CALEDONIA, Wis. — Church leaders are mulling whether they should enter negotiations with a mining company that expressed interest in buying nine acres the church owns.

In a letter to St. Rita's Catholic Church trustees, Vulcan Materials Company of Lombard, Ill., valued the parcel at $1 million and outlined its proposal to purchase the land. Vulcan said the estimate was preliminary and non-binding.

Afterward, church leadership conducted two informational meetings to discuss the issue with parishioners. About 500 people attended the meetings, according to The Journal Times.

Any sale would require the Town of Caledonia rezoning parts of the land to allow mining.

"Before making an answer to Vulcan, the parish leadership will be seeking your written vote on whether St. Rita should enter negotiations with Vulcan," church leaders wrote in a letter to parishioners.

Getting approval from the city may be difficult.

Town Chairman Susan Greenfield said she has concerns about the effects of mining on the community. When she campaigned door-to-door seven years ago, she said, constituents told her a great deal about the quarry operation.

"I knocked on a lot of doors and I had people crying, telling me what damage had been done to their homes," Greenfield said. "So these people have been dealing with the blasting and in some cases have suffered some damages. So I certainly came away believing the quarry expansion wouldn't be a good thing for the people in that neighborhood."

Vulcan officials dismissed any notions of danger to the area.

"We don't think there's any danger," said Vulcan spokesman Robert Vogel. "We think we're good neighbors and we do good things for the community. Like any industry, we employ local people, we buy local goods, we pay taxes and we provide the materials to build roads, sidewalks, churches, schools, hospitals and things you use every day."