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News
Church may locate in old Montgomery Hall : News : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisChurch may locate in old Montgomery Hall
| Board approves $453,300 purchase contact
| by John Etheredge
| 10/29/2009
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The old Montgomery Village Hall may become a church.
In a unanimous ballot Monday evening, the village board voted to approve a contract for the sale of the now vacant building at 1300 South Broadway Avenue to The First United Presbyterian Church.
Mera Johnson, assistant to the village manager, said the church had been located at 543 South Lake Street in Aurora but has since sold that building and more recently has been holding services in an area school.
Under terms of the contract, Johnson said the church will pay the $453,300 for the old village hall.
Steven Andersson, an attorney for the village, said church officials have put down $15,000 in earnest money towards the purchase.
The contract calls for the sale to be closed on or before Jan. 15, Johnson added.
In the meantime, Johnson said the church will seek village approval of a special use permit to operate a church in the building.
The permit request will be subject to public hearings before the village plan commission and then the board. The board will cast a final ballot on the permit request.
Johnson said the plan commission will consider the special use permit in December.
The building has been vacant since last October when the village moved into its new village hall at 200 North River Street. Earlier this year, the village listed the old village hall for sale with a local realtor.
The single story brick building has approximately 5,664 square feet of floor space and a basement with an additional 795 square feet of floor space.
Johnson said the village had received prior offers for the building from other potential buyers.
"One was very low and the other was a contract to buy or a lease-to-own type arrangement where we would have financed it and the buyer would have paid us back, but we weren't sure about that," Johnson said.
Anne Marie Gaura, village manager, confirmed that revenues from the sale of the building will be "a plus" for the village budget. Earlier this year, the board instituted a series of budget cuts to make up for a drop in revenues due to the continuing recession. The cuts included layoffs for six employees and reducing the hours for two others.
In addition, the village left several vacant jobs unfilled for the current fiscal year, including four with the police department, two in the public works department and one in the village manager's office.
Gaura said how the village will use the revenues from the building's sale will be a policy decision of the board.
She added that the board's finance committee will consider the issue when they hold their next meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 10 at 6:30 p.m.
The old village hall was constructed as a small factory by an engraving firm in the late 1950s. It was purchased by the village in 1971 and served as the center for municipal government for 37 years until the new village hall was completed last fall.
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