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▲Arson likely in buildingprobefireBy KARIN L. MEYERandFRANKLIN SHUFTANAn arson investigation is likely into a fire Friday which gutted a Joliet building that housed the Will county Private Industry council (PIC).The fire apparently began about 3 a.m. and was still burning in the three-story masonry structure nine hours later.According to Earle Heffley of the state Fire Marshal’s office, officials were on the scene Friday afternoon and were to carry out an investigation to determine how the blaze started.THE PIC building was the subject of intense controversy last year because of the terms under which it was leased.According to one prominent Jobetofficial, the building remains under investigation by the U.S. attorney.PIC officials, many of them prominent Will county Republicans, agreed to spend $106,000 per year to lease the building which had been sold only a few vears earlier for $85,000.Ownership of the building was hidden in a trust, though county Coroner Robert Tezak, a prominent GOP leader, was once believed to be among the owners, based on a Joliet fire inspection report.Tezak denied he was a beneficiary of the trust and well-known Joliet-area auto dealer John Bays eventually said he owned the building.THE circumstances surrouding the fire w'ere viewed with great skepticism by Joliet Mayor Charles Connor, who contended that a federal subpoena was to have been served this week for records stored in the building.The subpoena was due early this week, said Connor, who formerly was chief judge of the Will county Circuit court.Connor also noted that the building is within a few blocks of a city fire station, and that all three floors were ablaze by the time fire fighters arrived.I was somewhat suspicious; at minimum, this bears a closer investigation,” he said.HE SAID the building was gutted with only its outside walls remaining as a skeleton.Others also have tried to probe the building and its leasing by the quasi-governmental agency.Former state Sen. George Sang-meister, a Mokena Democrat, attempted to get the state Auditor General's office to look into the manner in which public funds were expended to pay the building’s leasing costs.But the auditor general ruled hehad no right to perform such an auditbecause the funds came from the federal government and were only tunneled through a state agency.MORE RECENTLY, Sen Thomas A. Dunn (D-Joliet) unsuccessfully(Please turn to Page A A)Index
Newspaper Details
Frankfort Star
Frankfort, Illinois, US
Sun, Dec 06, 1987
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
AZ, USA 29 Jan 2020
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