Judge gives Mount Prospect business 3 weeks to respond to village's suit over odors

A Cook County judge is giving a Mount Prospect business until Sept. 6 to formally respond to the village's legal effort to shut down its operation until it can eliminate odors that have sparked complaints from its neighbors.

The village is seeking a preliminary injunction ordering Prestige Feed Products to cease its operations at 431 Lakeview Court until it can get the odors under control.

Prestige attorney Riccardo DiMonte told Cook County Circuit Judge Clare Quish on Wednesday that the company needs more time to gather evidence on whether the odor levels exceed state regulations and whether they constitute a nuisance under village code.

"Those are factual questions we are going to need to explore and present evidence on," he said.

Meanwhile, Prestige CEO Joe Pesoli told the court that odor-eliminating equipment will not arrive until at least late October.

"And then we need a couple of days to get it installed," he said.

Mount Prospect attorney Allen Wall told Quish that the village has provided enough information for the court to grant a preliminary injunction. Attempts by Prestige to mitigate the odors have not succeeded, he added.

"We certainly hope that this latest attempt will be successful. But we can't simply assume that that will be the case, given past history," Wall said.

After Prestige files its response, Quish will hold a hearing on Sept. 14 to determine whether to grant more time to gather evidence and to schedule a hearing on the preliminary injunction.