Published: August 08, 2008 07:29 am         

Rossville board OKs stabilization plan

Downtown buildings will be repaired

ROSSVILLE — After months of study and debate the Rossville Village Board, in a special meeting on Thursday night, approved a plan to stabilize downtown buildings it owns.

On a motion from Trustee Nancy Knoll, the village board unanimously approved spending at least $120,000 to perform masonry work and replace the roofs on five downtown buildings.

Knoll, in her motion, also placed a limit of no more than $135,000 being spent on the stabilization.

“This will allow about $15,000 for any unexpected problems that are encountered,” Knoll said.

Contis Masonry of Donovan will be paid $79,500 to do masonry repairs on the buildings and Five Star Commercial Roofing of Fort Wayne, Ind., will be paid $40,200 to replace the roofs on the five buildings.

Money for the stabilization work will come from Tax Increment Financing funds.

“Work is expected to begin as soon as possible,” Mayor Terry Prillaman said.

The issue of stabilizing the buildings first came before the village board in April when Prillaman presented the board with two estimates to repair the masonry on the buildings. After initial resistance from the trustees, the matter was tabled and Prillaman appointed an ad hoc committee to study the issue.

The ad hoc committee studied the costs of stabilizing the buildings and the cost of tearing down the buildings. The committee presented its findings to the board which favored stabilizing the buildings as the cheaper of the two options.

As recently as last week, the board conducted a public meeting to answer questions and listen to residents’ feedback on the issue.

In other action Thursday night, the board approved a resolution to allow Conagra to close a portion of Creative Way for security reasons.

The board had previously approved the closure but changes in language of the agreement, mainly the width of the village-mandated gate to allow the passage of farm equipment to adjacent farmland, required the board to reapprove the resolution.

WHAT’S NEXT

The Rossville Village Board will meet in regular session at 7 p.m. Aug. 18 in the village office.