SKANEATELES - The open pit mining issue came up again at the Skaneateles Town Board meeting Thursday night.

Local Law Mining 2008 was addressed after the board went into executive session to discuss the legalities of three pieces of local legislation related to the mining overlay district in the Stump Road location north of Old Seneca Turnpike.

Town Supervisor Phil Tierney had three local laws prepared for introduction at Thursday night's meeting: Local Law 2008A, Local Law 2008B, and Local Law 2008 C.

He said he'd reviewed the content and wanted to cover everything, introducing interrelated pieces of legislation in a joint public hearing.

But introduction of the laws will have to wait until the next meeting on Jan. 17.

He said 2008A would repeal the existing open pit mining overlay district and implement it with the Blue Alternate; 2008B would fix a defect in the current law which says that the Orange zoning boundary, 200 feet and 100 feet from the property line, could only be adjusted by the town board.

Drafts for 2008C were not finished in time for the meeting, but it would allow an option to create a floating zone to authorize mining locations “using certain criteria.”

Tierney said there would be a meeting with the planner next week to answer some questions about the laws and check the legality.

“The best thing to do is to defer until Jan. 17 to introduce all the bills and allow our attorneys to do research on all three pieces of legislation,” Tierney said. “It will be back before us on the 17th. We hopefully will have all the legislation to be handed out to review before the meeting starts.”

Avidly watched by neighbors in the Shepard Settlement area for the past year and a half, the mining dispute was supposedly settled last June after the town board approved the Orange Alternate.

That resolution decreased the overall size of the overlay district, prohibiting any new mines from operating within 200 feet of property lines or within 100 feet of a watercourse.

The issue had been considered by the board since Cemento LLC applied for a special permit in 2006 to mine across the street from its original Stump Road site.

A moratorium with two extensions ensued as neighbors debated negative effects of mining on the environment, roads and safety.

At that time, the board reached the decision to approve a revised mining overlay district, which would allow Cemento to continue to expand within the limits posed by the comprehensive plan adopted in 2005.