William J. Kemble reports in the Daily Freeman that there will be a public hearing about a proposed hot mix asphalt plant for Kingston, at the border with the Town of Ulster. at 11 a.m. Jan. 31. The meeting is online, and to join the video conference go to tinyurl.com/edx3dkjs or call (443) 948-6058 with the meeting ID number 969 682 525#. The facility is currently a mining, sorting, and crushing operation but the owners 530 Route 28 LLC need an air permit for asphalt mix equipment because of the “contributing combustion source emissions and process emissions” that would be generated. Ulster Town Supervisor James Quigley warned the proposal would add 30 to 80 trucks per day on and off the site. He said, “Ulster Hose tells me it’s one of the most dangerous portions of the New York state highway system because of traffic coming off the Thruway where people are used to doing 70 miles an hour.... They get onto Route 28 …(where it is 45 mph) and if we looked at the pattern of speeding in our town it’s probably one of the roads with the highest frequency of tickets.” Catskill Mountainkeeper's Kathleen Nolan, the organization’s research director, said, “It raises questions about traffic impacts on the local community,” she said. “All of the permits that were issued … were on the basis that this would be a smaller impact than the mine had been. Since the mining had been a preexisting use, anything smaller would be an improvement.” Read more about this story in the Daily Freeman.