The controversy over the possible development of a concrete batch plant in Archer has had an unintended consequence – an increase in civic participation by area residents.
“They are very energized, very engaged citizens, who are engaging in the civic discourse of the city,” said William “Bill” Lewandowski, who moved into a historical 100-year-old house in Archer in 2015. Since then, he’s become an active voice in the community.
Charlie Squires loves the home he created in Archer.
But he said he’s been on edge since he heard six months ago about a possible concrete batch plant being developed in town.
Many others in Archer worry about how a concrete mixing plant would change their small, quiet city.
“I’m almost crying thinking about it,” said 63-year-old Squires.
He moved to Archer in 1991 when he bought his house as a fixer-upper. Squires and his wife worked on the historic house until it became their refuge and home.
Squires lives a block away from the 119-year-old Maddox Foundry & Machine Works, where the developer, Ronald Arnold, owner of R.E. Arnold Construction, has set his sights on building the plant.
Arnold, along with his company's attorney, declined to be interviewed despite repeated requests for comment.
The foundry was a machine shop that serviced the local mining industry. However, in the past decade, the foundry’s production has slowed.
In January 2022, the foundry’s owners sold the property to R.E. Arnold Construction, which applied to the city for a conditional use permit to develop a new industrial business that would create more jobs in Archer.
The old Maddox Foundry is only a short walk to Wilson Robinson Park, where children and their families go to play. The neighborhoods that lead to the park have homes with lush lawns, outdoor grills and patios. The elementary school, churches and community center are within a mile of the old foundry.
A few hundred yards from the foundry is City Hall. The road next to it has a grassy median and a live oak whose branches hang over a table and benches. Sometimes people stop and sit in the tree’s shade.
Squires, like his neighbors, said if the plant is built, he is worried about its potential effects, such as noise, traffic and air pollution. He calls his backyard his “living room” and spends hours outside soaking in the scenery of birds and butterflies flitting about his garden.
“To have that taken from us,” he said, his voice cracking, “it kills me. I planned on dying here.”
Now, he plans on selling their home if the concrete mixing plant becomes a reality.
The first few city meetings with the plant’s developer were scantly advertised. When Squires realized that few of his neighbors knew about the plant, he immediately bought $1,200 in yard signs that read, “No Concrete Batch Plant.”
His bright yellow signs were displayed on street corners and on front yards across Archer.
Sara Brannon, 79, heard about the plant from a neighbor.
“We’d be prisoners in this house,” she said.
Brannon lives about half a mile from the old foundry. A small, battered trampoline stands in the front yard, and her living room looks like a playroom with stacks of toys in large bins. Brannon helps raise her 3-year-old great-great grandson, who, like her, has trouble breathing.
Brannon has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a common lung disease that causes respiratory problems. Her grandson was born three months prematurely before his lungs could fully develop. Now, he requires weekly breathing treatments.
Brannon said she fears the plant will create too much excess pollution and make it even more difficult for her growing grandson.
“People gotta breathe,” she said.
Although Brannon cannot attend meetings regularly, she stays up to date on the city’s proceedings.
The most attended meeting about the concrete mixing plant was on Sept. 9. The Archer City Commission held the meeting to vote on Arnold’s application for a conditional use permit.
A conditional use permit is a zoning exception that allows the property owner to use the land in a way that doesn’t comply with zoning regulations. Although the Maddox Foundry is zoned for industrial use, like a concrete mixing plant, the developer's initial proposal did not enclose the factory building, violating local regulations and necessitating a conditional use permit.
The meeting ended after Arnold’s lawyer, Patrice Boyes, announced their decision to pull the application before the commission voted.
According to Archer’s Land Development Code, if the commission had denied Arnold’s application, he would have been required to wait 12 months before resubmitting it.
Public records show that the day after the meeting, Arnold completed an application for a business tax license, which allows businesses to sell goods and services to the public.
The former city manager, Tony Hammond, approved the license for an indoor concrete contractor/ asphalt plant business. During a public meeting the following week, the city commission terminated Hammond’s contract for misconduct.
Although a business tax license does not grant permission to begin developing land for the listed business, Lewandowski thinks Arnold did this to “make a point.”
Lewandowski said he is now focused on convincing the city commission to pause all development in Archer to rezone and reimagine the City of Archer. To this, Mayor Iris Bailey says, “Good luck.”
“I don’t think we can rewrite the city ordinances to stop a concrete batch plant for a current owner,” said Lewandowski, who spoke in opposition to the concrete batch plant’s conditional use permit at a hearing on Sept. 9. “What we can do is try to fix everything that is broken.”
Brett Fiore, 52, who lives next to the Maddox Foundry, said, “We are not going to stop fighting.”
Fiore said he’s not against business, even if it is industrial, he just doesn’t think the town center is a good place for it.
“It is a lot easier to propose something that you don’t have to live next to,” he said.
Fiore and many others in Archer want a say in how the city develops. He thinks that everyone has the right to shape their community, regardless of how it is currently zoned.
“I understand that it’s difficult, and I do understand the argument that a lot of them have, but I also understand what the developer is saying,” Bailey said.
She said as long as the developers comply with regulations and safety guidelines, a concrete mixing plant would bring much-needed revenue and jobs to Archer.
“You are arguing about something that is already zoned for what he's doing,” she said.
R.E. Arnold Construction has not revealed its next step, leaving Archer residents to speculate about the company’s next move.
Lewandowski can’t help but credit the developer for invigorating his community to pay closer attention.
“We have Arnold to thank for that,” he said, “Thank you, Mr. Arnold."
