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By Billy Davis
Panola County’s land commission tabled a permit request for a gravel pit until its members can inspect the site.
Action was postponed after an adjoining landowner complained of erosion onto his property. The land commission meeting was held March 11 in Batesville.
Robert Hill is requesting the permit on Barnacare Road, located north of Batesville in the McIvor community.
Hill told the land commission he is selling gravel to only one customer, Ricky Brown, who was also present and spoke during the public hearing.
“This is not a lifetime thing,” Hill told the land commission.
Brown told the commission he has been hauling from the gravel pit for approximately eight years for driveways and other projects.
The land commission also heard from Jimmy Lindsay, whose home and cattle ranch adjoins the Hill property.
Lindsay complained that water is shedding from Hill’s gravel pit onto his land, where it’s eroding his property.
Hill said Brown averages three truckloads a week, which Lindsay disputed.
“He dug a hole big enough to put a house in,” Lindsay said.
Before the land commission discussed Lindsay’s complaint, its members had to decide if the gravel pit was “grandfathered,” meaning it wouldn’t fall under the county’s zoning laws.
Hill said the pit was used by Panola County many years ago – he didn’t say when – but also recalled that a mobile home, which eventually burned, had been on the property. That seemed to settle the issue for commissioners, who agreed Hill needed a county permit.
After Lindsay and his daughter rattled off complaints, including hauling on Sundays and the soil erosion, commissioner Tim Holliday noted some commissioners had yet to visit the site. He suggested tabling any action until April, and his motion passed unanimously.
“I welcome you to come out and see where I’m catching all this water,” Lindsay told commissioners.
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