Neighbors of the former Churchill Junior High School in Galesburg continue to be concerned about the potential sale of the city-owned property.
The Galesburg city council met Monday night for a work session, where the only item on the agenda was a presentation on police and fire pensions.
But residents came to speak their minds about a completely different topic during public comment -- what will happen to the property at 905 Maple Ave. that was donated to the city after the school district vacated it last year.
Most who spoke live in Ward Five, where the former school sits on a 13-acre lot with about 10 acres of greenspace.
Marty Anderson told the council the neighborhood is concerned about the timeline of divesting the property, potential zoning changes, and the impact on area property values.
“I don’t propose to be an expert on the condition of the building or best use. I just know that any change there, any potential sale or change made to it, is going to impact the neighborhood,” Anderson said.
He said the greenspace is an important part of the neighborhood that should remain a community-owned asset.
A petition asking the city to further evaluate and delay any potential sale of the property now has close to 300 signatures.
The building is not occupied, but the city has been paying utility costs on it.
Tensions over the property are tied to tensions over a community center.
Churchill was selected by the previous council as the site of a community center, but the current council approved an ordinance authorizing its sale.
Now a task force has been assembled to take up the issue of a community center, including where it would go and how much the city would invest in it.
Ward Five Council Member Heather Acerra said she has already made it clear she’s not a fan of Churchill as a community center site.
But she said she does want to maintain the greenspace.
“So I want you to know, we may disagree about the building, per se, but I am committed to getting that to be greenspace and getting it to be a park of some sort,” Acerra said.
Each council member appointed two people to the task force, and Mayor Peter Schwartzman appointed one.
Rev. Antonio Franklin was appointed in Ward Four.
He spoke to the council over concerns that actions are being taken with Churchill before the community center task force even gets going. He said the grapevine in Galesburg is pretty loud.
“There’s been so much conversation I’ve heard, and I don’t even get out of the house that much, about selling items out of Churchill before we even get the task force started. We haven’t even had a meeting yet,” Franklin said. “And I’m hearing about things being done with this building that are part of the process.”
At the last regular meeting, council members unanimously rejected the one bid the city received for the property, which was for $100.
If other bids have been made since then, the council could consider them at the next regular meeting on Monday.
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