By Billy Davis

They “lawyered up.”

A group of Eureka residents have pooled their money and hired attorney John Lamar of Senatobia to fight a gravel mining operation in their community.

Panola County supervisors on Monday were set to hear an appeal at 9 a.m. from Memphis Stone and Gravel. But Lamar and Memphis Stone attorney Pat Lancaster asked to postpone the appeal and reset it for 9 a.m. on Monday, July 27.

Board attorney Bill McKenzie, after conferring with Lamar and Lancaster late last week, asked supervisors Monday to formally approve the new date. The board voted unanimously to do so.

Both Lamar and Lancaster will have 30 minutes to present their case, McKenzie also said.

Memphis Stone had filed an appeal after it failed to win a special exception permit from the Panola County Land Development Commission.

Lamar told The Panolian last Friday that he had been hired the day before and needs time to prepare for the appeal.

Panola County’s zoning laws are familiar to Lamar. He represented Dr. Mike Cockrell in a zoning case in which the land commission approved a scrap metal plant next to Cockrell’s high-end home.

Cockrell’s home is located on Holston Road, south of Como, and adjoins property owned by Martin Bros. Scrap Metal.

Cockrell lost his appeal when supervisors sided with the land commission. The zoning allowance was also affirmed in circuit court, but it was reversed when Lamar took the case to the state appeals court.

Supervisors were prepared to move the appeal to the main courtroom at the courthouse. But the turnout proved to be light after word had spread of the delay.

Landowner Lamar “Boss” Johnson, and Memphis Stone opponent Harold “Pee Wee” Johnson, were present to watch the brief proceedings.