Source: WISH-TV / other
ANDERSON, Ind. — Community pushback against a proposed asphalt roof shingles plant near Anderson resulted in the company looking to build that plant to look elsewhere.
Malarkey Roofing Products had been planning to bring roughly 200 jobs to Madison County by building a new plant that would make roofing shingles. The city of Anderson has planned to annex some land just outside the city in order to build it.
But community members organized a counter-offensive against the project due to a variety of concerns ranging from possible increased traffic in the area to environmental impacts.
“We know what kind of chemicals and toxins they are able to emit; many tons of these toxic chemicals every year,” said Marlene Carey on WISH-TV. “We’ve also seen the EPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) reports that show their emissions have been increasing over the last five years.”
Carey helped organize the opposition group Residents for Better Choices. This week the group and the rest of the city were notified by Mayor Thomas Broderick that Malarkey had decided to back out of the project and look to build elsewhere in Indiana.
Jason Webster lives less than a mile from where the plant would have been built. He wants the area to be preserved the way it is.
“I feel like we’ve got a hidden little gem in Madison County, where we’re all located,” Webster said. “The first thing I’m going to worry about is what it’s going to do to the creek, the pond, and all the wildlife over there.”
Carey said she understands the viewpoint of those who supported the project and who said that the area needs the jobs.
“While our group of people that have organized are supportive of bringing jobs into the community and we are definitely supportive of development, we want to make sure that that development is safe,” she said.
Now that the project has been scrubbed, it’s unclear if Anderson will move forward with the land annexation it had planned to follow through on.
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Anderson Residents Successfully Stop Plan To Build Shingles Factory was originally published on wibc.com
