The legal wrangling to try to stop two proposed quarry developments near Saxony Lutheran High School continued Monday with a new filing in Cole County Circuit Court.

Saxony Lutheran High School and Save Our Children's Health Inc., a group of Fruitland residents, both represented by Clayton, Mo., attorney Stephen Jeffery, filed a motion for summary judgment on Monday in its case against the Missouri Department of Natural Resources Land Reclamation Commission.

Jeffery's clients want the court to take away a mining permit issued to Heartland Materials and send the matter back before the Land Reclamation Commission. They also want the judge to direct the commission to give them the opportunity to make their case before a DNR hearing officer.

At a Feb. 7 meeting, the commission granted Heartland Materials a permit for a 17-acre mine plan. It included a self-imposed buffer zone of 1,100 feet between mining activity and the school property line, developers said in a January hearing before the commission.

With this latest motion, Jeffery is asking the court to make a decision based on available evidence without further trial court proceedings.

"Because the students, local residents and Saxony administrators have already testified in depositions, we felt we could rely upon that evidence in lieu of bringing all those people up to Jeff City to say what they already said in their respective depositions," Jeffery said.

Now the state and Heartland Materials have the opportunity to file briefs in response to the motion for summary judgment. Once that occurs, the judge may set the case for an argument on the motion, or deny the motion and set the case for another hearing. The next hearing is scheduled for Nov. 2.

mmiller@semissourian.com

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Pertinent address:

County Road 601, Jackson, MO