Legal wrangling over odor complaints in Mount Prospect drags on

The legal whirlpool involving Mount Prospect, Prestige Feed Products and the residents living near the animal feed plant continues to swirl.

Meanwhile, the company is still operating, neighbors are still complaining about its odors, and the village is still trying to find a way to shut down the plant, located at 431 Lakeview Court, until the yearslong issue is resolved.

Another in a long procession of court hearings was held Tuesday before Cook County Judge Clare Quish, with no substantial movement on the village’s legal effort to have the factory closed until it resolves the odor issues.

Left in limbo are the neighbors, in both Des Plaines and Mount Prospect, who say they have had to deal with a burned cheese smell for five years.

Neil Flink, who lives in the Fairview Gardens subdivision in Mount Prospect, south of the plant, said the neighborhood stinks when the wind blows out of the north.

“It’s a definite nuisance. There is no doubt about it,” he said.

Mary Ann Solida, who lives in the Longford Glen subdivision in Des Plaines, said she and her husband went for a walk Thursday and could smell the odor.

“It does make you nauseous,” she said. “You cannot (have) your windows open or stay outside very long. You just feel like you’re going to throw up.”

Solida said the noise from the plant also is a problem.

“The fans are crazy loud, too, even over the cicadas,” she said.

Solida said she believes the village is not doing enough to protect residents and neighbors.