Lyons residents, tired of dusty cars and rattling dishes, picketed Tuesday against expansion of a century-old quarry owned by Material Service Corp.
“We wanted to dump them years ago,” complained Jennie Kamarit, who has lived three blocks from the quarry most of her 84 years. “Now I think our mayor should fall in.”
A majority of trustees in the village of 9,800 voted earlier this month to let the company mine along the southern edge of its quarry at 1st and Ogden Avenues.
But residents, some with homes just 300 feet from the site, say they’ve been shaken up enough through the years.
“The dirt and dust is more than you can bear,” said Myron Keel, chairman of Lyons’ Zoning Board, which voted against the expansion.
Keel and trustee Kenneth Getty led more than two dozen pickets at lunchtime Tuesday in front of Material Service’s Chicago offices, 222 N. LaSalle St. Meanwhile, another group, nearly twice as large, protested briefly outside Material Service’s fenced facility in Lyons.
Tensions between residents and quarry operators have flared elsewhere in recent years, namely in Elmhurst, where jittery residents once complained about unsettling explosions and occasional chunks of flying limestone. DuPage County bought that property in 1992 to convert it into a stormwater basin.
In Lyons, Getty was the sole trustee to oppose all parts of the expansion plan. He filed a complaint with the Cook County state’s attorney on Monday, alleging that the trustees’ vote to allow the expansion is invalid because one board member also works for Material Service Corp.
The state’s attorney’s office will investigate, a spokesman said Tuesday.
Neither that trustee, Dean Milenkovic, nor Material Service Corp. officials could be reached for comment.
But fellow trustee Terry Marchelya defended Milenkovic’s vote, pointing out that he is a “laborer,” not a high-ranking employee. Moreover, Marchelya believes Lyons residents are getting a good deal.
In exchange for permission to expand, Material Service must pay $75,000 this year, then $10,000 annually to the village; donate Smith Park, as well as other pieces of land for a veterans’ memorial and, possibly, a recreation center; and build an 8-foot berm topped with an 8-foot sound wall along the part of the quarry closest to homes.
Politicians think they have the residents’ best interest in mind. Keel disagrees. The residents have placed an advisory measure on the November ballot to determine whether village residents want the quarry to expand.
