Facility continues to work toward being fully operational
By Michael S. Hoey
Correspondent
Strategic Materials is making significant progress toward addressing two issues that led to an abatement order from the City of Delavan Fire Department that closed the facility, according to Daniel Vankorn, MidWest Sourcing Manager for the company. Vankorn addressed the General Operations Committee on June 2.
The facility located at 1849 Hobbs Dr. suffered two fires in the last few months, the most recent on March 31. That second fire led to Fire Department officials issuing the abatement order against the business until it upgraded its fire protection protocols. Administrator Denise Pieroni said the company has been allowed to resume partial operations within certain limits as further improvements have been made.
The facility has also faced several complaints from neighboring businesses regarding the odor coming from the property and broken glass being left in the street. Vankorn told the GOC the company is making great progress with that issue.
“We are committed to being a good partner with the City of Delavan,” he said.
Vankorn said the company purchased $1.5 million worth of new equipment from RoboVent in mid-May to address the odor issue and the equipment is guaranteed by RoboVent to solve the problem. Vankorn said Strategic Materials wants the Delavan facility to become a model for other facilities nation-wide.
He said the facility is on target to start showing improvement with the odor by Aug. 7, the date the city had set for needing to see improvement. He said he looks forward to the abatement being fully lifted soon.
While progress needs to be made by Aug. 7, Pieroni said the facility has until October to completely eliminate the odor, so Strategic Materials has some time to test out the new equipment and see if it will solve the problem.
Alderman Matt Bieser said the company has invested a lot in solving the problem and he has seen nothing but good faith from Strategic Materials.
See more coverage from the council meeting in the June 11 Delavan Enterprise.
