I have a ton of notes to post regarding the P-B Dialogues meeting last night at Patriot's Pub, the former American Legion club in St. Charles. About 60 people joined us, and it was invaluable for me and other P-B'ers to hear first-hand how divisive the fight over the Proppant frac sand proposal was, and how deeply it still cuts.
One quote from Mayor Bill Spitzer jumped out at me. There was some back-and-forth about how and why the project didn't move ahead, and Spitzer said, "I'm asked this question every day, is it dead, and absolutely it's not dead. The county still has the ability to issue a conditional use permit and (St. Charles Township) can still come forward with a plan." But as far as the city is concerned, there's nothing more to be done, he said. There's no site available in the city limits and the township rejected an orderly annexation.
All the reporting I've seen has said the investors have dropped the idea and moved on to other projects, and Spitzer apparently wasn't referring to a Lazarus-like resurrection of Proppant. He was just making the point that anything's possible and that the city's role from the beginning depended on the township. "We had never even started negotiations" with the company, he said.
