$500K deal could end rock digging on Tenn. trail

[Lilred]

$500K deal could end rock digging on Tenn. trail
Posted 11/27/2009 1:45 PM ET E-mail | Save | Print



NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — There's a tentative deal that could end the mining of "mountain stone" along the Cumberland Trail.
The Chattanooga Times Free Press reported Friday that a subcommittee of the State Building Commission this week unanimously approved paying a Florida company $500,000 for part of its mineral rights near Soddy-Daisy.

If accepted by Lahiere-Hill LLC of Destin, Fla., the deal would end a nearly three-year legal wrangle over digging up the stone along the state-owned footpath.

Lawyer Elizabeth McCarter, in the state Attorney General's Office, said the subcommittee's unanimous approval was the first step. The full commission would have to approve the payment, as would the state comptroller and the governor.

McCarter said the state's goal has been to ensure the "trail could remain secure for the public and for recreational purposes."

Lahiere-Hill attorney Rick Hitchcock said he was unable to comment.

The dispute began in early 2007 when hikers reported that contractors for Lahiere-Hill, which owns mineral rights on the property, had moved machinery into the park to tear rock from ravine walls. The rubble wound up blocking the trail, McCarter said.

Attorneys for the state, which owns the property's surface rights that are separate from mineral rights, requested an injunction. They argued that, under Tennessee law, mineral rights did not include mountain stone because the stone is not technically a mineral.

The case has rolled around in various courts ever since, but the lawsuit will be dropped if the tentative agreement is accepted.

The dispute highlighted tensions on Walden's Ridge and the Cumberland Plateau as companies or contractors increasingly go onto state or privately owned land where they hold mineral rights, arguing that mountain stone is a mineral and they have a right to claim it.

Attorneys for three conservation groups filed to intervene in the case.

One of the groups' attorneys said, if the claims of Lahiere-Hill were upheld, there could more rock extractions on public and private lands against the wishes of the surface owners.

That prompted Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen to push a bill to protect owners of surface rights, including the state. However, some lawmakers who opposed the measure said the Bredesen administration was infringing upon mineral owners' rights.

This year, lawmakers passed a more limited law covering land on which the state has surface rights. The law requires rock "harvesters" to post a bond to guarantee they will restore the property after they're done.

___

[Rain Man]

YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

RainMan

.