SAVE SUGAR CREEK
“I’m turning over every stone I can,” says Ivey Zoellers, 31, a resident of Sugar Creek.
Ivey is an artist, an art teacher, and co-owner and co-founder of A to Z Artistry, a business that offers art classes for kids k-12. She and husband Ian, executive chef at Tallgrass Creek Senior Living Community, spent years saving up before moving into their home in Sugar Creek in 2020. On August 16, 2021, she heard about the proposed Atherton Quarry going up in the town she had just begun to put roots down in.
“I was scrolling through Facebook and saw Brianne Specker’s plea for help in a random post. She had wrote that her family was blindsided by a notice in the mail that the land near her family home was going to potentially be re-zoned for a quarry operation. Having experienced the awful reality of living in a ‘quarry town’ I felt an immediate call to action. I started the petition online the next day and started building relationships with the families that I could tell were in critical need of help,” says Ivey.
Sugar Creek sits outside of Kansas City, north of Independence. Like so many quintessential small towns in Missouri, it holds a part of the Missouri River as well as smaller natural streams. It honors a historical landmark of the Lewis and Clark expedition and is a thriving ecosystem home to bald eagles, turkeys, bats, honey bees, and monarch butterflies. The proposed Atherton Quarry threatens not just the beauty and habitats of these places, but the overall health and life quality of Sugar Creek’s human residents.
“I’ve spent the last three years turning our lot into a micro farm, with an organic garden and orchard, chickens and goats,” says Riane Marsh, 31. “Not only will the strip mine devalue our property, the limestone dust and constant noise is going to be a detriment to my crops and my livestock, not to mention myself and my husband. I’m disappointed they are trying to change the current zoning of property in a preexisting neighborhood to allow this strip mine to hurt my family and my neighbors.“
Which brings us to a town meeting on August 26th, where over 100 residents gathered at a public hearing at which zoning for the Atherton Quarry was up for discussion. Locals showed up wearing yellow, and at that time the petition had gathered over 800 signatures. Over 30 residents spoke up to voice their concerns and ask their questions about this proposed strip mine.
“I now live right around the corner from my childhood home with my two boys: Jackson, 6, and Cayden, 4. My two brothers and their families also live next door. This area is so important to us because my whole family lives here. My boys love being outside, whether it’s playing with their cousins, taking care of our chickens, or helping their Papa with his cows. If this quarry ends up happening, it will be less than half a mile from our house. My boys would not be able to play outside as much with all of the hazardous dust outside. We would not be able to take as many bike rides or walks on these back country roads with so many big trucks that will be driving constantly on our roads. I moved my family back here for the quiet life, away from all the noise of the city. I moved them here so they can enjoy spending time outdoors. I did not move us back here to live next to a strip mine.”
-Brianne Specker, 33
As it turns out, Eagle Material, Central Plains Cement, and Audubon LLC are the only entities that gain anything from this zoning proposal as they interrupt and destroy a large swath of this quiet town. In fact, the presence of a quarry deteriorates air quality, water quality, and property value while bringing almost no jobs or investments into the local economy. As Brianne noted, the proposed routes would bring cement trucks barreling up and down residential streets and blast mining would release dust and noise throughout the surrounding area. What’s more, after years of extraction, pit mines often become landfills. And when we talk about people with generations of families in the area or young folks with young families just beginning to build lives in Sugar Creek, it’s more than a little heartbreaking to see the direction their hard-earned legacy could turn towards.
The public hearing ended hours later than scheduled as Sugar Creek residents voiced their questions and unanimous dissent against the proposed Atherton Quarry.
But this is the beauty of small towns and small town politics: our local officials are more or less…us. City council members are here to listen to us and address our concerns. That is a huge part of the job they were elected to perform. Ideally, we elect people who have the earnest willingness to listen to us and who care about our health, our homes, our futures.
“We don’t want to ostracize the Sugar Creek officials who are going to vote on it; we want to win them to the cause of the residents,” says Paul Marsh, 36.
Before, the loudest voice in the room was essentially a cement truck. But now, people are collecting their voices so that they can be heard over the racket. So if you live in the Kansas City Metropolitan area or Sugar Creek specifically, we are asking for your help.
The best way to back this cause is to sign the petition at www.change.org/savesugarcreek. It’s the simplest way to show support publicly.
On September 16th at 7pm, locals will be gathering at the Mike Onka Building wearing yellow to show support for preserving Sugar Creek.
If you know the Sugar Creek aldermen or would like to directly voice your support for this cause, you can call or email any of them and just encourage them to read this piece or hear us out so that they can accurately represent us and our community interests.
JC “Chuck” Mikulich – Alderman First Ward
cmikulich@sugar-creek.mo.us
816-252-4400, ext 1135
Christopher Steffen – Alderman First Ward
csteffen@sugar-creek.mo.us
816-252-4400, ext 1136
Robert Ray – Alderman Second Ward
rray@sugar-creek.mo.us
816-252-4400, ext 1133
Joi Hazelrigg – Alderman Second Ward jhazelrigg@sugar-creek.mo.us
816-252-4400, ext 1134
And to follow along with us online, you can visit the public Facebook page “STOP the Atherton Quarry.”
Ivey and Ian chose Sugar Creek. Paul and Riane chose Sugar Creek. Brianne and her family have been choosing Sugar Creek for decades. They have all built lives here specifically for the humble serenity this town offers. And something like that is worth fighting hard for. Stand with Sugar Creek and stop the Atherton Quarry. Leave no stone unturned.
-Written by Allison Slice-
Save Sugar Creek 