The Village Meyer Hearing (Plus, an apology on my part)

What a way to spend St. Patrick's Day, eh? Listening to Meyer again try to explain why they need more time to mine in the area next to the Fox Trails Subdivision and not pay the penalties.

It was basically the same story they gave at the Zoning Board Meeting: Bad economy, too much overburden, not enough time.

The fact is they don't want to pay the fines that they agreed to back in 2008.  So now, they want to extend the time, pay the regular impact fees and be done by 2020.

Again, many residents stood up and expressed their concerns about the proposal. It was clear that people do not care if the lake is smaller--they just want this whole thing finished.  It was clear that they thought Meyer should be held to the original contract. After all, that's what contracts are for, right?

That is what I spoke about: Meyer signed a contract, they should stick to it. I also talked about how we all knew back in 2007 and 2008 that this would happen. In fact, the first time Meyer tried for an extension was back in 2011. They were denied then at the Zoning Board and decided not to pursue it further at the Village level.

The point I made then was that Meyer really hasn't done anything to fix the problem: no new equipment or employees. It seemed businesses as usual for the last few years. I believe, and I stated this at the meeting, that they have been banking from the beginning to get an extension.

I also made a comment that Mr. Thomas Zanck, Meyer's attorney, did not like. I said that Meyer has known about the overburden for quite some time. Later, when I was addressed by a Village Board member, I repeated the claim and said that they knew about the overburden back at the beginning. I may have even stated the year as 2008, I am not sure.

When it was Mr. Zanck's turn, he replied "we take issue with Mr. Janu." He then said that they didn't know about the overburden until 2014.

I said what I said based on what was stated at the Zoning Board meeting back in February.

I probably misspoke, and for that I apologize. I really thought they had stated that they knew about the overburden early. It was in my notes from the Zoning Board meeting.

So, I went to the transcript from that meeting and Mr. Zanck did say something that led me to believe that the overburden was known from the beginning.

Zoning Board Commissioner Patrick Jasper stated, "I understand that there are surprises that occur along the way."

Mr. Zanck then replied, "About a month after we agreed to it, you bet."

I made an assumption that he was talking about the overburden. Obviously, I was wrong and I apologize for making claim.

However, his statement that they didn't know about the overburden until 2014 is not correct as well. According to Mr. Randi Willie they began to run into issues when they started mining the north part of the pit.

He stated at the February Zoning board meeting, "As we went further north in 2013, we found it to get actually worse." Then, in 2014, they decided to drill some bores in order to see just how much overburden was there. And there was a lot, apparently.

Meyer screwed up. In fact, Mr. Zanck said as much at the Zoning Board meeting back in February: "It's the consequences of the economy and the overburden that we were not aware of. And shame on us...We know there was a miscalculation."

But this doesn't change the essence of the issue. And that issue is that Meyer signed a contract and needs to be held accountable. Should we be held accountable for Meyer's "miscalculations" and mistakes?

As I stated at the meeting, "We need to hold them to the deal. If they want to continue mining, fine. Pay up. If not, stop mining and restore the land and give us the lake on schedule."

Unfortunately, this meeting was not as well attended as the Zoning Board meeting. And that is because it was St. Patrick's Day, I am sure. We have had a history of having meeting around holidays, haven't we?

The next meeting will be held at the Village Hall sometime in the future. It holds about 150 people. This could be good---let's fill that place!

More to come.

In the meantime, if you weren't at the meeting, please let the board know of your feelings by sending an email to villagehall@caryillinois.com.