A Wilkes County businessman plans to re-open an old granite quarry that was used during construction of U.S. 421, a move that would create competition for the county's sole operating quarry and the town of Wilkesboro.



Bart Mathis, who operates Mathis Grading Co., has applied for a state air-quality permit for the quarry. The permit is under review by the N.C. Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources Division of Air Quality.



The quarry is just south of U.S. 421, behind the Mathis Grading building that can be seen from the highway. There's no zoning in that part of the county, and quarries don't fall under the county's high-impact land-use regulations that regulate such things as asphalt plants, Wilkes County Planning Director Eddie Barnes said.



The air-quality permit is the last regulatory hurdle that Mathis must clear to begin operations.



Mathis said he would re-open a quarry that has been shut down since the 1960s, when it supplied crushed stone for the highway construction.



"It's not like we're opening up anything new; it's existing," he said.



The mine area covers 35 acres, including a 22-acre mine excavation, 5 acres of buffer, roads and other uses, according to the permit application. The application includes air-quality information for operation of a crusher, two conveyors, a track drill, a large stockpile and an open pit.



An engineering firm's air-dispersion modeling report that is part of the application package says that the quarry would be classified as a small source of pollutants and fall within state guidelines for air-quality standards.



Mathis said he has been thinking of re-opening the quarry for the last several years, but he wanted to wait until the economy improved. He said he plans to continue to gauge the local economy for gravel and stone before deciding when he would start up business there, but he wanted to have the permitting process completed.



"The county needs it," he said. "Put a little competition in the county."



Vulcan Materials Co. operates a quarry off N.C. 115 in Wilkes County.



In 2005, the town of Wilkesboro approved a 40-year contract with Vulcan for 42 acres of town-owned property a few miles outside the town limits. The parcel is part of a tract that the town began buying in the 1930s in the Brushy Mountains as a watershed for a reservoir that used to supply the town's drinking water.



Vulcan pays the town an annual lease payment of $10,000 for the first 10 years of the contract. Town Manager Ken Noland said at the time that additional royalties from tons of rock harvested could make millions of dollars for the town once the quarry starts working in that area.



No mining has started on that parcel yet, and even under the original plans, before the economy soured so badly, work was not expected to start in that area for at least two more years. The town has been setting the annual lease money aside in a special reserve fund.