West Dundee, church resolving parsonage saga

It's taken five years to reach this pivotal point, but it appears the ongoing saga between West Dundee's desire to save a historic parsonage and First United Methodist Church's will to demolish it is winding down.

At a committee of the whole meeting Monday, Village Manager Joe Cavallaro proposed the church pool the money it already reserved to raze the 162-year-old parsonage with matching funds the village would pony up.

Together, both parties would use the money to fix up the abandoned parsonage as best they could and work with community stakeholders to develop a plan for its future use.

“Preservation is the No. 1 goal of this community,” Cavallaro said. “Two is whether or not it's reused or put in an expansion ... concept plan the church agrees with.”

Built as a house in 1849 by Alfred Edwards, the parsonage at 310 W. Main Street is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is noted for its architecture. Edwards sold the house in 1850 and bought it 20 years later for his daughter Ella and her husband, Dr. Cleveland. Cleveland, an Episcopal priest, was also publisher of the Dundee Record. The church bought the house in 1954 and used it as a parsonage until 2004.

Although the church owns the building, the board oversees historic properties, and some members say demolition would not be an option. The church of 260 members wants to tear the parsonage down to make more space for parking or a possible expansion. About 90 members attend Sunday service.

“This building is part of our heritage,” Trustee Norm Osth said. “I would like to make it absolutely clear ... that the only objective the village has is to maintain it as a viable part of our Main Street area.”

Talks have dragged on since 2006 and have been fruitless because the church wasn't open to anything that didn't include demolition, officials said. Securing a buyer to take the building off the church's hands also wasn't successful, said Cathleen Tymoszenko, West Dundee's community development director.

During that time, the parsonage has fallen into severe disrepair, complete with mold, roof and water damage and rodent issues, said Steve Grandholm, a member of the church's building committee. Fixing it up completely likely would cost more than the $270,000 the parsonage is worth, he added.

Osth accused the church of deliberately dragging its feet on the issue to create a building in such terrible shape that saving it wouldn't make sense, leaving demolition as the only option.

John Empen, chairman of the church's building committee, countered that the church saw no value in rehabilitating a building members already planned to demolish.

“That's a pretty ugly scenario, and I'd like to think the people at the church are better than that,” Empen said in response to Osth's criticism.

The next step is for Empen and Granholm to arrange an emergency meeting at the church between the village and the church's leadership to discuss the proposal and see whether they'd want any part of it.

But they say they'd rather wait until the board chairman, now dealing with health issues, is able to attend. Even so, they say they'll do their best to get an answer in 30 days.

“I think we've got to get there because if we don't, it'll go on forever,” Empen said.