Materials mined from the quarry helped build roads.
This aerial photograph, taken in 2002, shows Mount Tom quarry at bottom right, adjacent to former ski area. HOLYOKE – The quarry at Mount Tom is history – almost.
No work currently is planned at the quarry and quarrying there must cease on Aug. 31 under a 2002 agreement, a lawyer representing the quarry operator and a city councilor said Monday.
As of Sept. 1, the state gets an option to buy the 16.14 acres that contain the quarry – a purchase option that is “irrevocable,” according to the agreement.
But regardless of whether the current owner maintains ownership or the state buys the property, the agreement is clear that quarrying stops as of Aug. 31, said Frank P. Fitzgerald, who represents quarry operator Mount Tom Rock LLC, of Palmer, and Ward 7 Councilor Gordon P. Alexander.
A permit application to resume quarrying was filed this month, but such an application is filed yearly as a formality to ensure approvals were obtained if quarrying were to continue, Fitzgerald said.
But, he said, “They’re not planning anything up there. ... It’s just something they file every year.”
Basalt mined from the quarry was reduced to traprock, which was used in road building. The operation has been controversial since the early 1990’s among those who say it damages the environment and causes other disruptions because of repeated trips of rock-hauling trucks.
Others have said owner Mt. Tom Companies Inc., formerly known as Mt. Tom Ski Area Inc., had the right to use their property under whatever lawful means they chose.
Building Commissioner Damian J. Cote said the application for a permit to resume quarrying was filed July 16.
The filing raised questions among people here who have kept an eye on the quarry site. One question was about timing, given that the permitting process alone would take weeks and the 2002 agreement specified the Sept. 1 deadline for the state to get the option to buy the property.
Alexander said, to his knowledge, the last quarrying occurred in October.
In summer 2002, the owners of the defunct ski area sold 381 acres of mountainside property for $3 million to a coalition of state, federal and non-profit agencies.
The agreement left the corporation owning a 2.16-acre ridge-top parcel for telecommunication towers, and 16.1 acres near the former ski lodge that includes the quarry.
In the 2002 agreement, the state Department of Conservation and Recreation paid $1.3 million for 144.7 acres of land on the mountain.
Mount Tom Rock is a domestic limited liability company. Its managers are David J. Callahan, of Palmer, and Jerome J. Gagliarducci, of Springfield, according to online documents filed with the office of state Secretary of State William F. Galvin.
Mt. Tom Companies is a domestic profit corporation. Its president is Mary Rose O’Connell, of Holyoke, and its treasurer is Joseph O’Donnell, of Belmont, according to online documents filed with the secretary of state.