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News
New use for old Oswego hall: It's a greenhouse : News : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisNew use for old Oswego hall: It's a greenhouse
| Park district using the building to grow plants for natural areas
| by John Etheredge
| 2/25/2010
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Village of Oswego officials have found a new temporary use for the old village hall on Main Street.
A portion of the small red brick building at 113 South Main Street is now serving as a greenhouse for the Oswegoland Park District.
In what were once the offices of the village's building and zoning department, finance director and village clerk, tiny seedlings now sprout daily from soil under bright, warm grow lights.
The building that had once been a crowded beehive of activity was eerily quiet last Monday afternoon as Dave Margolis, the park district's natural resource manager, and Laurie Nevills, a park district staffer, tended to the plants.
Margolis noted that occasionally people walk in the building's front door unaware that village government moved out to more modern and spacious quarters across the Fox River nearly two years ago.
"Someone came in this morning looking for the (building) permit section," Margolis said.
The building had stood vacant until about a month ago when Margolis along with Clint Meyer, the agency's outdoor education coordinator, and Matt Streitmatter began setting up the greenhouse.
Prior to this winter, the park district had been using a greenhouse at Oswego High School in conjunction with a program at the school.
"We were at the school for four years," Margolis said. "But they changed their curriculum this year and are now doing some different things and it wasn't conducive for us."
That prompted Margolis to begin looking for other locations to grow plants during the winter months.
Gary Adams, village administrator, said park district officials initially contacted him about using vacant, unfinished office space at the new village hall for the greenhouse.
Margolis, however, said the village doesn't keep the unfinished portion of the new village hall warm enough to accommodate a greenhouse operation.
As an alternative, Adams and Margolis said Sue Miller, the village's long-time office manager, suggested the old village hall. The building had sat vacant since May 2008 when the village moved into the new village hall.
"It's really perfect for what the park district wants to do," Adams said of the old village hall. "It's heated, there is water in there and it's all on the ground floor."
Adams said the village is not charging the park district for the use of the building or the electrical service.
"It's intergovernmental cooperation," he continued. "This helps them and it saves the park district a lot of money."
He added that the village and the park district have a history of such cooperation.
"We do things for each other that people may not realize or even think about. For example, they help us with snow removal on the sidewalks at our police station (on U.S. Route 34) because we're right across the highway from Fox Bend Golf Course. We just try to help each other out when we can and they had this request (for greenhouse) space and it worked out."
Adams said the park district's continued use of the building will depend in part upon when it is eventually sold.
Adams recalled that the village took the first step toward selling the building two years ago by having it appraised. However, he said, before it can be put up for sale another appraisal will need to be done due to the downturn in the real estate market.
"I would think that right now the building is worth less than it was when we had it appraised earlier," he said.
Adams added that the village has not been actively seeking a buyer for the building, but he expects the board will revisit the issue this spring.
In the meantime, Margolis and his staff will continue to cultivate a variety of native northern Illinois prairie woodland and wetland plants from seeds collected mostly by local high school and college students and other volunteers this past fall in park district owned natural areas.
Margolis added that some trees, shrubs and vegetables will also be grown in the greenhouse.
So far, Margolis said he is pleased with what he is seeing sprouting up from the greenhouse growing beds.
"We're just starting here, but I think eventually we could be up to about 10,000 plants, but it is hard to say," he noted.
Later this year, the new plants will be planted in park district natural areas like Cook's Savanna near Old Post Elementary School, along the Waubonsie and Morgan Creek valleys, and in the Lakeview/Morgan Creek Subdivision area.
The planting will be part of a continuing effort by the park district to restore the hundreds of acres of natural areas under its jurisdiction.
By collecting their own seeds and utilizing local students and volunteers, Margolis said the program is saving the park district thousands of dollars each year on its natural area restoration efforts.
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