinity Materials Inc.’s limestone quarry on County Road 346.
Shidler and his wife had made improvements to their home, including “painting every square centimeter,” and replacing the floors throughout the home with tile. “Then all of a sudden in May, six months later, bam, they start these explosions and we’ve had nothing but nightmares with our house,” said Shidler. “Damage after damage after damage and cracks down the walls.”
Shidler estimates the damage to be approximately $193,374.92 and is seeking a jury trial and damages in an amount over $200,000 but not more than $1 million. Shidler’s lawsuit, filed in Van Zandt County, states his home suffered damage “throughout the house, including the bedrooms, the kitchen, the garage, the laundry room, the roof, the barn, and the cow shed.”
Cory’s neighbor, Joe Rice, also filed suit to reclaim damages to their home.
The home damages aren’t the only source of frustration for area and county-wide residents who share the road with 18-wheeler rock haulers serving a number of mines dotted throughout the county.
Residents and transportation officials in Van Zandt County successfully petitioned the Commissioners’ Court to rule the mine’s eastern route to U.S. Highway 80 along Van Zandt County Road 3805 closed to truck traffic forcing rock haulers to use the western route from County Road 346 to Farm-to-Market 2728.
In Kaufman County, where the mine is located, Trinity Materials’ environmental and construction engineer Matt Hallmark says they have entered into an agreement with the county to provide approximately $500,000 worth of materials to provide a road base for eventual improvements to County Road 346. Most of the rock has already been stockpiled.
The county anticipates the improvements will begin when the weather is warmer in order to lay a chip seal over the road base — something residents say they were promised would be completed before the rock haulers began using the roads.
The sheriff’s office recently employed two deputies for commercial vehicle enforcement who wrote 50 citations and 88 warnings county-wide in a 20-day period in January — 16 of which were for overweight trucks.
At a Crime Watch and community meeting in Elmo earlier this month, Kaufman County Sheriff’s Deputy Matt Hinds said Trinity Materials has begun requiring all trucks to have an overweight permit and are loading them according to their permitted weight amount instead of bearing the responsibility on the drivers alone. Hinds said the enforcements are all about keeping the roads safe.
“We’re trying to be reasonable, good corporate neighbors,” said Hallmark. “We want to do things right and safely.”
As for the lawsuit, Hallmark said they could not comment on pending litigation and Shidler says he expects the legal process to last at least a year, if not more.
Shidler says he hasn’t thought about whether he would continue to repair or move on. “I haven’t thought that far … All the repairs up to date I’ve been having to flip out of my own pocket, so I’m invested into my house,” he said.
“Deep in my mind, we should have never had a lawsuit. They should’ve come out, fixed the damage, and gone about their business … I hate having to go this route,” said Shidler.
