“Let us dare to, read, think, speak and write.” - John Adams, 1765 January 12, 2012
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Neighbors Tell Mayor “No More Blasting!” Press Release Indicates Mayor Noak May Relent
Romeoville Mayor John Noak
Hanson /Material Service Corporation has managed to arouse the attention of an important block of citizens, who are also voters, with the application it has filed with the village to expand its quarry operations. The company owns a significant amount of property west of Route 53 and bounded on the north by Taylor road. It has requested village permission to begin quarrying on the property. If it gets the go-ahead from the village it plans to do only surface mining not underground work which it says is too costly. The new tentative operation would require significant blasting and digging down to about 200 feet below the surface of the land. The company has submitted plans to do its blasting Monday thru Saturday in the afternoons excluding Sundays. The families who reside in close proximity to the proposed site have responded with a loud NO to the company’s plans. They suggest that the new operation will endanger their homes because the shock waves created by the blasting will damage their properties. Some say their homes shake now from the blasting that is done farther from their homes on the east side of Route 53. At least one resident has questioned whether the new operation will contaminate the air with dust from the blasting. That resident has questioned whether such contaminated air will contain silica particles that could cause lung or other cancers. The Weekly Reporter is not aware of any environmental impact studies that may have been done or
whether they are necessary under the circumstances. On December 12, 2012 Mayor John Noak met with residents of the Nottingham Ridge sub division by invitation along with representatives of Hanson/Material Service Corporation. The company and the residents were given opportunities to address the issues from their individual perspectives. The Mayor presided over that meeting. No conclusions were reached and the residents again presented concerns at the regularly scheduled village meeting on December 21, 2011 and again on January 4, 2012. The only concrete decision to come out of those meetings was the rescheduling of a Planning and Zoning Commission meeting which will be held on February 14th. That meeting will be conducted at 7:00 pm in the Romeoville High School to accommodate the large number of people who are expected to turn out. In the interim Village Manager Steve Gulden issued a press release on Friday January 6th in which Mayor Noak announced that “the Corporate Authority” of the Village has decided that they “do not envision any possibility of amending the Spangler property annexation to open the property to quarrying.” That decision now finds two friends on opposite sides of the issue. Attorney Richard Kavanagh represents Hanson/Material Service and is also the Chairman of the Will County Republican Party. Mayor Noak is a
Republican and member of that party and has worked for Congresswoman Judy Biggert in the past. Mayor Noak is up for reelection next year; he may very well be considering how a decision in favor of Hanson could impact his chances of being elected to a second term. Residents are pushing the issue with signs There is always, of course, the chance that he might find himself confronted with the issue again after the election. Assuming he were to win such an election he might be more willing to grant Hanson’s application on the gamble that voters would forget the issue before another election came around. Some residents have complained that 2 men, village officials were seen stealing signs from infront of homes.