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| Mayor Offers Help to Aluminum Castings |
FIRST REPORTED 7/3/12 Galesburg's Aluminum Castings will get to stay where it is for now despite numerous objections, and the city may just end up helping the plant stay.
The City Council voted six-to-two Monday night, with aldermen Corine Andersen and Peter Schwartzman voting no, to allow the re-zoning of the plant so that it can expand, keep adding new equipment, and all but double its current 30-person workforce. This, despite objections from residents over the plant's emissions, a fear that the company tried to allay, as testing indicates it's a very minor polluter.
But that pollution was still of concern to Mayor Sal Garza, who wants to consider upgrading its filtration systems.
"I would be very interested in just looking at if there are greater systems out there...we would be interested in looking at that, and we understand there would be an associated cost," Garza said.
A cost, Garza says, the city could help pay for, though the City Council likely would have to approve any such deal.
Aluminum Castings president Brett Markum says he likes that plan.
"I think that's more than fair, what you're asking," Markum said. "We'll certainly try to get on that path -- what technologies are out there, from a cost standpoint."
Markum says he just wants to continue to be a good neighbor to the city. He says that the company and Knox College struck a deal this week on property that Aluminum Castings will tear down and replace with various vegetation that could help soften the environmental blow. |
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| 07 04 12 by Newsroom |
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