Carus LLC will hold a town hall meeting about the January 11th fire next Wednesday. It will be held at the LaSalle-Peru High School auditorium from 6 am to 7:30 pm. Residents Jamie Hicks and Patricia Walters call the meeting a PR stunt and say residents are concerned with how it will be run. Hicks also says he’s unhappy that the company is asking people to send in questions before the town hall. And says they cannot start telling the residents affected by the Carus fire what to do since they haven’t been around in the first place.
Hicks told the LaSalle City Council last night that the citizens should get four months to prepare just like Carus. Hicks and other residents still say they didn’t trust the city council after a warehouse that stored potassium permanganate was inspected after it was cleaned out two months ago. Hicks was also very vocal last night toward Alderman Jerry Reynolds, City Attorney Jim McPhedran, and Mayor Jeff Grove. He claimed that residents are being lied to and called on Mayor Grove to resign from office as he thinks that Mayor Grove is running the show by himself.
Hicks also claimed that Mayor Grove met with Carus before asking for a town hall meeting with the residents affected by the Carus fire. Grove says he has not and also claimed that Hicks was talking for himself and not for the residents who stood with him at last night’s meeting. Other residents spoke about how city council members should attend the town hall to show Carus they are on their side.