District 204 trial will proceed on time

Indian Prairie Unit District 204's condemnation trial to purchase land for Metea Valley High School will begin on time.

This morning, the school district's attorney withdrew paperwork he filed Thursday that could have caused a delay.

Time is a sensitive issue for the district, which is already months behind schedule in beginning construction for its third high school. It hopes to at least begin groundwork this fall.

"The last thing the district wants is to have this trial continued," attorney Rick Petesch said. "Based on that, we withdrew the stipulations."

District 204 is set to go to trial Sept. 17 against the Brach-Brodie trust over the land off Route 59 near Commons Drive and 75th Street in Aurora.

The district already owns 25 acres of the property but wants to purchase an additional 55 for the high school campus. The two sides have been unable to agree on the price of the land so it will now be in the hands of a jury.

Thursday morning, Petesch filed stipulations detailing how the district would mitigate any damages that might be caused to the remaining property at the site.

However, DuPage County Circuit Judge Robert Kilander warned that if he allowed the commitments, land experts would likely be given time to review their estimates on the value of the land, which could delay the trial.

This morning, Petesch withdrew the stipulations and said if the property owners bring up the issue of damage to the remainder of the property during the trial, the district will introduce the commitments into evidence.

Steve Helm, attorney for the Brodie trust, criticized the district for not filing the stipulations earlier and said he is glad to see them withdrawn.

"It's good as far as we're concerned because we wanted the trial to proceed on the 17th and didn't want to go through the time and expense of having everybody have to reevaluate their opinions in light of the stipulations," he said.

The sides still have about 15 motions to present to the judge Wednesday in addition to more than a dozen they argued Thursday. Kilander will rule on the motions once all of them have been heard.