The Montgomery County Commission approved the construction of a second ready-mixed concrete plant that will be located west of High Hill during a meeting on Oct. 22, just seven months after the first plant was constructed.

Dan Bruns of Kienstra Concrete in St. Louis is in charge of the project, which is about 12 acres. He proposed the project on Oct. 20 at the Montgomery County Planning and Zoning public hearing at the Montgomery County Courthouse.

After a 25-minute presentation, the project – which will be owned by Wildhorse Resources, LLC – was approved by the Planning and Zoning Board.

Bruns didn’t attend the county commission meeting, but his son, Colin, was there on his behalf to hear the approval by the commissioners.

In March, the Planning and Zoning board and the county commissioners approved a ready-mixed concrete plant that utilizes recycled water and collects aggregate that is donated for road beds.

The second plant will be located next to the first plant. The property is located near 681 Booneslick Road, just two miles west of High Hill.

“We are very grateful to have gotten the start we had up there,” Bruns told the Planning and Zoning Board. “I think we were satisfied with everything we said we were going to do. This is very common and it’s really demand driven. We can load only one truck at a time. We’re a demand driven business. Until you get going, you don’t know what demand brings.”

County resident Brenda Buechele was the only person who spoke during the public hearing. She asked Bruns why build another concrete plant if infrastructure hasn’t been completed on the first plant.

“Early on, we were waiting on Ameren,” Bruns told Buechele. “So for the first month and a half, we ran on a generator. We now run 100 percent off a well, then we go into 20,000-gallon holding tanks that we will use for production water to avoid surges to the plant and avoid surges to anything else.”

Three other proposals were approved by the Planning and Zoning Board. They were in regard to modifications of the board of appeals, petition of appeals and the industrial/manufacturing district. All of them were taken to the commissioners for approval.

Planning and Zoning Administrator Donna Viehmann said the board considered on who can represent themselves at a board of appeals meeting.

“There’s a Supreme Court ruling that says if you’re an LLC or a corporation, you have to be represented by an attorney,” Viehmann said. “You can’t do it on your own.”

Viehmann said the board proposed plenty of changes for the industrial/manufacturing district.

“They talked about accessory buildings,” she said. “They also stated that rail cars and shipping containers may be placed or maintained only as accessory buildings for now on. We already have two projects going on in the county that they are going to be putting shipping containers up with trusses and a roof. Those two projects are grandfathered in.”

The Planning and Zoning Board made an outline on the governing body and how the Board of Appeals should work, Viehmann said.

“There’s always been the question of after the county commission makes a recommendation, does it go to the Board of Appeals or does it go to Circuit Court,” the administrator said. “So, this outlines that down specifically how it would happen.”