LIMESTONE CO., Ala. (Waffle) – When Belle Mina resident Delores Fletcher stepped out of her home Wednesday and saw that construction had begun on the rock quarry, she said her world stopped.

“My heart dropped,” Fletcher said. “We couldn’t believe it.”

Fletcher has lived in the small town of Belle Mina for 30 years and, like most of its residents, a stone quarry is not desired for her.

“Nobody wants to live next to a rock quarry, and of course we’re no better than anybody else, but nobody has to live next to a rock quarry,” Fletcher said.

Reverend Cody Gilliam of Belle Mina Methodist Church has led the fight to stop this quarry for nearly a year.

“It was a morale killer for our community,” Gilliam said.

Gilliam made several attempts to delay construction. He even filed a civil rights complaint against the Alabama Department of Environmental Management a few months ago in August.

Gilliam learned his complaint was dismissed the same morning construction began.

“It has a majority-minority community that has always been impoverished, and that prevents them from ever having the ability to move out of a community like that with a career right there,” Gilliam said.

A last ditch effort to try to stop further construction is an ordinance filed by 5th generation Belle Mina resident Sam Frazier. Frazier lives right across the street from the proposed quarry.

The ordinance states that the construction company is violating the law by building a quarry within 2 1/2 miles of a public school. Auburn has a satellite facility just a mile outside of town.

“It’s going to devalue my property, the farm property by 80 percent, plus I live there, which is my home,” Frazier said.

A sentencing hearing will be held at the Limestone County Courthouse on November 19 at 9:00 a.m. Belle Mina residents are holding a church meeting on November 26th.

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