The Augusta County Board of Zoning Appeals approved a permit request to reopen an asphalt plant in the Steeles Tavern area that hasn't been open for about two decades.

The zoning board's unanimous vote clears the first hurdle for Weatherman-Collins LLC to produce asphalt for its paving business.

The company has to apply for another permit from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, which will study the plant's potential impact on the environment.

Company co-owner Nick Collins told the board during its regular monthly meeting that the impact on local traffic would be minimal, amounting to about 6-7 trucks per day.

During a public hearing before the vote, three people spoke in favor of Weatherman-Collins' special-use permit request, including the landowner from whom the company will be leasing property. Four residents spoke against it — voicing concerns about noise and traffic safety from the extra trucks hauling asphalt.

A quarry has operated from the area for about 20 years. Although the plant is about half a mile from the Mount Joy Pond Natural Area Preserve, site of a rare sinkhole pond and one of the largest populations of the endangered Virginia sneezeweed, the preserve is upstream from the asphalt plant and at a higher elevation and so is not threatened by it, said Riverheads supervisor Nancy Sorrells, who is also editor of the Virginia Native Plant Society Bulletin.

Collins, who is chairman of the county school board, said he hopes to have the plant running in April.

The plant has aged and rusted equipment from when it last produced asphalt, but Weatherman-Collins thinks it'll be able to rehabilitate the site to modern standards.

The company proposes to use three employees on the site and truck no more than 70 loads of asphalt per day for the firm's paving business.

The permit will restrict manufacturing to the hours of 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday-Friday and from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays. The permit includes an exception for nighttime work if government work requires it.

Trucks will have to enter and leave the site using Route 667.

Weatherman-Collins paves for residential, light commercial and light highway projects.

http://www.newsleader.com/article/20111202/NEWS01/112020328