Geneva library land purchase inches forward
The Geneva library board is moving ahead with purchasing a site for a new building, having approved a contract Thursday night.
The board OK’d signing a pact to buy the former Cetron factory and several other parcels near State and Richard streets. Closing is anticipated in July. The library will pay $2 million.
Last September the board voted to purchase the site, contingent upon receiving a satisfactory report on environmental conditions. Cetron made electronics components, including vacuum tubes. The library has been unable to conduct testing because there was no signed contract due to a problem with the ownership of the sites.
The properties were owned by Indigo LLC and had been foreclosed on by Amcore Bank. That bank was sold to Harris Bank last fall, and the properties were sold to Bayview Financial. Research for the sale to the library showed, however, that there was no foreclosure against Indigo for two of the parcels. Harris has filed for foreclosure on the two parcels. It is trying to get the property owner to sign over the deeds, in exchange for a release of liability, board president Esther Barclay said.
The contract approved Thursday lets the seller, Bayview Financial, out of the sale without penalty if it can’t get those properties, and still allows the library to opt out without penalty if it discovers expensive environmental problems.
Trustee-elect Patricia Lord, who has not been sworn in yet, asked if signing the contract precluded the library board from ever building a new library at another site, that of the old Sixth Street School. Kane County owns the school, and houses the Kane County Regional Office of Education there. The library had offered to buy the site.
Barclay said it does not “shut the door” on Sixth Street. An informal poll of the board members Thursday indicated all preferred the Cetron site over Sixth Street. Barclay said neighbors of the Sixth Street site have indicated they didn’t want to live next to a library, whereas people near the empty Cetron factory have said they would welcome it. Trustee Don Cummings said a new library on the Cetron site “would make a spectacular western entrance to the downtown.”
Trustee Steve Andersson voted against the contract, to be consistent with his vote last year against the purchase. Andersson is not convinced the library needs to purchase a new site at all.