ECC still seeking to close deal on safety center land

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Updated: September 29, 2011 12:51AM

It’s the last major project Elgin Community College will break ground on using funds from its April 2009 referendum. But it has a final few hurdles to clear first.

The community college announced in mid-May it had selected a 98-acre parcel about a mile southeast of downtown Burlington for its $15 million Public Safety and Sustainability Center. The center will bring together facilities for a number of community college programs, including training for firefighters, police and other first responders; truck driving; and “green” energy management, according to the college.

The college has said that in order to use the property — on the north side of Burlington Road, south of the Canadian National/Illinois Central Railroad and west of Romke Road — the center will require a zoning hearing to reclassify the land.

ECC President David Sam and the college’s vice president of business and finance, Sharon Konny, met with property owners Mike and Warren Kenyon of Kenyon Bros. Corp. Tuesday morning for the first time for a one-hour preliminary discussion. Mike Kenyon is a Kane County Board member from South Elgin.

Konny said the next step will be getting two appraisals for the land before scheduling any follow-up session.

Paula Amenta, ECC chief marketing communications officer, said the college followed “a due diligence process” to choose the site for the center, inviting all Community College District 509 communities in June 2010 to submit proposals to host the facility.

The district includes 21 communities and some residents of 12 others in the Elgin area.

Five communities submitted proposals: Elgin, South Elgin, East Dundee, Hampshire and Burlington.

After 11 months of evaluation, the college selected the Kenyon Bros. land near Burlington. That evaluation included everything from the amount of land available to the proximity of homes, from easy access for students to the topographical elevation best suited for a possible wind turbine, Konny said in a written statement at the time of the selection.

“There wasn’t any one key factor. Rather, potential sites were scored on multiple criteria,” Konny said on Tuesday.

Until Tuesday, Burlington Village President Kathy Loos and not ECC had been communicating with the land owners about the potential purchase by the college, Amenta said. Loos said at a village board meeting several days after the selection of the site that she had worked closely with Village Engineer John Whitehouse to come up with a proposal for the new facility.

“I am honored to have them pick Burlington,” Loos said at the time. “Last year, John and I brainstormed to come up with this, and everyone thought it was impossible.”

The safety center is the last ECC facility to break ground, but by no means the biggest of Elgin Community College’s Facilities Master Plan projects.

It trails behind a $55 million Health Careers Center, a $26 million Academic Library and Learning Center and a $24 million renovation to the college’s Student Resource Center, all on the college’s main campus at 1700 Spartan Drive in Elgin. That money comes from a $178 million referendum narrowly approved by District 509 voters in 2009.

The college’s goal for the safety center, which also will house its energy management and sustainability program, is to have a zero carbon footprint. Initial plans include a wind turbine, a firefighting water recycling facility, an onsite wastewater disposal and re-use facility and environmental features ranging from wetland restoration to the potential for biofuel production, according to the college.

More information on the application process ECC followed to choose the site is available online at www.iccb.org/pdf/manuals/systemrules10-08.pdf — on Page 81, Section D (of Section 1501.603 - state funded capital projects).

Staff writer Mike Danahey
contributed to this story.