Bridgeview concrete company linked to Blagojevich probe
By James Pluta

A major Chicago weekly business publication has revealed a Desplaines
Valley area connection to the ongoing alleged corruption charges swirling
around Gov. Rod Blagojevich — and it involves the large corporation once
owned by the late politically powerhouse mayor, Bridgeview’s John Oremus.

Turns out the parent company of major cement supplier Votorantim Cement
North America — formerly Prairie Materials — is cooperating with federal
authorities investigating the pay-to-play allegations under Blagojevich,
as unveiled by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald last week, as published in
this week’s edition of Crain’s Chicago Business.

Nearly one year ago, VCNA purchased the cement portion of Bridgeview’s
Prairie, a 60-year-old ready-mix and building materials company founded by
Oremus in 1948, seven years before the Summit-born and -raised concrete
magnate was first elected mayor.

Prairie was one of the largest independent concrete and aggregate
companies in the Midwest — operating mainly in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan
and Wisconsin, with 81 concrete centers and 17 mines of aggregates —
employing some 1,800 workers with 1,150 cement mixer trucks.

In a statement issued this week by Steve Gallagher, vice-president of
human resources for the Toronto-based VCNA, said the company is
“cooperating fully with the investigation and will continue to do so.”

However, Gallagher also stated nobody at the firm has been accused of
anything “improper” or illegal.

A criminal complaint made public last week that accused Blagojevich of
allegedly trying to sell the vacated U.S. Senate seat of fellow Democratic
President-elect Barack Obama “to the highest bidder,” also suggested he
tried to use a $1.8-billion Illinois Toll Highway Authority project to
lure $500,000 in campaign contributions from “Highway Contractor 1.”

That person is described as “an officer of a company that is a large
supplier of concrete in the state” who also “is active in one of the
largest trade associations,” the American Concrete Pavement Association,
the complaint indicates.

Gallagher would not say whether VCNA Prairie is the company referenced in
the document, or whether Gerry Krozel, a Prairie executive who is chairman
of the Illinois chapter of the ACPA is the referenced highway contractor.

The $1.8-billion project may be the congestion-relief program, according
to the complaint, which the Tollway board approved in November and touted
by Blagojevich — whose name is plastered across the I-Pass lanes of every
toll plaza in northern Illinois.

No contracts have been awarded yet on the project, which calls for $1.4
billion in interchange upgrades and $400 million for carpool lanes.

The Tollway typically does not contract directly with Prairie, which is
hired by other road contractors, a tollway spokeswoman said, noting
Prairie has supplied materials used on many Tollway projects over the past
20 years.

Under Oremus’ tutelage, Prairie was perhaps best known for providing
concrete for recent improvements for the Tri-State and Route 83, the
North-South Tollway and, decades earlier, construction of the Stevenson,
Eisenhower, Kennedy and Dan Ryan expressways.

More recently, Prairie provided concrete for the $200 million
reconstruction of downtown Chicago’s Wacker Drive reconstruction project
in 2001-02 and on Sept. 30, teamed up with McHugh Construction to place a
record-setting 10-foot thick reinforced mat slab used as the core
foundation for the 92-story Trump International Hotel & Tower.

Four years ago this month, Prairie also partnered with another firm to
pour a 4-1/2-foot reinforced mat slab for Corn Products International’s
Bedford Park manufacturing plant — the floor for a new high-sulfur,
coal-burning power plant supporting a 6 million pound boiler.

The Trump work was the single largest pour of its type ever on this
continent and the Wacker Drive project was the first major use of
high-performance concrete mix in Illinois.

Prairie, which maintained its identity and retained its management team in
the January 2008 merger, did not sell off its Palos Heights-based Illinois
Brick Co. subsidiary — which remains under the control of the Oremus
family.