MARSHALL — A gravel pit near Russell is getting noise complaints from neighbors, but Lyon County officials said it’s not clear whether the pit’s owner was in violation of his permit.

On Tuesday, county commissioners discussed complaints raised against a gravel pit owned by Jim Swenson and Action Rocks, LLC, in Coon Creek Township. The county had approved a conditional use permit for the gravel pit in 2023.

“Since the operation has been in existence, I’ve had a number of complaints,” said Lyon County Planning and Zoning Administrator John Biren. At Tuesday’s meeting, a neighbor of the gravel pit said he had audio recordings of equipment running at the gravel pit on a weekend, something not allowed under the permit. However, Biren and Lyon County Attorney Abby Wikelius said the sounds of equipment alone might not be enough evidence of a permit violation.

County commissioners directed neighbors to share their videos and photos with Biren, and said Biren should reach out to the property owner.

Commissioners approved a conditional use permit for the gravel pit in April 2023.

“We had some significant conditions that we placed on there,” Biren said. The list of conditions was put on the permit because the gravel pit site was close to both residential properties and Coon Creek.

Some of the conditions included a five-year time limit on the permit, and limits on the gravel pit’s hours of operation. The hours were set for 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Biren said Swenson had agreed to both of those conditions.

“I had a couple of complaints early on, back in July of 2023 and September of 2023, of a condition not being followed as far as the hours of operation,” Biren said. He said he had documented two different times when the gravel pit was out of compliance, and had reached out to Swenson with a letter. “I feel I have good documentation for two in the construction season of 2023.”

Biren said he recently received another complaint from neighbors of the gravel pit. “I received a text message that showed, or you could hear, backup beepers on a Saturday and a Sunday, which is outside the hours of operation,” he said. “To be fair, I could not see exactly what was being done at the site, because there was trees and so forth in the way. But you could definitely hear the backup beepers of construction machinery being run.”

Carey Johnson, a neighbor of the gravel pit, shared two videos he recorded with the Independent. In the videos, the gravel pit couldn’t be seen, but the sound of running vehicles or equipment could be heard, as well as beeping from vehicles or equipment backing up. In one of the videos, Johnson’s voice could be heard saying the noise was happening on a Sunday morning.

Johnson said six families live within about a half-mile of the gravel pit.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Jeff Larson, another neighbor, said he had phone videos of work at the gravel pit that would violate the hours of operation limits. One video was taken at 7:44 p.m. on September 8, 2023, Larson said. “It was a Friday night, if I do remember,” he said.

Swenson was not at the commissioners’ meeting Tuesday when the permit was discussed. Biren said he had reached out to Swenson about the meeting

“I kind of anticipated that he’d be here today,” Biren said. It wouldn’t be possible to say exactly what was going on at the gravel pit without Swenson speaking for himself, Biren said.

“I did reach out to him a couple different times regarding the complaint,” Biren said. Biren said he had also gone out to the gravel pit site, but no one was there at the time. “And then I wanted Jim to explain to me, and show me exactly what he was doing to cause those backup beepers, and that offer was declined,” Biren said.

Biren wasn’t sure that the neighbors’ complaints had enough evidence to unilaterally take a conditional use permit away. “When we give a conditional use permit, it’s serious,” he said. “I definitely wish I had something more to hang my hat on than just the sound of a backup beeper right now, to make that recommendation to you.”

“Once a conditional use permit is granted, it becomes a property right for the permit holder. And in order to take that property right, it has to be either by agreement or by a violation,” said Lyon County Attorney Abby Wikelius.

Wikelius and county commissioners said it wasn’t certain from the videos whether the noise was caused by the property owner excavating at the gravel pit, or doing other work like removing trees.

There would need to be a clear violation of permit conditions, Wikelius said.

Johnson asked Wikelius what her definition of “clear” was.

“It has to be a violation of the express conditions that were previously set,” Wikelius said. The permit specifically covered processing sand and gravel.

“My interpretation is, we don’t know what he was doing. We can’t say he was cutting down trees. He was back there working with construction equipment at 10 o’clock, 9 o’clock on a Sunday morning,” Johnson said.

Commissioner Gary Crowley asked Johnson and Larson to provide their photos and videos to Biren or Wikelius, “So that we can get them on file . . . and then we’ll go from there.”

Wikelius said it would also make sense for Biren to try again to meet with Swenson at the gravel pit site, so Swenson would have a chance to explain what was causing the noise.