Post by macy on Apr 16, 2008 6:42:13 GMT -6
District 204 releases new plans on Metea
By Justin Kmitch | Daily Herald Staff
Published: 4/16/2008 12:04 AM
Indian Prairie Unit District 204 officials wasted no time Tuesday moving ahead with plans to build Metea Valley High School on 84.1 acres along Eola Road near Aurora.
The day after voting to purchase the property from St. John AME Church, leaders released updated construction timelines, new site plans and results of an environmental study that they said gives the site a clean bill of health.
The district will pay about $18.9 million for the parcel.
A plan to buy just part of the church site and combine it with property owned by Midwest Generation fell through late last week when the power company backed out of the sale.
School board President Mark Metzger said Tuesday that Testing Service Corp., the same firm that tested the Midwest Generation site earlier in the year, already had performed an environmental site assessment of the church's entire 84.1 acres.
He said St. John ordered a study in February of the 35 acres the church was going to retain. The district had ordered a separate report of the 49 acres it intended to purchase from the church.
"Not unlike the study we did on the 49 acres, the church's study also concluded that the land was used as a farm for the last century," Metzger said. "Both our original study and the church's study indicate the property is free of environmental issues and we're comfortable with that."
Environmental tests
Tests done on the portion of the property owned by Midwest Generation, which housed a peaker power plant, found levels of diesel fuel and other contaminants linked to several spills in recent years.
But according to the testing company's report, "based on available information, regulatory status, local … geology and intervening distances, none of the off-site facilities is considered a threat to have impacted the site."
That doesn't ease the concerns of a group called Neighborhood Schools for Our Children, which says, in part, that environmental concerns make the Eola Road site unacceptable for the proposed 3,000-student high school that's scheduled to open in August 2009.
The group's attorney, Shawn Collins, filed a lawsuit against the district last month in DuPage County to force it to abandon the Eola Road property and instead negotiate to purchase the so-called Brach-Brodie property at 75th Street and Commons Drive in Aurora.
The district originally planned to build Metea there but backed away when a jury in a condemnation case set the price for 55 acres at $31 million -- $17 million more than the district thought it was worth.
Collins said Tuesday he disputes the latest environmental reports and said he intends to update the lawsuit later this week to include Monday's actions by the district.
"This is a very reckless group of people and it's obvious when you see they considered the Brach-Brodie property for five years and then the Eola site for five months," Collins said. "And in the end they decided to spend $19 million in tax-payer dollars on the strength of a weekend's worth of consideration. That's ridiculous.
"Our lawsuit got stronger last night."
Strict timeline
In a written statement Tuesday, Superintendent Stephen Daeschner said St. John's decision to sell its land means construction can move forward "in a fiscally responsible manner with the school still scheduled to open in August 2009."
St. John, which had planned to build a 6,500-square-foot church on its remaining land, agreed to sell the entire parcel.
The Rev. Jesse Hawkins, senior pastor, said in a statement Tuesday the congregation sold the land as a "supreme act of sacrifice" to help the district's children and future.
The district, which includes portions of Naperville, Aurora, Bolingbrook and Plainfield, has said Metea is needed to alleviate crowding at Neuqua Valley and Waubonsie Valley high schools.
"St. John AME Church is committed to equality, committed to equity, committed to fairness for all of the residents of District 204 and to that end, because of our understanding of justice and righteousness, we made the very difficult decision to sell all of our property to District 204," he wrote.
"We're now getting 84 acres for less than what we expected Brach-Brodie to cost in 2005," Metzger said. "Actually we're getting the least expensive of all available parcels we looked at in January, so I think we did pretty well."
Collins disagrees and said the board acted foolishly by agreeing to purchase the land without having it appraised.
"These people seem hell-bent on plowing forward with all of the legal and environmental issues unresolved," Collins said. "They're acting like a bunch of college kids pulling an all-nighter. They don't even appreciate the seriousness of what they're doing."
Metzger said he hopes the release of site plans and a timetable helps restore residents' faith that the district understands exactly how serious the situation is.
"We're going to alleviate our overcrowding in our middle schools and our high schools," he said. "And that's a good thing."
Full text of Rev. Jesse Hawkins' statement
"St. John AME Church is committed to equality, committed to equity, committed to fairness for all of the residents of District 204 and to that end, because of our understanding of justice and righteousness, we made the very difficult decision to sell all of our property to District 204.
"This decision was made as we stood on the cusp of groundbreaking, after months of careful study and research, months of worshipping in temporary locations and incurring the mammoth financial obligations that come with preparing to build a sanctuary, campus, etc.
"This decision was made with the painful understanding that with this sale, we have no place to build. The cost of property is almost prohibitive, especially when you consider what we sold to the district. But we are a people of faith.
"This was a supreme act of sacrifice on the part of St. John and its members to hopefully show a community that the education of our children and the diversity of their relationships are very critical to the forward movement of our society -- the preparation of our children to take our places and become successful and progressive citizens."
Metea timeline
Here's the Metea Valley High School construction timeline as outlined by Indian Prairie Unit District 204 officials on Tuesday:
April 14-23: Mass grading redesign work
May 7: Plan commission amended annexation approval
June 13: Foundation work begins
Aug. 14: Structural steel work begins
Sept. 19: Pre-cast work begins
January-August 2009: Furniture, fixtures and equipment procurement and installation Phase I
April 15, 2009: Site work Phase II begins
Aug. 19, 2009: Phase I construction work completed
June 2009-February 2010: Phase II construction work completed
September 2009-May 2010: Furniture, fixtures and equipment procurement and installation Phase II
By Justin Kmitch | Daily Herald Staff
Published: 4/16/2008 12:04 AM
Indian Prairie Unit District 204 officials wasted no time Tuesday moving ahead with plans to build Metea Valley High School on 84.1 acres along Eola Road near Aurora.
The day after voting to purchase the property from St. John AME Church, leaders released updated construction timelines, new site plans and results of an environmental study that they said gives the site a clean bill of health.
The district will pay about $18.9 million for the parcel.
A plan to buy just part of the church site and combine it with property owned by Midwest Generation fell through late last week when the power company backed out of the sale.
School board President Mark Metzger said Tuesday that Testing Service Corp., the same firm that tested the Midwest Generation site earlier in the year, already had performed an environmental site assessment of the church's entire 84.1 acres.
He said St. John ordered a study in February of the 35 acres the church was going to retain. The district had ordered a separate report of the 49 acres it intended to purchase from the church.
"Not unlike the study we did on the 49 acres, the church's study also concluded that the land was used as a farm for the last century," Metzger said. "Both our original study and the church's study indicate the property is free of environmental issues and we're comfortable with that."
Environmental tests
Tests done on the portion of the property owned by Midwest Generation, which housed a peaker power plant, found levels of diesel fuel and other contaminants linked to several spills in recent years.
But according to the testing company's report, "based on available information, regulatory status, local … geology and intervening distances, none of the off-site facilities is considered a threat to have impacted the site."
That doesn't ease the concerns of a group called Neighborhood Schools for Our Children, which says, in part, that environmental concerns make the Eola Road site unacceptable for the proposed 3,000-student high school that's scheduled to open in August 2009.
The group's attorney, Shawn Collins, filed a lawsuit against the district last month in DuPage County to force it to abandon the Eola Road property and instead negotiate to purchase the so-called Brach-Brodie property at 75th Street and Commons Drive in Aurora.
The district originally planned to build Metea there but backed away when a jury in a condemnation case set the price for 55 acres at $31 million -- $17 million more than the district thought it was worth.
Collins said Tuesday he disputes the latest environmental reports and said he intends to update the lawsuit later this week to include Monday's actions by the district.
"This is a very reckless group of people and it's obvious when you see they considered the Brach-Brodie property for five years and then the Eola site for five months," Collins said. "And in the end they decided to spend $19 million in tax-payer dollars on the strength of a weekend's worth of consideration. That's ridiculous.
"Our lawsuit got stronger last night."
Strict timeline
In a written statement Tuesday, Superintendent Stephen Daeschner said St. John's decision to sell its land means construction can move forward "in a fiscally responsible manner with the school still scheduled to open in August 2009."
St. John, which had planned to build a 6,500-square-foot church on its remaining land, agreed to sell the entire parcel.
The Rev. Jesse Hawkins, senior pastor, said in a statement Tuesday the congregation sold the land as a "supreme act of sacrifice" to help the district's children and future.
The district, which includes portions of Naperville, Aurora, Bolingbrook and Plainfield, has said Metea is needed to alleviate crowding at Neuqua Valley and Waubonsie Valley high schools.
"St. John AME Church is committed to equality, committed to equity, committed to fairness for all of the residents of District 204 and to that end, because of our understanding of justice and righteousness, we made the very difficult decision to sell all of our property to District 204," he wrote.
"We're now getting 84 acres for less than what we expected Brach-Brodie to cost in 2005," Metzger said. "Actually we're getting the least expensive of all available parcels we looked at in January, so I think we did pretty well."
Collins disagrees and said the board acted foolishly by agreeing to purchase the land without having it appraised.
"These people seem hell-bent on plowing forward with all of the legal and environmental issues unresolved," Collins said. "They're acting like a bunch of college kids pulling an all-nighter. They don't even appreciate the seriousness of what they're doing."
Metzger said he hopes the release of site plans and a timetable helps restore residents' faith that the district understands exactly how serious the situation is.
"We're going to alleviate our overcrowding in our middle schools and our high schools," he said. "And that's a good thing."
Full text of Rev. Jesse Hawkins' statement
"St. John AME Church is committed to equality, committed to equity, committed to fairness for all of the residents of District 204 and to that end, because of our understanding of justice and righteousness, we made the very difficult decision to sell all of our property to District 204.
"This decision was made as we stood on the cusp of groundbreaking, after months of careful study and research, months of worshipping in temporary locations and incurring the mammoth financial obligations that come with preparing to build a sanctuary, campus, etc.
"This decision was made with the painful understanding that with this sale, we have no place to build. The cost of property is almost prohibitive, especially when you consider what we sold to the district. But we are a people of faith.
"This was a supreme act of sacrifice on the part of St. John and its members to hopefully show a community that the education of our children and the diversity of their relationships are very critical to the forward movement of our society -- the preparation of our children to take our places and become successful and progressive citizens."
Metea timeline
Here's the Metea Valley High School construction timeline as outlined by Indian Prairie Unit District 204 officials on Tuesday:
April 14-23: Mass grading redesign work
May 7: Plan commission amended annexation approval
June 13: Foundation work begins
Aug. 14: Structural steel work begins
Sept. 19: Pre-cast work begins
January-August 2009: Furniture, fixtures and equipment procurement and installation Phase I
April 15, 2009: Site work Phase II begins
Aug. 19, 2009: Phase I construction work completed
June 2009-February 2010: Phase II construction work completed
September 2009-May 2010: Furniture, fixtures and equipment procurement and installation Phase II
