Galesburg City Council was scheduled for a work session to go over police and fire pensions Monday night but disagreements spilled over regarding the development of a community center and the future of the former Churchill Junior High building.
Council meetings now start with public comment, and several speakers came forward to talk about the Churchill Junior High building, which a majority of the Council previously rejected as a community center.
Multiple speakers requested that the city not sell the greenspace next to Churchill to a developer.
Ward 5 Council member Heather Acerra says she supports maintaining the lot next to Churchill as a greenspace or a park.
“I’ve talked to many of the Alderpersons about this and I think you’ll see we do have support. This isn’t formal but generally speaking, there’s a lot of support for this idea,” Acerra says.
Task Farce?
But when it comes to the task force that’s been formed to study possibilities for a community center, there are members of the group that are blasting the group’s work before they even meet.
Darla Krejci, Mayor Peter Schwartzman’s choice for the Task Force says that “she’s not sure she completely disagrees” with some that have taken to calling the group the “Task Farce.”
“If you’re being nice would say it’s naive or amateurish but those that are not so kind are saying it was deliberately set up to fail or set up for a pre-determined outcome,” Krejci says.
Do you think that the future community center build (or renovation) should be capped at $2.5 million?
Antonio Franklin, another Task Force member, urged the Council to not authorize the sale of the Churchill until after the task force has completed their work.
Ward 7 Council member Steve Cheesman says there are parameters to what the task force will be looking at.
Cheesman says that because a majority of the Council is opposed to Churchill as a community center, Churchill being off the table is a parameter.
Council at odds over spending cap
Ward 4 Council member Dwight White criticized fellow members for suggesting guidelines that would instruct task force members that there’s a limit of $2.5 million to spend on a community center.
Ward 5 Member Heather Acerra says that she supports that limit.
Ward 1 Alderman Bradley Hix says that what’s left in the bond fund after a community center will be spent on roads and infrastructure.
The previous City Council approved a $5.3 million bond sale that was restricted solely to the use of a community center.
Hix says that based on a community survey and talking with constituents, the quality of roads is a top need in the city.
“We’re all addressing items that our neighbors want. We’re just doing it in different ways,” Hix says.
Mayor Schwartzman says he was only made aware of a proposed spending limit after some Council members discussed it with city administration.
“Should that have been discussed in the last work session on the topic of the community center or task force? I would say yes. Nothing was said. It was discussed afterward, privately in a meeting with the City Manager. That doesn’t seem like good governance,” Schwartzman says.
Schwartzman continued on Facebook Tuesday writing, “the ‘cap’ is arbitrary, unnecessarily ‘limiting’, and, additionally, wasn’t even decided upon with full Council/Mayor (or resident) knowledge or input.”
