No matter how long it takes, the Windham Town Council will make a final ruling on a proposed Nash Road quarry at a meeting Tuesday, Sept. 9.

Though the council made it through only six of the 17 criteria in the quarry proposal by Windham developer Peter Busque during a 3 1/2 hour meeting Tuesday, Chairwoman Carol Waig said the council would complete the review at the next council meeting, regardless of how late the session must last that night.

The proposal calls for a 55-acre quarry on 160 acres of land near Nash Road and Route 302. A similar application by Busque was denied by the Town Council last year, though Busque has made some concessions in the newer proposal, including a smaller quarry.

On Tuesday, the council voted unanimously that the application fit criteria covering signs, parking, and estimated life of the quarry.

The council deemed the application suitable in two other areas, public safety/nuisance considerations and safe entrances/exits, but only over opposition from councilors Robert Muir and Liz Wisecup.

The meeting was adjourned around 11:30 p.m. when the councilors could not finish debate over the quarry’s method of operation, including whether Busque would be allowed to load trucks at the site during the winter.

Just before 11 p.m., the council began to consider the seventh criteria, which covers methods of operation. The definition of quarry operations was at the heart of the argument.

Councilors voted 5-2, with Davis and Kaile Warren in the minority, to add to the methods of operation criteria an amendment saying blasting, drilling and crushing would only be allowed May 1-Oct. 31. They adjourned before voting on the piece as a whole, however, and will take up the matter at the Sept. 9 meeting.

Busque said during the application review that he would limit the drilling, blasting and crushing of rock to the time when foliage can act as a noise buffer. But, he said Tuesday night, trucks moving in and out do not qualify as quarry operations, and he has always assumed he could haul already processed rock material called aggregate during the winter to meet the needs of his customers and run a profitable business.

“I have to sell product in the winter,” he told councilors.

Muir disagreed, saying that the application stated clearly that operations of any kind would not occur in the winter.

“Loaders and trucks are part of the operation,” Muir said.

Councilor Blaine Davis said Busque’s request sounded reasonable. The months of operation condition was put in place in order to handle noise concerns, but Busque’s noise study stated the quarry met maximum decibel requirements even without foliage cover, Davis said.

Opponents of the quarry, many of them neighbors of the site, were upset to find out Tuesday that trucks would not be taking the winter off if the Nash Road site is approved. Carl Russell, owner of Avant Garde kennel, which abuts the Busque property, has been following the application process since the beginning. It was the neighbors’ understanding that the quarry would be closed during the winter, he said.

“If you check any of the testimony going way back, there were not going to be operations of any kind over the winter,” said Russell.

Muir and Wisecup said earlier in the meeting they felt the quarry project would interfere with businesses in the area, like Russell’s, and cause nearby properties to drop in value.

“The quality of life … will be changed, and changed drastically,” Muir said.

Warren and Davis argued the area is zoned correctly for a quarry.

“Like it or not, it is a permitted use,” Warren said.

Councilors Warren, Davis and John MacKinnon said abutters only presented the council with second-hand and anecdotal evidence that their property values would be harmed by the quarry.

Russell, who said he has been told his business would be worthless if the quarry was put in place, said the evidence provided by abutters should have been enough.

“It should have been sufficient. Common sense should have been sufficient,” he said.