The city of Osage Beach wants a quarter of a million dollars in court costs from the state of Missouri. 

Last week the Appeals Court of the Western District of Missouri repealed a rock quarry permit granted to Magruder Limestone out of Troy, Missouri.  The permit was granted by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources Land Reclamation Commission.

Osage Beach Mayor Penny Lyons says she was surprised when she found out about the permit back in the summer of 2007.

“A reporter came down and said, ‘Did you know?’ And we didn’t know cause we weren’t notified,” Lyons said. “And about three weeks prior to that I heard Doyle Childers, who was then the head of DNR,  say that once a quarry starts there wasn’t anything that the DNR could do about it.  That was referencing the people up in Sunrise Beach.”

“And about three weeks later we found out that they were going to put a quarry on at least three sides of the joint sewer treatment plant.”

The board of the joint sewer plant requested several court hearings and protested the plans. The end result of the hearings was limitations on the permit, including blasting times and notification. The limitations were appealed, leading to the decision last week to deny the permit.

Mayor Lyons says the city is filing to recoup all of their court costs.

“We haven’t really tallied up all of the expenses cause they continue every time we get represented."

"We have spent at least two hundred thousand plus. When we get done with it, it may be $250,000 to $260,000."

"At least."

The appeals court revoked the permit saying the joint sewer board was forced to prove that the rock quarry would have done damage to the sewer system.  State statute says the the quarry operator has to prove they will not damage the system.