PIEDMONT, SD — After an announcement in a Spearfish newspaper in October shocked residents, Piedmont has been quick to react to plans from French-owned Simon Contractors’ proposal to build a limestone mine next to the Big D, just off of I-90.

Since that time, residents have organized to share mutual concerns for air quality, watershed issues, and general health concerns due to the locations’ proximity to residences. Simon has largely been silent on invitations to speak to the public, however tonight their silence was broken (at least partially) as Simon held an event with the intention of, in the words of regional manager Cheryl Gustafson, “Trying to ease them by doing educational stations,” and allowing questions to be asked on a one-on-one basis, with the intention of facilitating human connection and conversation between the multinational corporation and the citizens of Piedmont through slides and complementary cookies.

Piedmont residents seemed largely unconvinced by the event however, and the event quickly broke off into groups which, in no uncertain terms, maligned a lack of transparency from Simon on the project. Many were frustrated, as they felt they were led to believe the event would be a forum-style Q&A, a sentiment echoed by State Senator John Carley who said that he was happy Simon was addressing public concerns, but quickly followed “I wish it was more of a discussion, we’re seeing boards up and people can walk and look at the boards, but I was hopeful for a more public discussion”. 

Piedmont resident Voneta Niell put it less subtly, voicing her displeasure with the whole affair in saying “This is not an explanation of what they’re doing. This is an explanation of what construction aggregate is and how it’s used, and what Simon is. We already know what Simon is, we don’t want them here. We already know what aggregate is obviously – we use it”. 

Gustafson disagrees, saying “I do think of this as a public Q&A because they are able to walk up to a station that has a learning opportunity, they can ask any question. They want some answers, we have answers to some, we may not. We never intended for this to be a meeting”.

However, people seemed equally uncomfortable with what many termed vague or irrelevant information related to the project. “They told us basically nothing” said an elderly man, who wished to remain unidentified, who relayed in less-than-glowing words that he believed the project was a cynical attempt to place profit over health. James Bialota, a candidate for state congress said of the event that he felt that the information he learned from the event “wasn’t exactly positive” for Piedmont residents, and that he was told that restoration efforts would not be restoring the elevation of the site after mining is completed in (at the least, given current permitting) 2043.

While Gustafson was somewhat evasive on details of the project, she conveyed that Simon has reportedly shifted plans somewhat in response to public outcry. ”We don’t have our phasing map up there yet, because it’s not final, but,” she said, pointing to a slide featuring the proposed project map, “that map is the general area of the mine. There’s a lot of people that are like ‘you’re just going to open a big hole, and it’s going to look ugly’ and all the things, right? We, because of the feedback and because of our culture, Simon’s culture, we are phasing that out in a way that when we get through our first little strip, we’re going to start reclamation processes before we open up big, huge areas. We’re leaving trees intact. We are going wider than required buffer zones to property lines.” When asked how wide the “little strip” mentioned was, Gustafson stated that she did not have that information at the time, only saying on the phasing that “we’re not taking the whole thing out at once,” referring to the side of the hill where the proposed operation is to be conducted.

Simon has stated that they may pursue future informational events, but that as of the time of writing, they have no formal plans for future public communications with residents.