Tew’s granted gravel permit

MEADOW LAKES — Borough officials granted a permit for a gravel pit operation along Church Road this week.

The site of the pit, near the intersection of Church Road and Church Ridge Drive, contains about 100,000 cubic yards of gravel in a small mound in its northwest corner. Once the mound is removed, Tew’s Construction Inc., which owns the property, intends to turn it into a subdivision, though representatives with the company aren’t yet sure how many units there may be at the site.

As part of the permit, Tew’s also will remove several automobiles remaining at the site, a move designed in part to prep the property for the development.

The company has received positive feedback from many neighbors related to those efforts, said Roberta Tew.

“Our presence there has already improved the neighborhood,” she said. “We’ve received a lot of public comments in the neighborhood. The place was neglected for a while and we’re trying to clean it up and be a good neighbor.”

The permit application allows for about 100,000 cubic yards of gravel to be taken out of the site over two years, though Tew’s co-owner Moki Tew estimates there are several hundred thousand dollars worth of sellable gravel on the lot.

Of course, that depends on whether the gravel is sold wholesale for state or borough construction or road improvement projects (for example) or retailed for small-scale landscaping for homes, Tew said.

“There’s about a half a million cubic yards of gravel there,” he said. “If one of the big boys came and bought it, it’d be worth $500,000. If a little boy comes and gets it, it’s $5 a yard, $10 a yard.”

A decision on the application for an administrative permit had been set for Aug. 13, but was delayed until Aug. 15 to allow the Meadow Lakes Community Council to collect public comment on the matter, according to borough officials.

The administrative permit comes with a single additional condition: that crews refrain from working on Sundays, according to borough planning officer Eileen Probasco.

That sits fine with Tew.

“I don’t work on Sundays anyway,” he said.

The project’s local reception — at least as reported by the Tew family — clashes conspicuously with the general antipathy with which many Meadow Lakes residents view another locally famous gravel pit, the B&E gravel pit/waste disposal site that is in the middle of a contentious permitting process.

The two are unconnected in anyway. The biggest difference between the two might be the eventual outcome, Moki Tew said.

“We’re taking unusable land and making it usable,” he said.

Contact Brian O’Connor at 352-2269 or brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com.