Town of Angelo Passes Six-Month Sand Mine Moratorium

The Angelo town board passed a six-month moratorium on sand mines this morning. The township will create a committee of townspeople to carefully study the process of sand mining and what legal controls are available to the township. "It gives us six months to consider what actions might be taken in order to protect the people, so to speak, in the town," said Tom Leverich, town chair. About 25 people attended the meeting in the town hall. The board called for a show of hands for all those who supported a moratorium and all but two people raised their hands. It goes into effect upon publication and has been submitted to the Sparta Herald.

Skip Frazee photo

Town of Sparta Poised to Pass Sandmining Moratorium

The town of Sparta voted last night to hold a hearing March 6 on whether or not to pass a sand mining moratorium in the township. The approximately 50 people attending the meeting of the board of supervisors overwhelmingly voiced support for a moratorium. Late last year, the city of Sparta annexed a farm in the town of Sparta to speed approval of a sand mine that U.S. Silica will build and operate.

Howard Garves, town chair, said that at the March 6 meeting, the board will discuss the length of a moratorium. It could be four months, six months or a year. The town wants a moratorium to give it time to create a town of Sparta ordinance to govern sand mining in the town.

“It is not a zoning ordinance,” he said.

At last night’s meeting the board invited the public to give its views on a moratorium.

“They overwhelmingly said that they want a moratorium,” Garves said. “Our intention is the have the hearing and if it is the wish o the people at that time, based again on the hearing, then we will adopt it"

Those at the meeting also discussed reports of other sales of property in the town of Sparta to sand mines. These properties are near the U.S. Silica site, which used to be in the town of Sparta. The city of Sparta annexed the land at the request of the property owners to simplify the approval process for the sand mine. Jeff Jahn, mine planning and development manager for U.S. Silica, said that U.S. Silica is not the sand mine company that is trying to buy the properties that are either being sold or have options to sell on them.

Town of Angelo to Discuss Sand Mine Moratorium in Special Meeting Friday Morning

The town board of Angelo is holding a special meeting at 10 a.m. Friday, Feb. 24, to discuss a sand mine moratorium and regulating sand mines.

The board discussed sand mines at its regular monthly meeting Feb. 14. At that meeting, one resident of the township expressed concerns about the sand mine and, according to the minutes of the meeting, town board supervisor Steve Treu said he would support a moratorium on sand mining in the township to allow the board to develop some procedures or licensing to protect the township and its residents. The board then had the town attorney draft a resolution for the special meeting, which will be held Friday.

All three board supervisors attended a day-long meeting about sand mining held by the Wisconsin Towns Association late last year. The other supervisors are Tom Leverich, chair, and Warren Kastberg. Mary Carlisle is the town clerk and treasurer.

An official notice of the meeting is running in the Monroe County Democrat on Thursday, Feb. 23. On the agenda: "Discussion and possible action on the town of Angelo ordinance to impose a moratorium on the expansion of existing and creation of new non-metallic operations within the town of Angelo pending the study of possible legislative action."

Proposed Sand Mine Site Next to Sparta Municipal Golf Course

Click on the link below to read more about land a sand mine is trying to buy in the town of Angelo.


The area outlined in red is land a sand mine is seeking to buy. It is immediately adjacent to the municipal golf course (if you look closely, you can see the greens). It straddles the LaCrosse River and drains into Perch Lake. It's immediately across from Memorial Park, the football field, softball fields and the municipal swimming pool. This image is from the Monroe County website, www.co.monroe.wi.us .