1 1 VICTORY HEIGHTS/MAPLE PARK 2 ADVISORY COMMITTEE 3 4 5 EDWARD WHITE ACADEMY SCHOOL 6 1130 WEST 122ND STREET 7 CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 8 9 SEPTEMBER 8TH, 2004 10 7:00 P.M. 11 12 REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS had at the meeting 13 of the above-entitled cause held at the Edward White 14 Academy School, 1130 West 122nd Street, Chicago, 15 Illinois, on Wednesday, September 8th, 2004, at 16 7:00 p.m. 17 18 ATTENDEES: 19 MR. MARK BRITTON, Illinois EPA 20 MR. BRAD BRADLEY, Project Manager, Dutch Boy 21 MR. DAVID GRAHAM, City of Chicago 22 MR. TONY DAVENPORT, Monitor 23 24 ACB 2 1 COMMUNITY REPRESENTATIVES: 2 3 MR. JOHN CHENIER 4 MR. LEONARD TURNER 5 REV. ARTIS WILLIAMS 6 MS. DANNESE FLENNOY 7 8 ALSO PRESENT: 9 10 MR. R.C. HARDY 11 MR. LARRY JACKSON 12 MR. JEFF KELLY LOWENSTEIN 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 REPORTED BY: KATHLEEN A. MARTHALER, C.S.R. 20 Certificate No. 84-4036. 21 22 23 24 ACB 3 1 MR. DAVENPORT: Okay. Good evening, everyone. 2 We're here for the Victory Heights/Maple Park 3 Advisory Council meeting, and I'm glad to see everybody 4 here. I hope everybody had a good summer. 5 We are going to start the way we customarily 6 do, by going around the room and everyone introducing 7 themselves, so we'll start over here. 8 MR. BRADLEY: Brad Bradley, U.S. Environmental 9 Protection Agency, project manager for the Dutch Boy 10 site. 11 MR. BRITTON: Mark Britton from the Illinois EPA 12 representing the International Harvester/Former West 13 Pullman work site. 14 MR. GRAHAM: Dave Graham, project manager with the 15 City of Chicago. 16 MR. CHENIER: John Chenier, 121st-122nd Street Block 17 Club, co-chair. 18 MR. TURNER: Len Turner, Maple Park Homeowner's 19 Association. 20 MS. FLENNOY: Dannese Flennoy, 12100-12200 South 21 Racine Block Club. 22 MR. LOWENSTEIN: My name is Jeff Kelly Lowenstein, 23 and I'm a reporter for the South Shore Community 24 News. ACB 4 1 MR. JACKSON: My name is Larry Jackson. I'm an 2 environmental consultant. 3 MR. DAVENPORT: Are you with either the City or the 4 State? 5 MR. JACKSON: No. 6 MR. DAVENPORT: Then can I ask you to have a seat 7 over on this side, sir, please? 8 MR. JACKSON: All right. 9 MR. DAVENPORT: Okay. As we customarily do, the 10 first thing is we want to get a date out for the next 11 advisory council meeting. 12 So, Council, when would you like to have your 13 next meeting? 14 MS. FLENNOY: I checked the dates available at the 15 school in November, and I hope this will meet everyone's 16 needs. 17 The first preference is November 10th, and the 18 second preference would be the 17th. The third 19 preference is November 3rd. 20 MR. DAVENPORT: Okay. So the first one is 21 November 10th. 22 MS. FLENNOY: That's agreeable with us. 23 MR. DAVENPORT: Okay. Is that agreeable with 24 everyone? ACB 5 1 Does anyone have any issues with that day? 2 (No response.) 3 MR. DAVENPORT: Okay. We'll set the meeting then 4 for November 10th, and it will be in this room. 5 Is that correct, Dannese? 6 MS. FLENNOY: Yes, as far as I know. 7 MR. DAVENPORT: Okay. We'll be in this room at 8 7:00 p.m. on November 10th, with an alternate date of 9 November 17th at the same time. 10 All right. The next thing is if we can have an 11 approval of the minutes from the last meeting, the 12 June 9th meeting. 13 MS. FLENNOY: I see some corrections. 14 MR. DAVENPORT: Okay. Just let us know what page 15 and line. 16 MS. FLENNOY: Okay. Page 3, Line 12. I stated 17 that Dave Graham called in and it was his grandfather 18 that was ill instead of his father, and there is another 19 one. 20 Does anyone else have any while I'm looking for 21 something? 22 MR. DAVENPORT: Does anyone else see anything? 23 MS. FLENNOY: Page 11, Line 1, it says "cleared up," 24 and I think it should be "cleaned up." ACB 6 1 MR. DAVENPORT: Okay. Anything else? 2 MS. FLENNOY: There was a correction. I don't 3 know where I found it, but it had Marty Hamper -- it 4 had him with the City of Chicago and he's with 5 EnviroCom. 6 MR. BRITTON: No, he's with Arcadis. 7 MS. FLENNOY: Oh, I'm sorry. But it's not the City 8 of Chicago. 9 MR. BRITTON: No. Gail is EnviroCom and Marty is a 10 separate company. 11 MR. DAVENPORT: Dannese, do you know where you found 12 that one? Any idea? 13 MS. FLENNOY: I wish I did. 14 You can move on. Maybe we can table the minutes for 15 a minute until I come to that. 16 MR. DAVENPORT: All right. If you would be kind 17 enough to look for that notation, we'll just table this 18 and then we'll come back to it at the end. 19 Fair enough? 20 MS. FLENNOY: Okay. Thank you. Anything else? Any 21 others in the meantime? 22 MR. BRADLEY I actually have one that I just found. 23 This is Page 14, Line 18. I can give you the correct 24 spelling of Chris Liszewski. It's L-i-s-z-e-w-s-k-i. ACB 7 1 MS. FLENNOY: Page 14? 2 MR. BRADLEY: Yeah, Line 18. I'm just giving the 3 correct spelling for our attorney. 4 MS. FLENNOY: Spell it, please. 5 MR. BRADLEY: L-i-s-z-e-w-s-k-i. 6 MS. FLENNOY: Thank you. 7 MR. BRADLEY: You're welcome. 8 MR. DAVENPORT: I also have one at the top of Page 9 14 at Line 3. Where it says "an obstacles," it should 10 actually be "any obstacles." That's the only one I 11 have. 12 Okay? Any other corrections? 13 What we'll do then, Dannese, while you continue 14 to look for that reference, we'll table this and then 15 we'll come back to it. 16 MS. FLENNOY: Sure. Thank you. 17 MR. DAVENPORT: Okay. Any unfinished business from 18 the last meeting? 19 I don't recall any action items that anyone 20 had besides us coming to the meeting, so I don't 21 believe there was anything that was left open at 22 the last meeting unless someone recalls something 23 different. 24 MS. FLENNOY: I think what was left open was ACB 8 1 regarding Brad Bradley when he stated that there was 2 recontamination, that the City had pulled up the 3 concrete and recontaminated the land. 4 And I think he was talking with his lawyer, the 5 City of Chicago's lawyer, to find out what -- 6 MR. BRADLEY: Well, I expect that he'll tell us 7 something about that during the course of the meeting. 8 We did discuss that. 9 MR. DAVENPORT: Okay. Anything else? 10 (No response.) 11 MR. DAVENPORT: Okay. We are just waiting for the 12 City of Chicago update. 13 Before we start on that, can I have you just 14 introduce yourself, Reverend Williams? 15 REV. WILLIAMS: Artis Williams, Victory Heights 16 Community Organization. 17 MR. DAVENPORT: Thank you. 18 Okay. Mr. Graham? 19 First of all, how is your grandfather? 20 MR. GRAHAM: He passed away on June 18th. 21 MR. DAVENPORT: I'm sorry to hear that. 22 MR. GRAHAM: So it was quick. 23 MR. DAVENPORT: I'm sorry to hear that. 24 MR. GRAHAM: Thank you for asking. ACB 9 1 The only -- well, there are a few things. 2 Obviously, the Ingersol building had caught fire, and 3 that has pretty much gutted the front half of the 4 building where the clock tower is. So the City is 5 working to get that building stabilized to make it 6 safe. 7 You know, there's really not a whole lot else 8 to report with that, with what had happened. 9 Apparently, there were some people in there. A 10 fire started, and by the time the fire department was 11 able to respond, it was going pretty good. 12 It was a big enough fire that it made the 13 national news. Actually, that morning I woke up and 14 flipped on the news, and it was on the national news. 15 The department of the environment is making 16 sure that the fire debris is going to be handled 17 correctly and that the situation on the site is 18 stabilized so that there are no issues. 19 As far as I know, the building -- there were 20 really no liquids or chemicals that were within the 21 building. 22 I believe somebody was quoted as saying that 23 they thought there was material in the building, and as 24 far as the folks that I spoke with at Ingersol and from ACB 10 1 personally going through the building, I don't recall 2 seeing anything in the building that was left over from 3 their manufacturing operation. 4 That's basically it for Ingersol. 5 MR. DAVENPORT: Let me just ask one question then. 6 MR. GRAHAM: Sure. 7 MR. DAVENPORT: You said the City was acting to 8 stabilize the building. Do they envision demolishing 9 what's left of it or how do they plan to handle that? 10 MR. GRAHAM: I can't answer that, but I would 11 assume that we're probably now going to have to start 12 looking at demolition only because you can't have a part 13 of the building missing and be able to secure it in any 14 way. So I would see that happening. 15 MR. DAVENPORT: Okay. 16 MR. GRAHAM: I would assume that -- it's still owned 17 by Ingersol, and Ingersol is in negotiations with the 18 City to perhaps transfer that property to the City or 19 sell it to the City. So negotiations are still going on 20 with that. 21 MR. DAVENPORT: Okay. 22 MR. GRAHAM: The only other work on Ingersol is the 23 department of environment was going to do additional 24 sampling on the property to see what was there as part ACB 11 1 of our due diligence to buy the property, so I think 2 shortly we'll start that work. 3 We were ready to start and then that fire broke 4 out, so that kind of put a damper on things. 5 The City's goal for that property is to ensure 6 that it is developed in such a way before it's 7 transferred to another person or another company in such 8 a way that it's going to be something worthwhile in the 9 community. 10 We want to make sure that it's not sold to 11 someone else who just ends up making it a worse site. 12 You know, if someone wants to take the property and 13 create a junk yard or something like that, the City does 14 not want that to happen. 15 So that's what we're trying to -- that's what 16 we were in negotiations before to do, to acquire the 17 property. I think we're still going to move forward, 18 but with the fire, it's going to slow things down a 19 little bit. 20 So that's all I have to report on Ingersol. 21 As for Amforge, which is the property across 22 the street, the City is completing the remaining work to 23 get the NFR letter on the eastern portion of the site. 24 We pretty much have done all the work that we ACB 12 1 need to, and we're preparing our final information that 2 we need to send down to the State IEPA so that we can 3 get the NFR letter for that site. 4 And for the western portion of the site, we are 5 still preparing to do the final removal of contamination 6 on that site so that it can be ready for development. 7 I can't get into the specifics, but planning 8 has been talking with several folks who are very 9 interested in that property and have been over the last 10 couple of years. 11 So development is being looked at on the 12 Amforge property, and some other folks are looking at 13 the property that is just south of Ingersol and adjacent 14 to International Harvester. 15 It appears that the market is now showing a 16 little more interest in development in general, so, you 17 know, hopefully this will be the year that we see some 18 movement. 19 MR. DAVENPORT: Okay. 20 MR. GRAHAM: And that's it. 21 MR. DAVENPORT: Okay. Any questions? 22 MS. FLENNOY: I thought that building was vacant and 23 that it stopped production. 24 MR. GRAHAM: Yes. ACB 13 1 MS. FLENNOY: Did I hear you say that someone was in 2 the building? 3 MR. GRAHAM: That building, it's a large building. 4 It's been secured with locks and dogs, but there are 5 vagrants that go in there. 6 What we think happened, based on what we've 7 seen in there before, is that maybe some people were in 8 there and started a fire to keep warm or were just 9 starting a fire just because they were bored, and it 10 just caught the whole building on fire. 11 Portions of that building in the front, it was 12 broken up into like office cubes, and each one of them 13 had panels of glass. 14 Different offices had panels of glass, and when 15 I had walked through there, almost every single glass 16 was broken. So there have been vandals going in and out 17 of there. 18 Ingersol at one time, I believe, had a guard 19 dog company on site, and they actually let the company 20 keep their guard dogs on site so that they would, you 21 know, keep an eye on the building. 22 But every time that somebody from the City or 23 somebody from Ingersol comes into the area, there always 24 happens to be people there that shouldn't be there who ACB 14 1 are trespassing. 2 MR. BRITTON: It's not an official use of the 3 building. 4 MR. GRAHAM: It's not an official use of the 5 building. 6 MS. FLENNOY: And it was not boarded up, right? 7 MR. GRAHAM: Well, from what I recall, most of the 8 property was locked up pretty tight. 9 But it is a large property, so even if a door 10 was bolted down or something, trespassers would have 11 plenty of time to try to get in without anybody knowing. 12 That's something that we're dealing with on all 13 of our sites, including International Harvester. I 14 think I just got an e-mail showing photos with some 15 breaks in the fence, so we're constantly repairing the 16 fencing as it comes up. 17 REV. WILLIAMS: You know, I wondered about that 18 Ingersol building because sometimes I walk down to that 19 area, and I've seen guys pull up in a truck and open a 20 gate. You know, I thought maybe somebody was just 21 working in there doing something. 22 MR. GRAHAM: We've cut off locks and put on new 23 locks, and people come up right behind us and put on 24 their own locks and operate as if they owned the site. ACB 15 1 So I would recommend, because I know you all 2 care about your community and are watching it, that if 3 you ever see anything, give the police a call and let 4 them know. 5 REV. WILLIAMS: You know, just the way they went in 6 just gave me the impression that they were supposed to 7 be there. 8 MR. GRAHAM: Right, but nobody should be on that 9 site. 10 REV. WILLIAMS: They just pulled up in their truck 11 and went through the gate, and there was another guy 12 already inside. 13 MR. BRITTON: It's safe to say you would notify them 14 enough in advance, and if anybody were actually going to 15 officially use the building, you would know about it. 16 So if you see any activity there other than 17 like a City of Chicago truck, you should call the 18 police. 19 MR. GRAHAM: Right. If you see any activity in that 20 building, please call the police. 21 We've requested that the police go by and check 22 on the area, but they're not going to be there all the 23 time. 24 And that includes any of the other fenced ACB 16 1 properties, too. If you see people in there or if you 2 happen to see parts of the gates missing -- we have 3 another site that has been fenced off, and somebody took 4 off part of the fence, a gate on one side and the 5 matching portion of the same type of gate on the other 6 side. 7 They didn't break it. They actually took it. 8 So somebody has a new fence that the City has paid for. 9 We're constantly having to repair things. 10 REV. WILLIAM: Do you know anything about the 11 Quality -- 12 MR. GRAHAM: Quality Croutons? 13 REV. WILLIAMS: Yeah. Is that still a goal? 14 MR. GRAHAM: As far as I know, that's still a goal, 15 although, Quality Croutons has sold their existing 16 facility and they're supposed to be starting. 17 I'm not sure what the holdup is, but everything 18 has been set up with planning. 19 They have nowhere to go, so we know that 20 they're going to start. It just depends on when. 21 REV. WILLIAMS: I was just wondering. 22 MR. BRITTON: The correction is on Page 37, 23 Line 22. 24 MS. FLENNOY: Oh, yeah. I found that, too. Thank ACB 17 1 you. 2 MR. BRITTON: Page 37, Line 22, it says "Mark 3 Hamprin" and it should say Marty Hamper, H-a-m-p-e-r. 4 MS. FLENNOY: But he's not with the City of 5 Chicago. 6 MR. BRITTON: No, he's a consultant on behalf of 7 Navistar. 8 MR. CHENIER: What is his company? 9 MR. BRITTON: It's Arcadis, Garretty & Miller, but 10 I'm not sure that it hasn't -- maybe it's just Arcadis 11 now. He can tell you when we get to that for a note. 12 Arcadis is A-r-c-a-d-i-s. 13 MR. DAVENPORT: Any other questions for the City of 14 Chicago? 15 (No response.) 16 MR. DAVENPORT: Okay. Thank you, Dave. 17 MR. GRAHAM: You're welcome. 18 MR. DAVENPORT: We will continue on, but before we 19 continue on, Mr. Hardy, would you like to introduce 20 yourself, please? 21 MR. HARDY: Yes. I'm R.C. Hardy. I used to work 22 here at the school as an engineer, and since then I've 23 retired. So I'll probably be coming to the meetings 24 more often now. ACB 18 1 MR. DAVENPORT: That's good. 2 Okay. The Dutch Boy site update. 3 MR. BRADLEY: As far as the off-site work is 4 concerned at Dutch Boy, that should begin very shortly. 5 I've been talking with Terry Casey, who is a 6 consultant representing NL Industries. 7 Originally, they were going to get out in the 8 middle of August. They're a little bit late on that, 9 but they plan on getting started shortly. 10 As far as the on-site work, the EPA had a 11 conference call with NL Industries and then a meeting 12 with the City of Chicago. 13 Right now we're waiting for Terry Casey to call 14 back so that Dave Graham, myself and Terry Casey can all 15 go out to the site and see how we need to proceed to get 16 the job done. 17 That's basically where we're at. 18 MR. DAVENPORT: And this is in regards to the 19 disturbance or the movement of concrete that we spoke 20 about at the last meeting? 21 MR. BRADLEY: Yes. We have a series of pictures 22 that show before and after, and we sat down with the 23 City and decided that we just needed all three parties 24 to go out and take a look at it and decide who does what ACB 19 1 so we can get it done. 2 MR. DAVENPORT: All right. 3 MR. TURNER: I have a question relative to the off 4 site. Is that completed now where you sampled the land 5 and replaced the soil and whatnot? 6 MR. BRADLEY: Yes. 7 MR. TURNER: So that is totally completed? 8 MR. BRADLEY: Well, no. Actually, the sampling is 9 done. 10 As to the replacement of the soil, we still 11 have 20-to-25 residences that need to be cleaned up. 12 Originally, we were waiting to get the on-site 13 work started so that they could both be done at the same 14 time. 15 Sometime in July we decided to split the two 16 and get the residential going as soon as possible. That 17 should start any time. 18 And then once those 20-to-25 residences are 19 cleaned up, that will be the completion of the 20 residential cleanup. 21 MR. DAVENPORT: Is there any projected time when we 22 can expect that that will be completed? 23 MR. BRADLEY: I would certainly think it's going to 24 be done this construction season, which would end ACB 20 1 somewhere around mid-to-late November. That's 2 everyone's intent. 3 MS. FLENNOY: I have a question. 4 That address, 11816 Emerald, was very contaminated. 5 Is that one on the list? 6 MR. BRADLEY: Yes, it is. 7 MS. FLENNOY: Okay. It is on the list. 8 MR. BRADLEY: I think we checked that last time. It 9 was over 500 parts per million, and it was on the list 10 to be cleaned up. 11 MR. DAVENPORT: Any other questions? 12 MR. BRITTON: I had sort of a follow-up, I guess, 13 with the City. It's not directly related to the site, 14 but I just drove over there and I noticed that the 15 street is blocked off with police barricades. 16 Did we miss something on why? 17 MR. GRAHAM: The front half of the former Ingersol 18 building is pretty much demolished. 19 MR. BRITTON: And that's just because of the fire 20 and the demolition? 21 MR. GRAHAM: Right, it's because of the fire and the 22 demolition work. 23 That street ends in a turnaround. It's a dead 24 end street, so it's really not a thoroughfare. So it's ACB 21 1 closed off right now just to allow the folks to go ahead 2 and do their demolition activities. 3 MR. BRITTON: Okay. So it's just due to that then. 4 MS. FLENNOY: I know they did have police cars there 5 to stop the residents. 6 MR. BRITTON: There is a fence across now. 7 MS. FLENNOY: Oh, it's fenced now? 8 MR. BRITTON: It's fenced all the way across the 9 street. 10 MS. FLENNOY: When I went there I couldn't get by, 11 so I had to turn around and come back. I guess they 12 were there watching it. 13 MR. BRITTON: And one block west of Peoria Street. 14 MR. CHENIER: It's probably in case the building 15 implodes on itself, so the dust and particles and 16 whatnot is -- it's fenced, obviously, so the people 17 won't get hurt. 18 MR. BRITTON: It's just strange to see a fence 19 across a public street. 20 MR. CHENIER: Yeah, I know. 21 MR. BRITTON: Exactly what the plans were there, I 22 guess it's just during the construction and then it will 23 be opened back up. 24 It was such a nice street. We just got it all ACB 22 1 paved and the sewers all done, and then this happens. 2 MR. CHENIER: It's good that they reacted that 3 quickly. 4 MR. DAVENPORT: All right. Any other questions or 5 comments? 6 We'll have an open question or comment period. 7 MS. FLENNOY: Before you go on, I suggest that maybe 8 we pass the minutes. 9 MR. DAVENPORT: We'll do that before we -- we'll do 10 that as the very last thing before we take our little 11 break. 12 MR. FLENNOY: All right. Thank you. 13 MR. DAVENPORT: Okay. Any other questions or 14 comments? 15 (No response.) 16 MR. DAVENPORT: Okay. I guess we're ready now, 17 Dannese. 18 Can we please have a motion to approve the 19 minutes with the noted corrections? 20 MR. CHENIER: So moved. 21 MR. DAVENPORT: All in favor? 22 (A chorus of ayes.) 23 MR. DAVENPORT: Opposed? 24 (No response.) ACB 23 1 MR. DAVENPORT: All right. The motion passes. 2 Okay. We can take a break for about five 3 minutes. I'll go out and get Arcadis and the EnviroCom 4 people, and we'll resume the meeting at that time. 5 (WHEREUPON, a recess was had.) 6 (WHEREUPON, the court reporter was 7 dismissed.) 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 ACB 24 1 STATE OF ILLINOIS ) 2 ) SS: 3 COUNTY OF W I L L ) 4 I, KATHLEEN A. MARTHALER, a Certified 5 Shorthand Reporter of the State of Illinois, do hereby 6 certify that I reported in shorthand the proceedings had 7 at the meeting aforesaid, and that the foregoing is a 8 true, complete and correct transcript of the proceedings 9 of said hearing as appears from my stenographic notes so 10 taken and transcribed under my personal direction. 11 IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I do hereunto set my 12 hand at Chicago, Illinois, this 11th day of 13 October, 2004. 14 15 KATHLEEN A. MARTHALER 16 Certified Shorthand Reporter 17 18 19 20 21 22 C.S.R. Certificate No. 84-4036. 23 24 ACB