A lot of people danced around one of the main issues in what has become the Ledyard quarry trial, but Jim Kelly of Winthrop Road went straight for it Thursday at the conclusion of his comments before the town Planning & Zoning Commission at Ledyard Middle School.

“They’re asking you to basically rewrite the whole zoning regulations,” he said, referring to Gales Ferry Intermodal LLC, a division of Cashman Dredging & Marine Contracting Co. of Quincy, Mass., which has applied for a special permit to allow a 10-year-long quarry operation off Route 12. “I don’t understand why this wasn’t discouraged at the Town Hall level when this all started. ... This was known to people at Town Hall, but they never let us know that the second step of the Cashman/GFI (project) was to go ahead and blow off the mountain (Mount Decatur). It just doesn’t sit well with me.”

Kelly then read my article in The Day from half a year ago in which I quoted then Town Planner Juliet Hodge questioning the quarry application’s compliance with zoning regulations and whether the project should be referred to the Inland Wetlands Commission. Two weeks later, Hodge was fired and quickly replaced with former Montville planner Liz Burdick.

“So you have your zoning officer say, ‘I’m not in favor of this project,’ and two weeks later she’s gone. That didn’t sit right, either,” Kelly said.

“A town the size of Ledyard does not have the resources to deal with a project of this size if they (GFI/Cashman) do not follow the rules and play fair,” Kelly said. “Somebody’s going to get sued here. And from everything I’ve seen, I’d rather have it be GFI suing the town than having the residents suing the town, because I think we have a much stronger case.”

I have been covering the “quarry trial” in Ledyard, a moniker given because of how long it has dragged on but also the way lawyers from both sides have spent a long time questioning the professional credentials of speakers in a cross-examination atmosphere rife with tension, for nearly a year now in two different series of hearings. It has been a tedious yet fascinating look at how differently the public is treated when compared to the engineers and analysts giving “expert” testimony.

GFI experts were given endless amounts of time to drone on about their expertise and opine about everything from real estate prices to silica dust, the fine cancer-causing particles that are launched into the air in the course of a mining operation. But members of the public with PowerPoint presentations (some experts in their own right) were limited to half an hour, and other speakers had only 10 minutes, though this was stretched a bit if they stayed on point.

Among the speakers were:

Robin Franklin of Kalmia Drive, who talked about coastal management regulations that she felt had not been adequately addressed.

Mary Larson of Harvard Terrace, who questioned the effect of silica dust on the environment and on human health, saying studies have shown that “breathing any amount of silica dust in harmful. ... Blasted and pressed rock cannot help but leak dust into the environment.”

Dianne Blonshine of Tananger Lane, who talked about the project’s effect on trees, which she felt hadn’t been addressed in the GFI plans.

Markos Samos of Robin Hood Drive, a cancer researcher, who said spraying water to reduce the likelihood of silica dust getting into the air was ineffective and said the only way to ensure dust didn’t affect the health of adults and children nearby would be to build a huge dome over the whole project.

Doug Kelley of the Ledyard Historic District Commission, who argued against the destruction of large sections of Mount Decatur, where the remnants of a War of 1812 historic site still exist, saying, “It is critical for physical context to survive in order for these nationally significant events to be fully understood,” adding that the quarry project would have an adverse effect on the historic character of the immediate neighborhood.

James Gauld of Ledgewood Drive, who questioned the project’s effects on a nearby oystering operation as well as the fish population in the Thames River.

Toward the end of the evening, the only two members of the public to have spoken in favor of the project stood up and read statements, and they both live out of town.

Kevin Blacker of Noank, who rents farmland in Ledyard, called the project “legal and safe” and said it would create an industrial tax base in town that will support town services and a low mill rate.

Tony Sheridan, president of the Chamber of Commerce of Eastern Connecticut and a Waterford resident, cited GFI’s attempts to be a “good corporate neighbor” and said the project would generate significant tax relief for Ledyard, which he called the second highest taxed town in the region.

But this whole process shouldn’t be about how much money the town will get. It should be about whether a quarry fits into a neighborhood setting where nobody wants it and it likely violates multiple zoning regulations.

As Town Historian Christopher “Kit” Foster said Thursday, this isn’t about opposing a project in a knee-jerk NIMBY fashion.

“I believe the proposed application will create substantial change from differences to the overall area,” Foster said. “None of them will enhance the qualify of life in the area. And the economics are far short of a dynamic windfall.”

This is the opinion of Lee Howard, The Day’s business editor. To reach him, email l.howard@theday.com.