North Aurora to buy, tear down old gas station
North Aurora is buying the vacant, dilapidated Marathon gasoline-and-service station on South Lincolnway, planning to tear it down and resell the land for new commercial development.
The village will pay $200,000 for the property, according to a contract the village board approved Monday.
Besides tearing the building down, the village will remove the underground fuel-storage tanks.
The site is being bought from an estate, so the sale must still be approved by a probate court, according to Village Administrator Steven Bosco.
Demolition and tank removal is estimated to cost $42,000. And the village has the right to abandon the sale if unexpected problems are found during an environmental review.
The gasoline pumps were last inspected by the state agriculture department in 2008, according to stickers on the pumps. The owner died in April 2008, according to a trustee deed recorded in 2010.
The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency issued a "no further remediation required" letter in April for the site in connection with a leak in 1997 from a tank holding heating oil. A Kane County court ordered the owners in 2005 to remediate the damage and pay a fine; it is not clear when the work was done.
Aurora Township records indicate the station was built in 1967.