BY COULTER JONES
STAFF WRITER

Pennsy Supply Inc.'s appeal for a proposed 189-acre quarry expansion in the northeastern section of Dorrance Township is still without a hearing date. That didn't stop the company from filing a new application with the township zoning board for a different expansion plan at the same location.

Their Small Mountain project is too "vital to the 150 families that depend on the quarry for their livelihoods," to leave it solely in the hands of Luzerne County Court, the company said in a statement.

The new plans have several significant differences from the ones that were rejected unanimously by the zoning board in July, General Manager Patrick Bartorillo said. The company does not request a variance for a conveyer to cross Small Mountain Road, instead putting all machinery on the south side of the road, Bartorillo said. Machinery would be encased to decrease noise disturbances, he said. The same overall outline - significant expansion of the company's existing 60-acre quarry - is part of this second application.

How Pennsy's two-pronged approached to attain approval of its expansion plans would work going forward is unclear. Zoning solicitor Richard Hughes hasn't seen the application yet and couldn't comment. He said a hearing would be set within 60 days of the application being submitted.

No hearing has been set for Pennsy's August appeal of its first application. The board unanimously rejected the company's plans in August, after several hours of testimony over five and a half months.

Attorney William Higgs has intervened in support of the zoning board decision on behalf of his client Peggy Lenahan, a Dorrance resident and owner of a restaurant on Blue Ridge Trail Road.

Higgs hadn't seen Pennsy's new plans, but questioned its validity.

"I have some questions if it's different enough from their first application that they're allowed to submit it," he said. "You can't apply for the same thing twice. It has to be substantially different. From what I've heard, this doesn't sound substantially different."

Pennsy has portrayed its quarry as creating a positive economic boost for the area, providing 150 jobs and countless contracts to vendors. The existing 60-acre quarry will run out of rock in the next two to three years and close. An expansion would allow the quarry to operate for another 50 years, Pennsy managers have said.

"We're filing both because of the time frame," Bartorillo said. "This (application) has several more steps to go through ... Waiting for the appeal process to play out is going to take a while and we can't just wait for it to see what will happen."

cjones@citizensvoice.com, 570-821-2110