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Residents express concernsGarbage truck traffic wakesand shakes up GoodenowBy MICHAEL ULREICHThe once sleepy little town of Goodenow has been awakened by an invasion of garbage trucks.This once quiet community where people are used to peace and quiet in the tranquil countryside has now become the center of the Chicago garbage trade.A self-imposed restriction on the city of Chicago’s main municipal refuse landfill at 130th street and the Calumet expressway has sent as many as 250 trucks daily down the country thoroughfare, known as Goodenow road, past homes set back into the woods, through the center of town, to the newest mountain to theCrete park board members reviewingpast, future optionsBy CAROL KELLYHistory, finance and goals were some of the topics of discussion when Crete park district commissioners met in a workshop session Tuesday night.Leading off the session, the board’s president Mary Anne Hussman explained the meeting was called for the free discussion of what’s happening in the parks and invited input from the other park commissioners.“You may have the finest park but nobody may know about it,” sheFinancial standing of the district was also outlined for the new board commissioners. The district owes for 1987, $45,000 in bonds payable at six percent interest. Hussman said the district is almost up to its total taxing power.COMMISSIONER Jim DeBolt wanted to know why the district does not research the possibility of obtaining grant funding Hussman noted since grants are hard to come by, they are not used as much as they can be.Hussman nuestioned whv the newsouth, as Goodenow resident Tom Crotty puts it.“MOUNT TRASHMORE,” washow another resident described the landfill mound rising above the corn fields of rural Crete and Washington townships.Crete township Trustee Fred Pehr-kon stands outside his home on Goodenow road with a set of binoculars and some strong eyes, strong enough to read the logos on the trucks that stream by and sharp enough to detect suspicious trucks handling “special wastes” not permitted in the dump, he said.Pehrkon has been known to follow such trucks when they turn left into the Beecher-Sexton landfill, demanding the truck's manifest sheet and even once inspecting a truck of “goo” brought to the dump by a special waste hauler.He says the landfill operators from Sexton Contracting have cooperated with local efforts spurred by Pehrkon to improve conditions at the landfilltrash that may have blown out of a passing waste transfer truck, Pehrkon.After residents complained that beepers on company tractors were waking up children in the morning, the landfill’s management nad foam rubber placed over them to muffle the sound. And Pehrkon has had access to the landfill, its contents and its deliveries since he has monitored the landfill under Sexton.Goodenow was just “a wide space in the road with a grain elevator,” said Crotty of the area before it was settled by the small number of families clustered around the town centerAS HE SPOKE, two landfill employees walked down Goodenow road with huge plastic bags picking up litter.They also patrol Illinois-394 forBUT PEHRKON insists Goodenow was once a thriving area with a tram station and post office before economic hard times hit the area which farmer Charles Goodenow once tried to incorporate into a village Who knew that industry would return to Goodenow in the shape of the big “18-wheelers” and assorted garbage trucks that transport trash between Chicago and Goodenow’ Residents living along Goodenow road who were contacted last week (Please turn to Page A-2)EPA, CAPE meeting
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Crete Star
Crete, Illinois, US
Sat, Jul 04, 1987
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USA 13 Feb 2024
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