Farms, aggregate mine can coexist

Your story about Baker Rock's application to mine land our company owns on Grand Island shines a light on the false choices that all too often characterize land-use decisions. Land is an economic asset. Farming and the production of aggregate for our roads and buildings are each important to the well-being of our communities. Both support families and Oregon law, far from being inadequate, recognizes the two must coexist.

Our application to Yamhill County respects this balance. We have pledged to meet or exceed every significant environmental, safety and public infrastructure maintenance raised by neighbors and county professional planning staff.

We will use state-of-the-art mining techniques and buffers to minimize the impact of our operations on our neighboring landowners. The site will be returned to habitat on an ongoing basis and water run-off will be carefully managed. Baker Rock has committed to paying for road, bridge and safety upgrades to county specifications where necessary to support our operations. All Grand Island residents will benefit from these commitments.

Our Grand Island operations will provide a badly needed and sustained economic shot in the arm for Yamhill County -- and savings to hard-pressed taxpayers.

We'll add new living wage full-benefit jobs and sustain those we already provide at our Dayton asphalt plant. A local source of high quality aggregate will also produce cost savings for every road, parking lot and driveway project in the county. Buying local, whether fresh vegetables or aggregate, lowers environmental costs by reducing hauling from distant locations.

Agriculture is important and so are natural resources like aggregate. We need both and we can choose both.

Todd Baker

Beaverton, Ore.