Geneva Library board OKS Sixth Street School site buy
The Geneva Library board Thursday agreed to buy the former Sixth Street School site from Kane County, and could utilize the site to build a new library.
The vote was unanimous, according to a news release from the library. The building is home to the Kane County Regional Office of Education.
The library agreed to pay $1.5 million, plus up to $300,000 to demolish the building. The sale is expected to close by October.
The library board is interviewing firms to hire to study its space needs. A new library could be designed after that, according to board President Robert Shiffler.
It is using reserves to pay for the purchase. Library officials have said repeatedly that money would have to be borrowed to build a new library, and that voters would have to approve doing so.
The library used to own the Sixth Street School site, but sold it to Kane County for $252,000 in 1982, according to the quitclaim deed.
Should the library move into a new building, the city of Geneva has a right of first refusal to purchase the current library building, which is next door to City Hall on James Street.
In 2010, the library board voted to purchase the former Cetron factory on Richards Street. It backed out of the purchase in 2013. Then-board president Esther Steel refused to specify why the board did so, on the advise of the board's attorneys. But the move came after the library had gone through a due-diligence examination of the former factory, including tests o determine what, if any, hazardous substances remained.