Ovaltine chimney to come down

A towering piece of Villa Park's history appears headed for a date with a wrecking ball.

Village leaders this week gave property owners permission to demolish the last remaining smokestack from the former Ovaltine factory site.

Lincoln Properties, which transformed the long-shuttered factory into apartments in 2001, cites safety concerns as the reason it wants to raze the 217-foot-tall chimney near Villa and Kenilworth avenues.

Village officials were considering salvaging the deteriorating smokestack, which is one of the village's more noticeable historical landmarks. It would have cost $225,000 to $500,000 to restore the structure to a level that would last 10 to 15 years, officials said.

"I appreciate Villa Park history," said Joyce Stupegia, the village president. "If we take care of it now, we have to take care of it in the future. This village cannot afford the ongoing expense.

"It is better to have the Ovaltine smokestack going down in dust than the village budget becoming dust."

Trustee Dave Hegland said, "It breaks my heart a little bit to tear it down, but it is a burdensome expense."

Lincoln Properties has indicated it would pay to demolish the chimney.

Early indications are that demolition could be an involved process. Extensive scaffolds would need to be erected and the chimney would be taken down in pieces, Stupegia said.

Company officials are considering erecting a memorial and making bricks available to residents who want a memento, officials said.

"Two weeks ago, I voted to give time to find a compromise," Trustee Tom Cullerton said. "A compromise was found in making a memorial."

Residents expressed mixed views about the smokestack's pending demolition.

"I'm sorry it's too structurally gone to be saved," resident Joseph Varno said. "It looks to be 60 feet to the nearest dwelling. If it collapsed, that would cause a lot of destruction."

Others still sought to preserve it.

"I'm asking that the decision to demolish the smokestack not be taken lightly," Reed Goodrich said. "The smokestack is the one thing the town has that's unique and is a piece of history. It's something that could be worthwhile keeping."

Resident Ann Marie Testa added: "This isn't just a piece of Villa Park history. It's history on a national scale."

The factory closed in the mid-1980s after manufacturing the popular powdered chocolate drink for about 70 years.

According to local lore, Ovaltine not only tended to its employees but also provided milk to other needy residents during the Great Depression.

Lincoln Properties couldn't be reached Tuesday for comment.