The City of Palos Heights is in limbo when it comes to what is happening with the closing of Trinity Christian College and the selling of the campus.
The school announced it will close after its May graduation and there are reports the value of its campus property is $44 million.
What can the city do in the meantime?
That’s what Ald. Michael McGrogan wants to find out.
“We know that this Trinity College thing is on many, many, many residents’ minds,” McGrogan said at the Feb. 17 city council meeting. “People are asking about it.
“(The finance committee) thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea to, sooner than later, at least have an exploratory committee to start to think what involvement Palos Heights can have – if any – to try to determine what direction that project will go.”
McGrogan said that with the school closing being a few months away, “We’re on the clock.”
“Time flies and if we are going to do something…most of us don’t even know what we can do as a city,” he added. “We need to gather some facts to determine if there is anything we should be doing in advance of that.”
He said he wants to be proactive while issues are developing with the college and a potential buyer.
There was no other discussion about forming the new committee.
During his report to the council, McGrogan also had concerns about the future of money coming in from the state in the coming years.
He said he read that the state’s budget deficit is between $2.5 and $3 billion and it could skyrocket to $5 billion in the next five years.
“It seems like we’re doing great, but we have a bunch of things down the line that could impact us,” McGrogan said.
Mayor Bob Straz agrees that the city needs to come up with ideas to withstand possible cuts from the state due to the deficit. He has chafed at the way local municipalities have been treated regarding local income tax.
“That’s been a constant battle,” Straz said. “When the state passed the state income tax, we were supposed to get 10% of that money every year. Five or six years ago, it was cut down to 6%.
“Last year, we were fortunate that after some lobbying, we were able to get 6.7%. Every year we have a battle with legislators downstate trying to get that up.”
McGrogan also said the council should brace for $10 million worth of infrastructure costs in the coming years to fix the aging sewer and water fixtures and facilities.
“Other than that, I have no other good news,” McGrogan joked as he concluded his report.
Seems like they would have formed a commttee and been proactive when Trinity announced they were closing.
I am interested in knowing more about the committee for Trinity Christian College,