Note: The following is not a verbatim transcript of the Zoning Hearing Board meeting; it is simply one person’s summary of the major points made by those involved in the hearing process.  For that reason, quotation marks are not used unless a direct quote was recorded.  For information about obtaining an official ZHB transcript, contact the New Hanover Township office.

John Silvi, co-owner of Gibraltar Rock, Inc. was scheduled to continue cross-examination this evening.  However, Mr. Harris, his attorney said he was unable to attend. Instead Harris reintroducing Mr. Uday M. Patankar, formerly independent consultant turned Silvi Vice-President.

The meeting began with Mr. Harris introducing real estate agreements as exhibits. These included:

• Exhibit GR8 – Deed for approx. 163 acres for Marinari property.

• Exhibit GR9 – Deed for approx. 1 acre for Schwartz property.

• Exhibit GR10 – Deed for approx. 16.7 acres for Fugo property.

• Exhibit GR11 – Deed for approx. 9 acres for Vento property.

• Exhibit GR12 – Agreement of Sale for approx. 4 acres for Renninger property.

• Exhibit GR13 – Agreement of Sale for approx. 33 acres for Latshaw property.

• Exhibit GR14 – Agreement of Sale for approx. 13 acres for Santangelo property.

These exhibits had costs and dates removed.

Harris next began to re-introduce Patankar’s resume. 

Note: this testimony was very similar to his testimony in Gibraltar I . To read what he said then, see Patankar’s testimony form June 27, 2001 

Note 2.  From this point forward, we will only highlight places where Patankar’s testimony either differed from June 2001 or where he brought up something new or ‘interesting.’

Patankar said that he serves on the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s Air Quality Technical Advisory Committee. [ Isn’t there some conflict of interest here? This man is on the committee that advises the PA DEP about air quality while working for a company with potential air quality issues?]

Patankar mentioned that he became a Silvi employee in March 2002.

Harris asked Patankar about other Green Field quarries (quarries that we built from existing open space). Patankar said that he had been involved in two of the three that were permitted since 1972, those being Naceville, and Plumstead quarries. He was the principal environmental engineer for those two quarries.

Bob Brant, township attorney cross-examined Patankar.

Brant challenged Patankar’s expertise in the legal topic “preemption.”  According to various sources I located on the Web, “preemption” refers to situations where local ordinances are inconsistent with state and federal laws. In this case, GRI (through Patankar) is saying that New Hanover Township’s zoning ordinances are inconsistent from what the state allows (i.e the NH zoning ordinances say no quarrying, but state regulations say yes to quarrying).

Patankar said that he had never testified for any municipality. He has always testified for the quarry owners. He also said he had never drafted zoning ordinances, or taken course in or provided expert testimony regarding preemption. In effect, he is not an expert in preemption.

Mr. Kevin Diskin, assistant attorney to Dave Davis, attorneys for the Paradise Watchdogs cross-examined Patankar. Diskin asked him about the federal and state cases he acted as expert at. Patankar said one federal case was in 1985-86 with the Orland, PA. The other was where he was a witness for the EPA in a case with the Narragansett Construction Company. He was involved in Common Pleas court cases in PA for Domino Salvage and another where a quarry was turned into a landfill.

The next attorney was Lawrence Sager, of Sager & Sager Associates, Pottstown, PA. Mr. Sager represents Louis Farrell of Atomic International, a company that borders the proposed site.

Sager asked Patankar if he was a licensed attorney. Patankar said he was not.

Sager, as did Brant was concerned that Patankar be considered an expert to the issue of preemption.  Sager’s continuing cross-examination and objections centered on this issue. Sager asked a series of questions on Patankar’s knowledge of preemption and his ability to be an expert witness on this topic.  The bottom line was that Sager had Patankar state that he (Patankar) is an engineer and not a lawyer---and Harris had Patankar explain that even engineers can comment on preemption.  Sager said, what we have is a professional engineer that will talk about the engineering factors and the (zoning hearing) board will make its judgment based on that. This was not resolved.

Sager spent some time asking Patankar about the laws and acts that are important to understanding the issues in this case. Patankar mentioned the non-coal acts.  Patankar also said that he (Patankar) was able to interpret the ordinances because of his knowledge of permitting and the ordinances and laws of the DEP.  Sager again tried to object to having Patankar act as an expert on preemption---he said that preemption goes a step further than common knowledge. Sager then talked about the issue of “The Expert Juror.”  As explained by Paul Kirgis, associate law professor at St. John’s  School of Law, the Expert Juror is an ongoing discussion that says that a jury's (or zoning hearing boar’s) verdict may be tainted when they learn about facts in a case through ”avenues such as media reports” or non-expert testimony. He was overruled.

Patankar will not be considered an expert in preemption, but will be considered an expert in the permit process.

Harris began his presentation with Patankar by asking about the permit process. Again, read Patankar's past testimony because it's pretty much the same as last time.

The next GRI II meeting is May 29^th 7:00 in the Township Bldg.

The meeting ended.

See Also:
Summary of the previous Gibraltar II meeting (April 7, 2003)