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Wednesday, April 16, 2014
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Evergreen Village owner to sell Santoro accepts $1.47M offer; DeKalb city to move forward with relocating residents By JILLIAN DUCHNOWSKI jduchnowski@shawmedia.com SYCAMORE – On the eve of the DeKalb County Board’s deadline, Evergreen Village Mobile Home Park owner Frank Santoro accepted the county’s $1.47 million offer for his property. “I don’t have much of a choice because we’re in a flood plain and I can’t fix houses,” Santoro said. “I have to accept what they are going
to give me.” County Board Chairman Jeff Metzger confirmed that, on Tuesday, Santoro returned the signed sales contract to State’s Attorney Richard Schmack’s office, and the contract would be presented to County Board members at their meeting at 7:30 p.m. today. Before Santoro’s decision, County Board members were poised to abandon the project to relocate residents and restore to open space the
mobile home park at 955 E. State St. near Sycamore. “We can move forward implementing the grant,” Metzger said. “We have a really hard-working group in our administration, and they have assured us that even though we are down to the wire, they can accomplish these tasks.” County leaders secured $7.1 million in state and federal emergency management funding that limits them to the $1.47 million purchase
price and requires the project be finished by June 30, 2015. County officials have budgeted about $3.7 million to relocate residents and about $1.9 million for the purchase of the mobile homes there. In the relocation process, officials plan to try to find comparable affordable housing in the area for displaced residents. But residents are not obligated to accept the housing offers that are made. Officials began pursuing
the grants after a 2007 flood damaged many mobile homes and forced the evacuation of the park. Since then, the park has flooded multiple times and also temporarily closed in 2008. County leaders discussed the purchase of the property, which includes 33 acres of farmland and about 6 acres of railroad right-of-way nearby, with Santoro since October. After initially declining the offer, Santoro got his own ap-
Benefits beyond taxes
praisal of the property – $2.6 million – which county officials said state officials rejected. On March 19, County Planning Director Paul Miller told County Board members that the deal would be abandoned if Santoro and the county did not come to terms by today. On Tuesday, Santoro signed the sales contract for $1.47 million and returned it
See SANTORO, page A6
Jurors in robbery trial sent home Matteson man could face up to 75 years in prison By JILLIAN DUCHNOWSKI jduchnowski@shawmedia.com
ern Illinois University has more employees. “I would never argue for anything about their property tax-exemption because it’s not an issue of dollars and cents,” Sandwich Mayor Rick Olson said. “Having [Valley West] here is a huge advantage and economic tool.” Valley West has 185 fulltime employees and a payroll of $14.7 million, which generates $35 million in economic activity and creates an additional 230 jobs, the report states. Olson said the hospital also falls among the top community amenities touted by leaders in trying to recruit people to the area. In DeKalb, Kishwaukee has 726 full-time employees. The hospital’s $56 million
SYCAMORE – Jurors spent more than seven hours Tuesday considering the fate of 22-year-old Matteson man accused of robbing at gunpoint two DeKalb apartment office employees and striking one in November. If convicted of armed rob- Demond bery and aggra- Hunt vated battery, Demond Hunt, of the 3700 block of 214th Place, would be sentenced to between 21 and 75 years in prisMariah on. Jury deliberations began Romero about 2:15 p.m. Tuesday and stretched into the night. During a two-day trial, prosecutors tried to prove a masked Hunt burst into University Heights’ office about 4 p.m. Nov. 27, pointed a gun at the two women working there and demanded money from the safe. When they told him they didn’t have access to the safe, he hit one across the face and made off with a cellphone and a purse containing a wedding ring, prosecutors said. Police found the stolen cellphone in Hunt’s girlfriend’s University Heights apartment, along with a loaded gun and Hunt’s wallet, DeKalb police detective Paul Mott testified Tuesday. A DeKalb County jail officer found a wedding band the victim identified as hers in Hunt’s cargo pants pocket after he was arrested Dec. 5. The girlfriend – Mariah
See BENEFITS, page A6
See TRIAL, page A6
Monica Maschak – mmaschak@shawmedia.com
Volunteer Julie Kostrey (left) and employees Tessa Workman and Nicole Daley help each other box dinners while prepping for the drive-thru dinner fundraiser March 28 at KishHealth System Cancer Center. A newly released report indicates the KishHealth System provided $5.8 million in charity care to uninsured residents of DeKalb County, exceeding the $2.8 million it saves in property taxes annually as a tax-exempt nonprofit.
Hospitals boost economy in ways other than tax revenue, leaders say tax amount. “We work in a significant, meaningful way with community organizations,” Poorten said. “If we had to pay taxes, we would have to take a step back and the programs we support become more vulnerable.” Combine the economic impact and the services to DeKalb County’s low-income and uninsured residents, and local leaders say forgoing the $2.8 million is worth it.
By KATIE DAHLSTROM kdahlstrom@shawmedia.com DeKALB – Local officials say the more than $400 million that KishHealth System pumped into the local economy in 2012 far outweighs the roughly $2.8 million they did not have to pay in property taxes because of their tax exempt status. Kishwaukee Community Hospital and Valley West Community Hospital provided a $443 million boon to the DeKalb County economy in 2012, according to a new report issued by KishHealth System and the Illinois Hospital Association. The hospitals also provided $5.8 million in free care to people who couldn’t afford to pay for services in the fiscal year that ended in April 2013. As a nonprofit organi-
Tammy Russell (left), of Cortland, stretches during a yoga class March 21 taught by Julie Gavin (left) March 21 at the cancer center of Kishwaukee Valley Hospital in DeKalb. zation, KishHealth does not pay property taxes, but it is required to estimate its annual tax liability. KishHealth’s CEO Kevin Poorten said the organization would have paid $2.8
million in property taxes last year if it didn’t have a property tax exemption, but it maintained its exemption by offering free care and other services known as charity care, exceeding the
ECONOMIC IMPACT KishHealth System is the second-largest employer in DeKalb County, employing more than 2,000 full and part-time people between Kishwaukee Community Hospital and Valley West who earn an average wage of $28 an hour, Poorten said. Only North-
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