Round Lake narrowly approves new Catholic Charities community center

The Round Lake village board narrowly approved a plan by Catholic Charities to build a new community center for the elderly on the grounds of St. Joseph's Parish.

The new center will be on North Cedar Lake Road, just south of its intersection with West Nippersink Road, on the backside of the parish campus.

After more than an hour of discussion by the public and the board, the vote came down in favor of the plan - but not before it almost fell apart.

The plan was brought to the board in two motions, the first to subdivide the property owned by St. Joseph's and the second to construct the new community center.

The first motion passed 4-2 with trustees Donald Newby and Charlie Foy voting against the plan.

But when Trustee Russell Kraly called the second motion to a vote, none of the other three trustees would second the motion, even though they voted in favor of the first motion.

Mayor Daniel MacGillis encouraged his fellow elected officials to act.

"Come on, board, this is our job. We have to move," MacGillis said as a full room of residents looked on.

Finally, Trustee Henry Frye Jr. seconded the motion, it came to a vote, and the six trustees voted exactly as they had earlier.

During public comment, several nearby residents expressed their concern that the building was too close to their homes and would make local flooding worse.

John Ryan, the chief of staff of Catholic Charities, said they agreed to take action to address flooding. A condition requiring Catholic Charities to do just that was added to the plan.

Ryan said after the meeting he was thrilled with the board's decision. He said they would take the concerns of nearby residents seriously.

The start of the meeting was delayed briefly so village staff could add more chairs to the village board room to accommodate the large crowd who came to speak about the project.