MR. McNEIL: It is 9:15. We had planned on this being over at 9. Mrs. Herrick, you had your

hand up so what I'd like to do is take your question and then take a vote, as is our custom, as to

whether or not, and we have always passed the vote I might add, that questions from other

participants who may come from other towns and do that until 9:35. So think about that while

we hear Mrs. Herrick's question and then we'll move on if that's your pleasure. Mrs. Herrick?

AUDIENCE: Before the question, I'd like to answer one of the questions that you couldn't

answer about the sound. When you were working on the site during the '90s, my husband and I

were working in our field and we could hear the conversation. I don't remember what they were.

My question is: Are you willing to put up a bond to cover water loss, structural damage, people

that aren't able to sell, health problems. I don't care whether the studies are done or not. Are you

going willing to put up a bond to cover (inaudible.)

MR. McNEIL: The question is: Is OMYA willing to consider putting up a bond or will they

put up a bond to cover any loss of property value or exigencies.

AUDIENCE: For loss of water.

MR. McNEIL: For loss of water and stuff like that.

MR. REDDY: On the loss of water issue, I think the answer probably would be yes. We have,

as an example, we mentioned, I mentioned earlier we have houses within a couple hundred feet of

our quarry in Middlebury and the quarry's been operating 35 years and their wells are a couple

hundred feet from our plant and they have no problem. We don't anticipate any problem with

that. On the water, I think I can tell you tonight, yeah, we can take care of that. We'll put up a

bond.

AUDIENCE: You will put up a bond? OMYA: Yeah. Well, what is required? We'll

have to find out what wells are in the area, and we have bonds in some of our operations in

California for and you have an independent company comes in and says, Here's the value of this,

here's how big a bond you need to cover the problem and if it occurs and then you post the

amount of the bond.

AUDIENCE: What about health and real estate values?

MR. REDDY: Are you going to -- I think the answer to the real estate value is probably no.

Because I don't think if the real estate value goes up over time, you're going to pay us the money

for the real estate value increasing.

AUDIENCE: (Laughing.)

MR. REDDY: We expect that the net benefit of this to the town is going to be positive because

the employment. Our other experiences in Vermont are positive with the housing values.

AUDIENCE: Okay. What about health?

MR. REDDY: We're very strictly regulated on of the health issue. I don't think there's any --

Neil addressed that and we're strictly regulated on the quality of the water that you might get off

the property and the quality of the air.

AUDIENCE: Are you willing to put up a bond?

MR. REDDY: If we follow the regulations, then there's no concern and we will be -- the State of

Vermont will be enforcing that we follow the regulations. The EPA, the federal government will

enforce it, tell us that we have to follow the regulations.

AUDIENCE: So, the answer is yes or no.

MR. REDDY: The answer is no because it's not necessary.

MR. McNEIL: Okay. Let's -- Patrick, you're the last one.

AUDIENCE: My name is Patrick Keyes. I live in Danby. Taxpayer and all the good stuff. I

would just like to make a statement that EPA sets the standards and the state cannot go below

those standards. The State of Vermont has a higher standard than the EPA puts out. These

people are worried about Baker Brook being polluted. I don't believe they have to worry about

OMYA. You should take a drive down Baker Brook Road.

MR. McNEIL: Okay. All right. All right. I would just like to point out one thing. Mr. Keyes

said, "Taxes and all that good stuff" in the same sentence. I believe that's the first time I ever

heard that. We need to vote. Will -- and I need it to come from the floor. Will -- the motion

would be: Will the town, will the meeting vote in the affirmative to allow guests from other

towns to ask a question.

AUDIENCE: So moved.

AUDIENCE. Second.

AUDIENCE: Third.

MR. McNEIL: It's been -- the motion has been made. It's been seconded. Discussion? Mr.

Hodge?

AUDIENCE: Can we put a time limit on it?

MR. McNEIL: If you make it part of the motion, you can put a time limit on it. If the motion

can be amended, which it can, is it your will to put a time limit on that?

AUDIENCE: Yes.

AUDIENCE: No.

AUDIENCE: Like 10:00.

MR. McNEIL: I did, and I will apologize for that and I'll ask you a question. Mr. Burzon, we're

still in discussion.

AUDIENCE: Can we discuss the motion?

MR. McNEIL: Yes.

AUDIENCE: On the motion, I believe that we should allow anybody who took the time to come

here tonight, including these folks from OMYA, to talk and maybe you want to put a time limit

on it at your discretion as the moderator. You can extend certainly til 10:00.

MR. McNEIL: So the amendment to the motion is to put a time limit of 10:00 on it at my

discretion. We could be out of here in two minutes. All those in favor of that. Sorry, Carter.

Do you have -- okay. Those in favor of the amendment to the motion say "I."

AUDIENCE: I.

MR. McNEIL: Opposed.

AUDIENCE: (No response.)

MR. McNEIL: So now we move onto the main motion. All those in favor say "I" as amended.

AUDIENCE: I.

MR. McNEIL: All those opposed.

AUDIENCE: (No response.)

MR. McNEIL: Okay. Mr. Ihasz?

AUDIENCE: The pros and cons from what I heard you said best so far you can come up with

you said you can come up with 30 jobs.

AUDIENCE: We can't hear you.

AUDIENCE: So far what I heard as far as the pros and cons that the town would get 30 jobs out

of this. But if I do the math correctly, according to your most conservative estimates, you will

probably be producing gross revenues of 20 million dollars a year. And I don't have a calculator,

but I think that's a billion dollars in 50 years so it seems to me the pros and cons are a little bit

out of whack. So my question is: Has OMYA ever or currently has ever entered into some sort

of an arrangement with the community worldwide, not only in the U.S., where they share some

of the revenue or the profits?

MR. McNEIL: The question comes down to has OMYA ever entered into an agreement with a

community worldwide to share the profits. Right?

MR. REDDY: Yeah. The simple answer bluntly is no. And your math is okay, but you're

looking at one part of the salary. The cost to take a big rock and turn it into a submicron-sized

particle, there's an awful lot of expense in there. The revenue is not purely profit, but the simple

answer is no. We're a private company. America is a capitalistic country. We're not a socialistic

country. All of us in this room work for a company or we get our revenue from someplace. It

takes a mix of companies. There's another impact that actually will be included in the economic

study. We are a basic industry. There's a difference between a basic industry and a service

industry. And we're not only a basic industry, but we're a basic industry that's bringing revenue,

as John mentioned in his preamble discussion, to the State of Vermont. Most of our customers

are outside of Vermont. Some of them are outside the United States. We export to Canada. We

export to Mexico. We do some to South America out of Vermont. We are bringing revenue in

here and we are spending the revenue in town, not only with our employees, but with all the

subcontractors, their employees, and the money is flowing through the town. Each -- and the

basic industry, what that then provides is a multiplier effect and that will be in the economic

study that will show you X number of people in a town requires a grocery store. The people in

the grocery store spend money. X number of people requires, you know, a butcher, a baker, a

candlestick maker. You require all of the things that the people require. The basic industry

require all of those things because they provide the income that comes into the state to provide

that infrastructure so that's going to be part of the economic study. So I think it's a little more

complicated than just talking about the 30 jobs. There's a big multiplier effect on the economy.

And it's all the money -- those additional 30 jobs we provide are the direct employees that are

going to be working specifically related to just this quarry. What that doesn't count is all the

construction people that we're going to have building expansions on the plant, all of the other

supplies. We are the largest single user, for example, of the Vermont Railroad. You see our cars

going by all the time on the railroad tracks. This will provide additional employment on the

railroad. There will be more railroad cars. We buy a lot of supplies in Vermont. Just coffee we

drink in the office. I mean, all kinds of little stuff and all the big stuff we buy in the plant. We

spend wherever possible that money in Vermont. We paid ourselves last year 15 million dollars.

We spent 69 million dollars on other just Vermont suppliers and every one of those suppliers

then probably owns a house, they probably pay property taxes in the towns. They go to the

grocery stores, they pay sales tax. So there's a big multiplier effect. All of that will be included

in the economic study. It's a complicated thing particularly when you're a basic industry and

we're sort of -- we're not unique in Vermont. IBM is up -- got a big operation and they make

chips up near Burlington. That's another example of a basic industry in Vermont where most of

their products are going to people outside of Vermont. Sure, they got some Vermont customers.

We're a big customer of theirs. We buy a lot of computers too. But most of their revenue that

IBM is bringing is new money into the state which then supports -- people can afford to go to a

restaurant. You need people working in the restaurants, working in the hotels. We're providing

the same thing. We're providing income coming into the state which is going to be spent here.

MR. McNEIL: The gentleman right here. You had a question earlier.

AUDIENCE: I did.

MR. McNEIL: Yep. You're from out of town; right?

AUDIENCE: Yeah. I'm from Pawlet.

MR. McNEIL: And your name?

AUDIENCE: My name is Bob Gelman. The question that I had was currently studies are being

done. There's no -- you really can't tell us what will happen here considerably, but certainly you

guys have operations elsewhere in South Wallingford and Florence and so forth and so what I'm

not hearing from any of you folks is, you know, any success or any happy stories from those

towns. I don't hear from people who live there, I don't hear it from you, and there are a lot of

people here who are opposed to this have concerns and I'm not hearing any good reasons to jump

in the car tonight and go home and say, Let's get that plant open.

MR. McNEIL: That's what Phil said.

AUDIENCE: (Applause.)

MR. McNEIL: So what's your -- that's what you want to say? You don't have a question.

That's the statement.

AUDIENCE: The question is: You know, we would like to hear something saying let's go home

tonight and all sleep better.

MR. McNEIL: That was Phil's question, but you want to do it again.

MR. REDDY: Well, let me try one other thing. It was the question was asked at the back of the

room before about buffer lands around our operation. The existing operations that we have, plant

and quarry, we have buffer lands around those too. And then what we do, we don't leave the

lands fallow. If there's a house on the property, if there's a farm on the property, we rent it out.

And our occupancy rate --John, you're in charge of that. I think it's zero.

MR. MITCHELL: It's a hundred percent. Every house is rented.

MR. REDDY: Every house, we own a lot of houses, we own farms adjacent to our quarries.

People are paying us good money to rent those houses. We buy them for buffer area. If nobody

wanted to rent them, okay, it's a buffer area. If somebody wants to rent them, we might as well

get some revenue. We have no trouble getting people to come in there and rent. I don't know if

that's an endorsement of the quarry. I don't know if they moved into the house specifically

because the quarry was next door, but they're sure moving in.

MR. MITCHELL: People hike on our land, people snowmobile on our land. We don't post our

land with the couple of exceptions where the state tells us we have to. The fact that we own that

land, it remains undeveloped. It remains in meadows. It's forested by Robbo and all of that type

of stuff continues to maintain the kind of rural atmosphere that people in Vermont like. So by us

buying that land and not developing it, the 600 acres that are in the Jobe Phillips area, 33 or what

is that, 5 percent, will be developed. The rest will not.

MR. McNEIL: The gentleman here.

AUDIENCE: I'm from Brandon, Vermont and I'm sure you've read about Brandon and OMYA.

MR. McNEIL: And your name?

AUDIENCE: My name is Rick Dutil. I run a small agricultural feed business in downtown

Leicester Junction. I'm concerned about the fact that OMYA has a hard time doing business in

Vermont. If OMYA has a hard time doing business, sooner or later you, as individuals, will have

a hard time doing business. Big brother is going to drift downward.

MR. McNEIL: Okay. Do you have a --

AUDIENCE: Actually, if I could have two minutes.

MR. McNEIL: Can't do it. Sorry. If you have a question, I'll take the question.

AUDIENCE: No, I don't have a question.

AUDIENCE: Sit down.

MR. McNEIL: Just a second. Whoa. Whoa. Thank you.

AUDIENCE: One of the gentleman asked, that gentleman right there, asked if there was someone

here that had something positive to say about OMYA and Carter Trucking as well. I'm that

person. I drove down here from Brandon.

AUDIENCE: Ask your question.

MR. McNEIL: I really can't allow it. We had an agreement and I keep my agreements.

The lady sitting behind Mrs. Squillante.

AUDIENCE: My name is Hope Requardt. I'm a Danby resident. I know that in the Act 250

when that is passed, there really isn't anybody who is going to be watching to ensure that people

comply with the Act 250 regulations. People in Brandon have to watch the mine. If OMYA

comes, if the mine goes through and they do not meet their Act 250 requirements, who among

these people are willing to give us their phone numbers and we can go right to them and say,

These trucks are not in compliance, this is not in compliance, fix it now?

MR. McNEIL: Okay. So who will be in charge of fixing, of listening to Danby residents and

fixing the problem.

AUDIENCE: Or would you end up saying, Oh, I can't do that. You have to go talk to them.

MR. REDDY: Well, actually, you got my name. I just recently moved to Vermont in Mendon.

Next time the phone book comes out, my name listed.

AUDIENCE: Why didn't you move to Danby?

MR. McNEIL: He's trying to answer the question.

MR. REDDY: My name will be in the phone book. You can call me. I did not ask for an

unlisted number. Regarding the enforcement of 250, that is not true that there is no enforcement.

What I would like to do, Neil used to be on the enforcement side. Neil, why don't you come up

and tell us what the process is. I think you're not giving your state enough credit. I think the Act

250 is enforced. Neil, maybe you could.

MR. JORDAN: I'm certainly not here to defend the State of Vermont's record in everything that

it does, but the state does employ environmental enforcement officers. The way it's structured is

they have regions similar to what game wardens have in the state and they're responsible for

covering certain areas. When a violation of an Act 250 permit condition has been alleged, citizens

would call the office in Rutland and they would give you either give you a direct dial number to

that environmental enforcement officer or relay that message to that person. And they do have,

even though they are personally employed by the Agency of Natural Resources, they do do the

enforcement work for Act 250 which is officially a separate agency, but obviously very closely

related to the Agency of Natural Resources so they do work together and the complaint would go

there. However, most likely the front line investigation would be by that same environmental

enforcement officer. For air pollution control permits typically complaints would be investigated

directly by the air pollution control division. They do have their own field person that goes out

and investigates complaints. That's basically the way it works. It may not be a perfect system.

Many state agencies -- I worked there for 11 years. I know that funding is not always what it

should be and quite often state employees have more on their plates than they can do. But

unfortunately when you're a high profile industry,a high profile company, generally if there's a

complaint, they get looked into pretty quickly.

MR. BURNS: You also asked if there are people you could call in the company. If OMYA

continues to employ me, which I assume they will, I will be responsible for this quarry if it gets

permitted and you can call me.

AUDIENCE: Would you give everybody in this room your number so they can call you?

MR. BURNS: Absolutely. In fact, there are avenues that you can address complaints to. We

prefer you to contact us directly so we can deal with it directly. Neil went over other ways that

you can address complaints, but, no. At our other quarries my phone number is available and I

periodically do get calls from people who work for me and we deal with it. And there's no

problem at all. OMYA's doing fine.