Hi-Crush reclamation plan gets stamp of approval
A group seeking to turn the former Hi-Crush sand mine site in Trempealeau County into a high-end destination golf course cleared their latest hurdle after the Independence city council approved their reclamation plan.
The council OK’d the proposed reclamation plan of the former frac sand drying plant located in Independence (including a lowered bond) at their meeting last Monday following a public hearing, a key step for the group headed by retired potato farmers Mitchell and Derrick Bushman that now owns the site.
Over the past few months, the city and the Bushman-led group — which acquired the site last year after Houston-based Hi-Crush Inc. filed for bankruptcy in 2020 — have ironed out the details on the reclamation plan, including lowering the original bond amount from $1,650,000 to $672,003.
Gareth Shambeau of Ayres Associates explained that the plan is turning the sand mine site into an industrial site.
“They’re just not reclaiming it to pasture but instead reclaiming it to essentially a rail loadout yard to be redeveloped into an industrial land use, which is in line with the current zoning for the property,” Shambeau said.
Citizens Scott Gunderson and Wendy Thompson attended the public hearing to express their concern with the plan as landowners near the site, questioning why it isn’t being reclaimed back to fully agricultural farmland.
Mitchell Bushman, who attended Monday’s meeting, explained that their group was continuing ahead with what the prior owners had in the works.
“There’s several different ways that it could be reclaimed. The one that we inherited from the former Hi-Crush, they had it drawn out to be wildflowers and native grass, so that’s what we just built on and engineered and submitted,” Bushman said. “We weren’t trying to reinvent the wheel. We took over what they were doing and that’s kind of what the plan was.
“In the future, it could always be something else. A reclamation plan, when it’s finally finished, is just a plan to get it back to a starting point again.”
With the reclamation plan approved, Bushman said that they will now turn their focus on getting all their ducks in a row on the Whitehall part of the mine site. Bushman noted that, if all goes according to plan, the golf course will open toward the end of 2028.
Alcohol license approved for new bar and grill
A new establishment set to open in Independence received approval on their alcohol license, seven months after the building owners first appeared before the council to give the initial pitch for their business.
Karen Sanchez Arriaga and Diego Velasquez came before the council last October to outline their plans to turn the old annex building located at 23062 Whitehall Road off of State Road 121 into an event center. Sanchez Arriaga and Velasquez previously operated Cafetería El Molinito in Arcadia.
At the November meeting, Randy Symicek relayed a plan commission recommendation not to award an alcohol license for the proposed event center. When asked by fellow council members Deb Marsolek and Jason Ekern for the reasoning behind that recommendation, Symicek responded it was due to “all the trouble that in recent past that we had with other establishments” — alluding to the former La Hacienda Club Midway.
Sanchez Arriaga and Velasquez returned at the March council meeting with a revised intent to turn the location into a bar and grill rather than an event center. After having recently seen the work they’re doing at the building and heard more about their plans for the location, Symicek spoke in favor of awarding the alcohol license at last Monday’s meeting.
“Dealing with the people, they are doing a wonderful job on that building. And with a lot of discussion, they got good plans,” Symicek said. “If they do have a party, they are going to write up a contract. People are going to sign and it’s going to be pretty strict, way it sounds.”
The council voted unanimously to approve a beer and wine license for El Molinito Bar & Grill, which will open in the months ahead.
“The people that are going to have a party there, like a birthday or whatever, we’re going to be strict with our rules,” Velasquez said. “If there’s any issue, they’re out. We’re going to be really strict with our building.”
Other business
With the Independence Public Library set to move to their new building later this year, the city will be looking for a new tenant to fill the library’s existing space next to city hall.
Mayor Tom Kloss had the item placed on the agenda “to get the discussion going” with the hope of getting public input in the process.
“I would like the conversation to start,” Kloss said. “To me, this is a city decision. This isn’t a mayor decision. It’s not a council decision. This is a city as a whole decision — to get people talking and get ideas of what we would like to do. Who would we like to be our new neighbor in the library?”
The city unanimously voted against allowing Saints Peter & Paul Catholic Church to borrow the city line painter to use on their parking lot. The church approached the city about the possibility at the April meeting since they had borrowed the line painter in the past, but the council decided against it due to liability concerns and not wanting to set a precedent of borrowing city equipment for private use.
At last week’s meeting, the city awarded a bid to Marley’s Seamless Gutter Company in the amount of $1,450 to replace the gutters at the fire station. They also approved a motion to close city hall on Friday, June 5 due to City Clerk Dawn Smieja and Deputy Clerk Abby Bautch both needing to be gone that day.
