February 03, 2025
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Joliet will look into quarry complaints

Resident point to other problems at VM Land quarry

By Bob Okon
Residents dressed in red shirts to show unity in concerns about the VM Land quarry in Joliet gather before the start of the Joliet City Council meeting on Monday, July 17, 2023.

Residents dressed in red shirts to show unity in concerns about the VM Land quarry in Joliet that supplies the PT Ferro Construction Co. gather before the start of the Joliet City Council meeting on Monday. (Bob Okon)

Residents who successfully opposed a plan to start blasting at a Joliet quarry are not resting after the matter was dropped.

Nine people spoke on what had become a moot issue at the Monday workshop meeting of the City Council. But they warned that the blasting plan could be resurrected and called for the city to look into reported problems at the quarry.

They apparently made another inroad with the interim city manager saying he will check into the complaints about the VM Land quarry, which provides stone to PT Ferro Construction Co. and is located in the area of Richards Street and Sandall Place.

A couple of speakers even said they believed blasting had previously been done at the quarry, which was seeking city approval to allow blasting. VM Land withdrew its application before a vote by the council that was to take place Tuesday.

“I know I heard blasting,” East Side Council President Betsy Satcher, one of the leaders in the anti-quarry initiative, told the council Monday. “We wondered what it was because we didn’t know. Then it got louder and more frequent.”

Site of a quarry east of Sandall Place in Joliet that was a topic at the December 6th City Council meeting Tuesday night.

The VM Land quarry is located in an area near Richards Street and Sandall Place. (Gary Middendorf – gmiddendorf@shawmedia/Gary Middendorf)

Satcher said the loud noises stopped when the quarry owner first went to the city in October to amend its annexation agreement to permit blasting.

That sparked an opposition movement that led to City Council votes on the matter being tabled five times, created an issue in the April election, and now apparently will lead to a examination of quarry operations.

Other complaints are that quarry operations create dust in the air and debris in the streets, while at least one resident suspects the quarry is the cause for his basement flooding.

“I would like you to follow up on these complaints and give the council a report,” council member Jan Quillman told interim City Manager Rod Tonelli.

Tonelli said he would do so.

Resident Jewel Houston said if the quarry seeks approval for blasting in the future, the city should require wider public notice than the immediate neighborhood as is usual.

“We are not standing for that,” Houston said. “Enough is enough.”

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