The Huntley Farmside

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Volume 40 No. 21
Your hometown newspaper
Thursday, May 25,2000
© 2000 Press-Republican Newspapers
Sun City to become its own precinct
Kane County reacts to rapid growth in new voters
by Dave Fornell
Regional editor
The Kane County Board is looking at creating a new voter precinct for the Del Webb Sun City development in Huntley because of rapid growth in the number of voters.
The county recognized the need for more precincts and polling places in Rutland Township in northern Kane County in March, when long lines of voters formed at the polls during the March election. Considering the March election was a primary, when voter turnout is usually low, the county did not want to inconvenience voters to the point of making the voting process needlessly long.
The issue of whether to create a new precinct was handed to the Precinct/Redistricting Committee of the Kane County Board, which met May 19 to formulate a recommenda- • tion to the full County Board at its next meeting in June.
"We recommended a division of the two existing precincts to create a third precinct," said committee Chairman John Hoscheit, a County Board member representing District 12 in St. Charles. "There were long delays in voting in March because there were more voters than the poll workers could handle. We are trying to accommodate the voters and make voting easier for them."
"Voter turnout was significantly increased over last year in Rutland Township," he said. He attributed'the rapid growth to the large Del Webb Sun City retirement community in Huntley. Only a portion of that devel¬ opment is built, and man^ new voters are expected as the other phases are completed.
According to state statute, at least 500 new voters are needed to create a new precinct. Hoscheit said Del Webb easily has that many now and will be adding more in the next of couple years.
"Many of the people who would be affected by this change came to'our meeting and no one had any objec¬ tions," Hoscheit said.
If all goes well, Hoscheit said the new precinct should be in place for the November' election.
Library to auction old building
Huntley Library District is first government body to use an on-line auction
by Susan Bohme
City editor
Everything's new at the Huntley Area Library District - a new building, new employees, new programs and a new way to sell the old building. The old library, located at 11620 Algonquin Rd. in Huntley, will go on the auction block June 8. What's unique aboilt this auction is that it will take place in cyberspace, as well as real space.
The auction will be held at the new library, 11000 Ruth Road, where computers with Internet access are available, according to Library Board President Michael Fleck. "We will be accepting bids online until the time the gavel goes down, as well as accepting bids in person," he said. "This is the first public entity to be auctioned this way, which is kind of fun."
Rick Levin and Associates, Inc. of Chicago, the company handling the sale, has listed the property online at wwv/.bidireal.com and
vnww.ricklevin.com. There buyers can view photos of the property inside and out, check utility costs, view a zoning map and surveys, and, of course, bid on the property-^ For those who work better in the real world, on site inspec¬ tions will be available from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. May 31 and June 6.
Levin said this was the first time he has sold a public building with a combination online/in-person auction. "The Internet has really come into its own in the last year or ' so. This was our first opportu¬ nity to do something like this," he said.
Holding an online auction is less expensive than a tradi¬ tional auction. Levin said in the past he was limited by how many flyers he could afford to mail. Now, he can
Farmside-Press photo by Susan Bohme The former Huntley Library on Algonquin Road will be up for auction, both online and in person, Junes.
post the'information online and send information out to individuals through e-mail at no additional cost.
All bidders must present $15,000 in earnest money before the auction. Online bidders can make an electron¬ ic funds transfer to an escrow account, send in a cashier's check, or present an irrevoca¬ ble letter of credit. In-person bidders can bring a cashier's check to the auction, which runs from 4 to 5 p.m. Levin said the earnest money ensures that bidders are serious about buying the property.
"We don't want any 10-year-olds bidding online," Levin said.
This isn't the first time the Library District has tried to sell the 1,500 square-foot building, which, by state law, must be sold by auction. A traditional auction in November brought a high bid of $223,000 from Crystal Lake Chiropractor Warren
Wolschlager, which the board rejected. That auction drew only about 25 bidders, almost all from the immediate area, Fleck said.
The board decided to go
with an auctioneer with a wider appeal who could bring in buyers from outside of McHenry County. The Web site lists a minimum bid of $210,000 this time around ,with an asking price of $325,000.
The one-story building, which is surrounded by .9 acres of usable space, was erected in 1962 and remod¬ eled in 1992. The property is zoned for business use, which means it can be used as office space for things like real estate firms, accountants and insurance companies. Fleck said the Library District needed a special use permit from the village to operate on the property.
The property is also sub¬ ject to a deed restriction. When they sold the property, the Bakley family placed a restriction on the deed stat¬ ing that the property could house only office and profes¬ sional space.
Buyers wanting to use the building for something else would have-to either get per- itiission from the Bakleys, as the Library District did, or go to court to try to get the restriction  lifted, according
to Fleck.
"[The Library Board] could try to get the restriction lift¬ ed before the sale, but we're not going to spend taxpayer dollars to do it," Fleck said.
The board has the option of rejecting the winning bid, as it did last time, if members believe the property is worth more.
"It's a unique property, so it's hard to get a handle on what it is worth," Fleck said. "We've had an appraisal, so we have an idea what we thiilk it's worth."
Fleck said that while he thinks the value of real prop¬ erty in Huntley is only going to go up, waiting for a higher price may not be the way to go. "[The building] is not doing the public any good to just sit there, and the library has no interest in becoming a landlord," Fleck said, "What¬ ever is in the taxpayers' best interest is what we are going to do."
The new library, which opened July 31, should serve the district well for decades to come. There is plenty of room on the seven acre parcel to expand the 15,000 square- foot building.