The public has until June 29 to submit comments about an application from the Allen Company to reopen a limestone mine in southwestern Clark County.

Deborah Garrison, president of the Southwest Clark Neighborhood Assocation, said the comment period began Wednesday following a hearing before state mining officials in Frankfort.

The company, she said, has applied for a permit to treat 131 acres of land along Athens Boonesboro Road as an expansion of its operation across the river in Madison County, rather than as a new mine.

The plans, she said included constructing a conveyor belt to transport the rock from Clark County, over the river and to the company’s facility in Madison County.

“We believe they will be hazardous, not only to those who boat underneath it,” Garrison said. “The increased traffic will just annihilate the area.”

A year ago, state officials denied a mining permit for the Allen Company for the same property and said the company needed additional permits.

Past documents indicated the Allen Company owns the property.

The residents of the area have been fighting the situation since 2014 when the Clark County Fiscal Court voted to rezone the property from agricultural to industrial to allow the company to reopen the limestone mine.

The court’s vote carried the condition that all mining occur underground.

Comments will be accepted unti June 29 via email to donna.schartung@ky.gov or by mail to Department of Mining and Reclamation, 300 Sower Building, Frankfort, KY 40601.

At this point, no other meetings or hearings have been scheduled, she said.