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Stop The Quarry - Newsletter

Welcome to the first official Stop the Quarry newsletter of Friends of Rural Communities and the Environment (FORCE). FORCE is your citizen-based advocacy group - established to protect our rural communities and the environment and to stop the limestone quarry proposed by Lowndes Holdings Corp. (now St Marys Cement Group CBM) for the 11th Concession East and Milburough Line.

FORCE has been active on your behalf since the news of a pending application was released:

• A steering committee was appointed at the public meeting at Lawson Park on June 9th
• FORCE is being incorporated as a not-for-profit corporation so we qualify to participate in future legal processes
• The fundraising campaign has started, a bank account has been opened and financial procedures have been established:
  • hundreds pledged their financial support for $500 per household through a show of hands at the June 9th meeting
  • we have received a generous cheque from one household for $5,000 (Dave and Susan McDonald, Stonebury Place)
  • all members of the Steering Committee have committed to write an initial cheque for $1,000 per household
  • we will need your financial support for the legal, expert technical and communications expenses that will be incurred to win this battle - think of your cheque as an insurance policy to protect your home and community investment
• A search was conducted to obtain legal counsel. Rod Northey of the environment and planning law firm, Birchall Northey, has been retained to represent FORCE in this process. In order to manage our community funds, Rod has been asked to work through specified contacts. Please forward your thoughts and ideas to info@stopthequarry.ca.
• Volunteers are being contacted and organized to help with communications, fundraising, community outreach, and research support.

• your name, phone number, address and e-mail as a supporter of FORCE's position against the proposed quarry (if you have not already provided them)
• your financial commitment - make your cheque out to FORCE and mail it to: FORCE at Lawson Park Ltd., Box 15, RR#1 Freelton, L0R 1K0, and
• your volunteer time, expertise, and/or experience - please complete our Volunteer Submission Form

We encourage you to visit our website regularly at www.stopthequarry.ca at home, at work, at a public library, or through a neighbour to be updated with the latest news. There you can learn more about the communities and environment we are working to protect, aggregate operations and what we are doing to stop this specific proposal. Please be sure to look at the basic land use and water flow map to understand the potential impacts of this proposed quarry. Find your home, your business, where your children go to school and play, and where you bicycle, hike or otherwise find recreation. Imagine the potential impacts on your drinking water quality and quantity and on the natural features and environmentally sensitive areas like the forests and wetlands, wildlife and their habitats. Also check out the potential truck traffic routes for the estimated 1,000 daily truck-trips.

We are a FORCE to be reckoned with - together, as a Team, we will succeed!