LaSalle Mayor Jeff Grove says the city felt exploited by Mertel Gravel Company after the company tried to switch fifty acres of land because of a problem they allegedly caused. In 2012, the city and Mertel Gravel signed a contract that would have allowed the company to annex the land if Peru was able to get a business on the land before LaSalle did. In August last year the company was apparently caught pouring concrete in a ravine located south of LaSalle-Peru High School which caused $400,000 worth of damage.
Grove says after Peru found out about it, he said the city told the company they either needed to pay for the damages or annex the land. Grove says he set up a meeting with the Peru to talk with Mayor Ken Kolowski and Attorney Scott Schweickert to not use the damaged ravine as a reason to annex the land into Peru. Grove says Schweickert told him that the agreement initially contacted Mertel about the annexation agreement.
Grove also says that he didn’t know at the time that some of the land in the southwest part of the parcel was owned by Schweickert. Grove also says future Freedom of Information Act requests also showed that the city was going to hire other companies to fix the ravine but they apparently never talked the Mertle Gravel. Mertel recently announced to LaSalle that they will no longer switch the land because of the negative impact it would have on both cities. You can listen to Grove’s full speech here: