The former Fox Lake cement factory, once owned alternately by VCNA Prairie Materials and former Bridgeview mayor John A. Oremus, was demolished beginning last March, in anticipation of the Northwest Water Reclamation Facility’s expansion to the 25-acre site. (Photo by Gregory Harutunian/for Chronicle Media)

An identifiable landmark to Fox Lake and Ingleside residents for decades is now gone, having fallen to bulldozers and wrecking equipment, with a manicured landscape in its stead.

The former cement-mixing factory at 128 Honing Road, visible from Rollins Road, had a separate history but was also connected to former village police officer Lt. Charles Gliniewicz.

“It came about in a staff meeting, which included the police department, and we noted that vandalism was occurring at the old plant there,” said Ryan Kelly, the Northwest Regional Water Reclamation Facility’s director. “Lt. Gliniewicz followed up, and we asked him to keep an eye on it.”

The approximately 25-acre parcel encompassing the plant and grounds at 128 Honing Road is also adjacent to the swamp and wooded area where Gliniewicz took his own life Sept. 1, setting off a massive manhunt that appeared to be a homicide and later deemed a suicide, by county law enforcement officials, two months later.

Investigator reports from the day of the shooting, obtained by the Chronicle, show the access road over the Chain O’ Lakes bike path and Metra tracks was used by several responding Fox Lake officers to reach the shooting site. Lt. Mark Schindler had also indicated traversing the wooded area to go “bowhunting.”

“The Village owns the property, and the demolition was for the purpose of expansion at the treatment facility,” said Donovan Day, the village’s director of community development. “The plant wasn’t operational.”

The property was owned by Chicago-based VCNA Prairie Materials, and sold to the village in 2014. During its operation period in Fox Lake, the enterprise was owned by Bridgeview-based Prairie Material Sales, headed by the mayor of Bridgeview, John A. Oremus. When the information and tax leniency rumors came to light during the term of former Fox Lake mayor Kenneth Hamsher, the business was briefly revived.

Oremus and the Prairie Group sold its interests to Votorantim Cements North America in 2008.

“I attended the final walk-through on July 1, 2014,” said Kelly. “We dealt with the village’s attorney at the time of the transaction, as there was a real estate conflict, which was resolved. When we took ownership, I wanted to tear down the structures, so there would be low maintenance there.

“VCNA kept the cement machinery, and it’s staged on a 5-acre parcel nearby,” he said. “There’s about 20 acres for plant expansion in the future. We already have the Round Lake Beach access blow pump completed to divert water flow, during high rain accumulation events.”

The Ringwood-based firm of Lima construction, Inc. was awarded the bid for demolition, and began the job order March 14, with a substantial completion date June 12, and final disposition July 12. Kelly also said there were 11 other bids, ranging from $528,251 to $249,259. The low bid was entered by Lima Construction, and the remediation work listed the removal of the concrete pad, concrete walls, existing chain-link fence, along with miscellaneous rubble and debris.

The final work would be the hauling, placement, and compression of berm materials, the re-grading of an existing ditch, furnishing and replacing four inches of topsoil, Illinois Department of Transportation Class 1 seeding, and the implementation of an erosion control blanket.

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Village Administrator Anne Marrin was honored April 22 with the Illinois Association of Municipal Management Assistants’ Outstanding Manager Award, at the group’s yearly conference. Marrin was cited for her work with the village’s asset inventory that led to Gliniewicz’s eventual exposition in financial malfeasance with non-profit funds, and calm temperament throughout the investigation.

“It’s a great honor, and was totally unexpected,” said Marrin. “The group has about 100 members, and they all voted to do this … that’s really something. I’m very thrilled about it, and it’s also an achievement for the village.”

Marrin also filed a motion to appear before the Fox Lake Police Pension Board, at a May 25 hearing, allowing village officials to formally present their information in the request by Melodie Gliniewicz to obtain her late husband’s pension. The board faces the dilemma in deciding what percentage of the police officer’s annual salary, which has eligibility thresholds for 50-75 percent, and amounts to approximately $45,000 each year, at a minimum, while she is being tried.

The widow was charged with felony counts stemming from money laundering and the misuse of charitable funds for personal or business use from the Fox Lake Explorer Post 300 bank accounts that was a fiduciary responsibility by her, and her husband.

Her defense attorneys filed a motion May 17 to dismiss all charges, and circuit court judge Victoria Rosetti will rule on the request next month.