By Dan McLeister
For The Elmhurst Independent
Elmhurst School District 205 wants to wait to see how the Madison School storm water detention project goes before it commits to other properties, according to School Board member John McDonough.
At a recent School Board meeting, he said the Madison intergovernmental agreement (IGA) with the City should be going forward as soon as possible. The optimum time for construction would be when students are gone, according to McDonough, who is a District 205 representative to the Storm Water Communications Committee formed by Elmhurst Mayor Steve Morley.
For the Bryan school gravel lot, final design is not yet completed. In order to expedite construction, the City Council is asking for a School Board resolution as soon as possible.
“I said we would try to meet their timelines so they can get the most effective use of the construction season as possible,” McDonough said at the most recent School Board meeting.
“I said in regard to future projects, the Board wanted to go one project at a time.”
A letter from Dist. 205 Superintendent David Moyer to City Manager Jim Grabowski indicated that “the Board is interested in coming to closure only on that project (Bryan) at this time. When that agreement is finalized, the Board is open to the possibility of discussing options at other sites.”
The City has proposed storm water detention projects at sites such as York High School and Jackson Elementary School.
“However, the Board also continues to question whether dual usage options can be implemented in such a way that effectively protects the interests of students and programming for children who attend Elmhurst District 205 schools, and therefore, it would like to monitor how the Madison property performs as part of any future decision making that might include dual use options,” Moyer told Grabowski.
McDonough noted that the School Board wanted to see what the full impact might be on the use of the properties by students. He said that the impact may not be as intense as some of the other sites that the Board is considering.
“It will give us some guidelines as to how to use a property for storm water detention and another purpose,” McDonough said. “One of the things we will have to determine is when will we be comfortable enough with what has happened with one pilot project to determine that, yes, we are willing to commit to other projects.”
