Eagle Mine neighbor praises efforts to lessen noise, lights

MICHIGAMME — A Lansing man who owns a camp next to the Eagle Mine says he’s had little to no problems with the mine’s construction and noise level.

Retired army vet Dave Lake told ABC10 News Director Greg Peterson the mine is a good neighbor.

“I am not against the mine,” Lake said who is “the closest resident” to the mine.  “You are standing here right now, is the mine noise offensive, can you hear it.?” Lake asked Peterson.

“I can hear a (mine) truck backing up,” Peterson responded.

“Well that’s a truck, but logging trucks have been here forever,” Lake said. “I mean what’s the point.?”

“They have been mining up here for thousands of years and they are going to keep mining, and I don’t see the sense of fighting it,” Lake said.  “I wish the mine was in someone else’s front yard, but it is not, it is in mine.  “They (the mine) are good neighbors and I think they are doing everything that they can to do as good and safe a job as they can.  I don’t see anything wrong with it.”

“In what way have they been good neighbors to you, I mean have they tried to keep the noise down?” Peterson asked.

Lake said mine officials have been working on the noise to keep levels down and they just put shrouds on the lights to keep the brightness of the lights down.

“Marquette is now brighter 25 miles away than the mine is a mile from me at night,” Lake said. “So they are working on things.”

“They haven’t fixed my driveway yet (laughter) that they told me that they were going to.  But they will.”

Lake using his camp for bird hunting, and said the mining activity has not hurt his hunting prospects.