PEABODY — A committee of city councilors and neighbors of Aggregate Industries' quarry could have its recommendation on the best way to close the operation ready for the City Council by May, Chairman Barry Sinewitz said.

The Aggregate Closure Committee has to decide whether the quarry gets filled in with water, solid material or a combination of the two. At its meeting last night in City Hall, the committee decided to collect feedback from neighbors prior to a meeting next month with city department heads.

"I'm not going to let this thing be idle," said Sinewitz, the councilor for Ward 6. "We have to move forward. We have to have a plan in place."

Aggregate has to submit a closure plan to the city, according to the terms of its city-issued special permit. The company has two years to finalize a plan.

But the requirement to file a plan doesn't mean Aggregate's days in Peabody are numbered. The company can stay in the city as long as it wants. The plan would just specify how the quarry would eventually be closed.

The prospect, likely 20 to 30 years in the future, has generated questions that have proven difficult to answer. Neighbors wondered last night if Aggregate would continue to operate its asphalt plant once the quarry is filled in and, if so, where it would be located.

Scott Colby, senior real estate specialist for Aggregate, didn't specify a location but said that the plant would likely continue to operate.

"They have the right to operate the asphalt plant there," Colby said about Aggregate. "It's a very valuable commodity for the company, and it would not be something that they would want to relinquish."

Sinewitz asserted the need for the city to hire, at Aggregate's expense, a specialist that would help highlight the various environmental issues that would accompany the planned closure.

Settling on a way to close the quarry has been further complicated by Aggregate's desire to expand it and, by doing so, extend its life span. The company has proposed nearly doubling the length of its quarry by adding 1,120 feet.

Colby said the company has every intention of filing a request with the City Council to amend its special permit to allow for expansion.

"It's in the works," he said.

Sinewitz didn't want to address how the proposed expansion would affect the closure plan. He called it a "separate" issue that he didn't want to interrupt the closure committee's work.