A lot has happened since McHenry County Blog last looked at Jim Athens’ relocation efforts for Chemtool.
The growing Crystal Lake lubricants company concluded that McHenry County was not the place to expand.
It gained zoning permission in Garden Prairie, but not without lots of opposition. My guess is that the prospect of much sales tax led local residents to incorporate the town.
Then, Athans showed an interest in Winnebago County near the Wisconsin state line. I didn’t follow it closely, but a TIF district was requested (despite his having told me he wasn’t looking for such a subsidy early on in his relocation search).
Chemtool won the sought after Tax Increment Financing district in Rockton. Again there was citizen controversy.
Now, the Rockford Register-Star’s “contract staff writer” Thomas V. Bona reports pickets have been posted because not all of the construction work is being performed by union employees.
Athens points out that he has done business with the Chicago-area concrete firm for four decades and it was cheapest by $70,000. The project, located where the Beloit Corporation used to be, is tagged at $30 million.
“When I go out for quotes, I really don’t ask if they’re union or nonunion,” Athens is quoted.
Continuing:
“Athans threatened to stop the project and move his company’s new corporate headquarters to a vacant building near Hammond, Ind.
“’There’s so many buildings out there, I could move in there tomorrow,’ he said. ‘I had my heart and soul in this place. … (But) I don’t have a tolerance for this kind of nonsense.’”
Accompanying the article is a photograph of “Trent Feurt, a Harvard resident and member of Operating Engineers Local 150.”
And, that’s not the only controversy facing Athens.
The Rockford paper reports that he is being sued by Island Lake’s Williamson Real Estate for a $390,000 commission on the $6.5 million property.
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Above you can see the current Chemtool facility in Crystal Lake, an anti-Chemtool sign on Route 20 in Garden Prairie and a relaxed Jim Athans driving the Crystal Lake Gala’s 2007 4th of July Parade Marshal Bob Blazier.