11/09/2021
A picture to explain the history of Schirmers & the quarry berm. I was surprised how many of our neighbors on Thousand Acre Road and Shady Lane who get the benefit of "Mount Schirmer" (the noise deflection berm), don't know the real history behind it.
Many people didn't know that Hal Schirmer worked against the Asphalt plant, with the Ad Hoc Committee, and organized a ‘hard hat tour’ of local quarries & an asphalt plant. During that tour, as we descended into Naceville quarry, Ada Miller noticed, and shouted, "HEY, where’s the a sound dampening for the crusher"?!
The quarry engineers explained that they had tried it, but there was no practical way to enclose the crusher with sound dampening panels. So, when the quarry couldn't block the sound of the quarry, the Schirmers did. Initially the quarry was going to pile up the dirt along Ridge Road. However, that didn't really make sense, and didn’t really help anyone, because every home in Naceville is so close to the road that it’s ALWAYS loud.
So, the Schirmers had 11 acres adjacent to Naceville quarry, conveniently located between the crusher and our neighbors on Shady Lane & Thousand Acre Road. A big sound deflection berm seemed like a workable idea, "highest & best use" of that land.
However, the DEP requires that the quarry OWN all property 'involved' in quarry operations, including big piles of dirt to act as sound barriers. So if the sound barrier was going to happen, Schirmers had to sell the 11 acres.
You can get a better idea of the crusher & sound barrier berm from the neighbor's drone shot, linked below.
https://youtu.be/-mxkrnmVWCM
