Practice fields, parking planned for Dundee-Crown

The old deLacey education center next to Dundee-Crown High School in Carpentersville that Community Unit District 300 school board members call an eyesore will be torn down to make way for new practice fields and a parking lot.

Board members on Monday approved bids totaling almost $460,000 for the demolition of the center.

The project - including demolition, asbestos abatement and construction - is expected to cost almost $800,000, school board President Joe Stevens said.

In addition to practice fields and a parking lot, the plan calls for installation of lighting and sidewalks on the site.

"The building has not been inhabitable for quite some time and it has been an issue for the district in that we have had several gang fights around or near the building," Stevens said. "The building has been a neighborhood eyesore for several years."

The district held preschool and high school programs at the center.