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How taters trumped craters in Melancthon

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Published on Thursday, 29 November 2012 01:08
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Anatomy of the Highland quarry opposition effort

Ralph and Mary Lynne Armstrong wouldn’t let their version of the high road be paved with corporate cash.
In late 2006, The Highland Companies began knocking on farmhouse doors throughout the Township of Melancthon in an effort to buy land to assemble a factory potato farm.


Despite a $1.6 million offer for their 200-acre livestock farm, the Armstrongs declined Highland’s bid.
“I guess you’d get tired of looking at your bankbook all day,” Ralph said. “I really feel this foodland situation is a big, big item coming up, not just here, but all over.”

The offer wasn’t a one-off proposal. The Armstrongs, whose family have farmed the land since 1853, were visited by Highland six more times in an attempt to acquire the property. The thought of $1.6 million wasn’t met without temptation.


“We came to the decision after a few months. It took us a while,” Ralph said of their refusal to sell.  
The Armstrongs were joined by the Blacks, Frenchs, Vander Zaags, Rutledges and Wallaces in their refusal to accept a cheque from the company owned by Baupost, a $25 billion United States-based hedge fund.
Highland's potato plan evolved into a new notion of developing a more than 2,300-acre aggregate quarry that would dig more than 200 feet below the water table.


“We spent a lot of sleepless nights wondering what was going to happen,” Ralph said.
However, the six farm owners became the catalyst for a campaign that would see Highland withdraw its quarry application last week, citing a lack of support as the cause for the project’s death.


In January 2009, months before the aggregate plan was public, the community met to form the North Dufferin Agricultural and Community Task Force (NDACT).


“The community voted people to form a group to solicit more questions from the Highland Group of Companies,” said NDACT chair Carl Cosack. “We got together, NDACT was born and away to the races we are.”

Read more.

By Bill Tremblay

Published in the "Orangeville Banner", Nov. 28, 2012