November 14, 2024
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La Salle alderman asks for truck route to Carus LLC warehouse to be eliminated

Carus says it doesn’t store chemicals in the warehouse

By Derek Barichello
The La Salle City Council will consider eliminating a truck route on Porter Avenue that permits trucks to and from the Apollo warehouse owned by Carus LLC. The warehouse no longer stores chemicals, the company has said.

The La Salle City Council will consider eliminating a truck route on Porter Avenue that permits trucks to and from the Apollo warehouse owned by Carus LLC. The warehouse no longer stores chemicals, the company has said. (Derek Barichello)

The La Salle City Council is looking at eliminating a truck route on Porter Avenue that has permitted trucks to and from the Apollo warehouse owned by Carus LLC.

The warehouse is no longer storing chemicals, Carus LLC has said since early March.

Alderman Bob Thompson said since that is the case, he would like to see the council eliminate the truck route, ensuring Carus would not be able to store materials in the building requiring truck transportation without coming back to the council for approval.

The item will be reviewed by the city’s Streets and Alleys Committee for consideration on Monday, June 26. The committee then will make a recommendation for the City Council.

Carus has since moved its Tier 2 chemical storage operations to the South Towne Mall in Ottawa.

During its May 10 public meeting at La Salle-Peru High School, Carus committed to no longer storing chemicals at the Apollo warehouse location.

“The building is currently used to store only equipment and machine parts,” said Lyndsay Bliss, vice president of human resources at Carus, on Monday. “As with any warehouse, trucks could be required to access the building and its contents. However, Carus is committed to working with city of La Salle leaders to address logistic needs related to the building and its future use.”

Carus said it will take into consideration input from city leaders and community members on the warehouse’s future use.

Aldermen agreed it is important to bring the matter in front of the Streets and Alleys Committee first because residents and businesses, including Carus, within a radius of the designated route will receive a notice of the proposed change and be invited to give comment at the meeting.

Thompson said the truck route was approved in 2010.

Jamie Hicks, a Porter Avenue resident, said he was displeased with the council taking four weeks to act when he said the city once put up truck route signage at the site overnight. Thompson first brought up the idea of removing the truck route at the council’s May 30 meeting.