Your neighbors deserve honest, accurate answers to the questions that arise when you’re doing work in their community. GeoSonics/Vibra-Tech professionals have the experience and expertise to answer property owner questions and allay concerns.
Town Meetings
Town meetings are your best and sometimes only opportunity to address and alleviate neighbor concerns before starting work in the community. Providing honest, accurate and easy-to-understand information at this stage can go a long way toward minimizing complaints later. At these meetings, you can show local officials and the community the plans for your upcoming project, as well as the safeguards you plan to use to protect the surrounding homes and businesses. Property owners will also want, and deserve, answers to their questions. You can provide the “technical” answers – such as blasting schedules, cubic feet of rock to be removed, warning whistles, truck routes, and how long the blasting phase of the project will last. But most property owners will also have questions like this:
- How will the blasting affect my house?
- Will I feel the blasting?
- What about damage potential?
- How can you be sure that blasting is safe?
- Do the limits apply to my house?
Clear information, presented in a simple and concise way is critical to addressing these concerns. GeoSonics/Vibra-Tech’s professionals have the knowledge and public relations experience to help you answer community questions and concerns in a technical, honest and reassuring manner.
Open Houses
Mining and quarrying operations may hold open houses at specific locations as part of their community awareness programs. Such events are one of the best formats for company personnel to meet neighbors and residents of the community, giving everyone the opportunity to interact in less formal surroundings. During the open house, employees of the operation can show the community their work environment and explain what the operation is all about. This is also an excellent time for community members to bring up questions – many will be answered on the spot; others may require research and will be answered at a later date. An open house typically includes professional representatives from firms doing work at the operation, such as the blasting contractor, hydrologists, engineers, seismologists and environmental scientists.
Most open houses provide the opportunity for guided bus tours, with employees and managers of the operation providing insight and fielding questions about the mine or quarry. A tour also usually includes description of, and in some cases an opportunity to view and ask questions about, the equipment used at the site. GeoSonics/Vibra-Tech strongly encourages you to take advantage of these opportunities when they are presented.