Sugar Grove pays off Municipal Center

Sugar Grove taxpayers can have a mortgage-burning party: They have paid for the Municipal Center.

Officials announced Monday that the village has finished paying off a 20-year loan on the facility at 25 S. Municipal Drive.

The village issued $925,000 in general-obligation bonds in 1991 to build the hall, which opened in 1992.

Before the village hall was built, village offices and the police station were housed in the former Sugar Grove Elementary School building on Main Street. The population was 2,005. Before that they were in the Sugar Grove Community House.

Village officials expect the 2010 Census to show about 9,000 people living in town.

Village President P. Sean Michels said, in a prepared statement, that the village paid about $96,000 annually to repay the bonds. he estimated the “average homeowner” will save about $27 a year, now that the village is no longer taxing for the payment.

“On behalf of past, current, and future boards I would like to thank everyone who supported the construction of the Municipal Center and for having faith that the bonds would indeed be retired,” Michels said.

The Municipal Center contains the village's administrative offices and its police station. In the early 2000s the village was making plans to build a separate village hall, anticipating extraordinary growth in its population. That was put on hold in 2007 after the housing market started collapsing in 2006, bringing construction of new houses in Sugar Grove to a virtual standstill. In 2008 there was talk of expanding the police station side of the building, or letting police take over the whole building and leasing space elsewhere for village administrators, but that was tabled.

Information about how much interest was paid on the bonds was not available.