Rancher, 94, sues to block quarry project near his property

Forty years ago, Fraser West pulled onto Dutschke Road outside Ione and drove less than a mile before he found his destiny. Stretching out below him, West could see the 40-acre ranch he would snap up in 1973, a wide-open swath of grassland and heritage oaks where he has raised generations of longhorn cattle and horses with Teddy, his wife of 68 years, and his son, Bill. For the retired Marine colonel, who was wounded fighting on Guam during World War II and next month turns 95, the ranch has been a paradise of sorts. Now, it is his Alamo. West and his family are engaged in a legal battle with a multibillion-dollar company over plans to build a 278-acre rock quarry 50 feet behind his property line and construct an asphalt plant on 113 acres down the road from his ranch. The plans won approval from the Amador County Board of Supervisors on a 4-0 vote in October, and the company pushing the project says it already has spent more than $1 million in preparations for a quarry and plant envisioned to operate for the next 50 years. That was before West decided to make a stand. "I didn't get into this fight to lose," said West, who estimates he has spent $50,000 in legal fees to tie the project up in a lawsuit. "I'm a goddamn Marine."...more