Big check gets special delivery to Prospect Hts.

Prospect Heights on Monday honored the $100,000 state grant for its city hall from State Rep. Sid Mathias of Arlington Heights, who made a guest appearance at the meeting.

Mathias handed an oversized check to acting Mayor Pat Ludvigsen at the board meeting to signify the grant that helped reimburse the city for making the building handicapped accessible.

The grant came from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunties, which the city received in June.

The new city hall, which recently opened, had to be built under handicapped-accessible building code standards.

That had not been required in the former city hall that burned down about two years ago, city officials said.

That meant the new building's three stairways had to be wider, requiring the building to be three feet wider on two of its sides, said Pam Arrigoni, city manager.

Mathias told the group that it was a pleasure to be at the meeting to hand out the check to city officials in the new hall.

"Out of tragedy can come some good," Mathias said.

"For me, it's a pleasure to help in some way to help pay for this beautiful building."

The $2.5 million building is on the same footprint of the old one, which was a retrofitted real estate office the city moved into about a decade ago.

While the building is almost identical, there are some significant changes, including a sprinkler system, which the old building didn't have.

That omission cost the village its hall when an arsonist burned it down two years ago.

The person who splattered the city hall with accelerant, lighting it aflame, still has not been caught.

City officials had been working out of the basement of the police station while the new city hall was under construction.

The new city hall opened last month.