Fox Lake mayor sells house for library expansion

Fox Lake Mayor Cindy Irwin will sell her home on Grand Avenue to the Fox Lake Library District as part of plans to expand the facility adjacent to her property, officials confirmed Tuesday.

Under a pending sales contract, Irwin said she will be paid $270,000 for her home at 247 E. Grand Ave. That amount is about $35,000 more than the assessed value, but less than she initially sought, she said.

Despite the sale, Irwin said she is not leaving Fox Lake.

"I have to stay here," she said. "I'm the mayor."

The purchase comes ahead of the scheduled January start of construction on the $15 million expansion. The current building at 255 E. Grand Ave. would be expanded into a two-story, 41,000-square-foot facility and would include a cyber cafe, children's area and other amenities.

Library Director Harry Bork said the library had been hoping to buy the mayor's property for two years as part of an expansion. After voters approved a February referendum for the project, Irwin offered to sell her property.

Irwin has lived in the Grand Avenue house for more than 25 years, she said, most of the time under a rent-to-own contract. That contract was paid off four years ago, she said. Irwin said the five-bedroom home has become too large for her, despite running her balloon and tanning salon out of the location for the past 10 years.

She decided to sell, she said, to avoid any possibility of an eminent domain court fight with the library district in the future.

"I didn't want to fight in the courts and potentially lose my property for less than I thought it was worth," she said. "The district said they would never do that, but you never know. It could happen at some point in the future."

Bork said the district never considered acquiring the home through eminent domain.

"Not only is it expensive, but it is a bad public relations move," he said. "It wasn't even a consideration."

Bork said the district plans to demolish the house and use the site as the contractor staging area until the library expansion is completed, then turn that land into an additional parking area.

The library board will discuss the purchase during a special meeting Dec. 9 at 7:30 p.m. in the library conference room.