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City Council Approves Waivers for Veterans Home
A man looking to own a property that was, for awhile, used as a so-called abbey by an allegedly phony priest has been given the go-ahead to not have to adhere to some city codes.

Aldermen Tuesday voted five-to-three in favor of the waivers of city code for Doug Ball, who's in the process of purchasing 820 East Fifth Street -- the former Holy Rosary Abbey Church in Galesburg and a nursing home before that -- so that it can be used as a home for veterans.

Ball says he wouldn't be able to go through with the project if he were have to purchase things like fire-rated doors for the facility.

"I just find it appalling that we would replace perfectly good doors with other doors that are exactly the same at tremendous cost. In the event that I do that I have to raise the rent to the veterans and now it doesn't become feasible any more."

Ball says the veterans already living in the home have been doing very well. He says he'd hate to see what would happen to them if he had to spend 30-thousand dollars to replace what he says are perfectly good doors.

Aldermen voting against the measure said they were concerns about fire rules being waived -- which also included sprinklers not having to be installed.

The abbey's former owner, Reverend Ryan St. Anne Scott, faces theft and other charges for allegedly taking money from an elderly person to pay for work at the abbey and not paying her back.

Scott will be back in court in October.
09 06 12 by Newsroom
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