DeKalb County Administrator Gary Hanson announced today that he was suspending any further remodeling work on the Sober Living Home for 90 days. The purpose of the suspension is to afford time to complete a final evaluation of the ever-increasing scope of work without the County incurring any additional costs, as well as time to look at options for alternative uses of the property. The house has been winterized to avoid damage while the evaluation is on-going.
“Short of some type of funding miracle,” Hanson said, “I anticipate having to recommend to the County Board that this project be vacated and that an alternative plan be developed for this property.” With many County Board members clearly indicating during an October review that no additional County money will be put in the project, Hanson suggested that “miracle funding” would need to be along the lines of faith-based organizations, service organizations, or philanthropic individuals stepping forward to make this happen.
In May of 2015, the County purchased the house at 491 E. State Street for $145,000 for the purpose of establishing a Sober Living Home to house up to 7 individuals. It was known that renovation would have to meet various accessibility and fire codes which were allotted for in the project budget. However, last winter a water pipe froze when the heat went out and that damage opened up a sundry of building codes that are quite costly when applied to an older house. Each time a solution was found for a structural or code issue, another problem surfaced before renovation headway was made. The latest round of problems has been estimated to drive project costs another $40,000 above available funding. However, there are no guarantees that the problems will end there. County Board Chairman Mark Pietrowski pointed out that the City of Sycamore officials have been very helpful in working with County staff and our general contractor (Swedberg Construction) in identifying and working through various structural and building code issues.
Twenty-third Circuit Court Chief Judge Robbin Stuckert expressed disappointment with the project being shut down: “This is one of those programs that can truly make a difference in people’s lives. The people I am talking about are residents of DeKalb County; they are our friends, our neighbors and our family members. This will eliminate an important resource to the Courts that would have helped a lot of people. Whe3n looked at in the long run, I think this program would have a positive Cost-benefit because of the potential of re-focusing so many people into a positive direction for their lives.”
Chairman Pietrowski has asked the Law & Justice Committee Chairwoman Dianne Leifheit to have her Committee begin discussions on this matter at their January meeting. The Committee will be asked to identify options for the Sober Living Program and for the property that was acquired.
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18 Comments
I still think its a good idea. In stead of renovating an old house, why not make that brand new multi-million dollar jail multi-use. I doubt it is ever going to be filled now that some “crimes” like marijuana are becoming misdemeanors or less in many states. Why not cordon off a section, make it homey, accessible–possibly even living space for the homeless. Give it a nice separate entrance, etc.
More govt waste. Time to clean house & stop burdening tax payers!
No one could have predicted the furnace failure and burst pipes
dekalb county
thats why every body is leaving dekalb
I assume no funding from Rainer is in sight
You do mean the Illinois State Legislature who cannot pass a budget because of Michael Madigan? Rauner is only what is required to do by the Illinois Constitution. Republican and Democrat legislators are to blame for no money being released. Until we put the blame where it should be put, it will not get better.
…and Rauner didn’t start this project. Folks need to quit looking at the State to bail us out already!! Our local County Board did this. The onus for this debacle rests squarely on them.
Ivan Krpan Rauner walked away from negotiations a year ago, he’s a do nothing governor
He is not walking away. Madigan has repeatedly told Rauner’s staff that his calendar is full and will have to see day by day. Madigan IS the problem.
They wonder why taxes are so high it’s because of stuff like this. Needless spending by the top people in all reality it should cost a quarter of what they have spent. Time for a change
If contractors can’t finish ON time and ON budget, they should NOT get a single solitary PENNY over their bid!!
Well let’s take a look at the county board’s leadership. No one else should be blamed.
Wow, Gary Hanson!!!! Karma, is absolutely a beautiful thing!!!!
Maybe you should have bought the house that was offered to you right behind the courthouse. You paid for a home inspection, walked trough it more than once, had the meeting to discuss $, was told you would get back to me after discussing with everyone else, thought it was gonna happen and “poof”, never heard from anyone again. Not even the common courtesy to call and say sorry we are going to look somewhere else. It was the perfect location for the sober house, not 5 blocks away from the people running it. Could have actually even had cameras from the back of the courthouse directly on it to monitor at all times. Probably could have gotten the house right next to it as well in case you wanted to expand or add a women’s program. Instead, you let your personal feelings for those of us on Exchange Street get in the way of this program to take its next step. Ram your courthouse expansion right up our butts and into our front yards, take away parking for our own homes, take away the beauty of looking out our front windows to now staring at a cement building, garbage area and your own special parking spots, and say screw you Sycamore tax paying citizens. We want it, we get it (by any means possible, crooked/underhanded or not), we do it, we are Dekalb County government and you are just Sycamore residents in our county. Yeah #DekalbCountyGovernment , you did it again!!!!!
Watch out, it could be anyone of you that they mess with next.
Sycamore, you need to stop letting the county take everything they want!!!
But don’t forget, the homeowner got his money for the house he had been trying to sell for MANY YEARS. DeKalb County, I think your forehead is flashing “SUCKER”!!!!!!
Maybe alittle research before spending all that money on a old home that needs alot of repairs when they could of built a new one for that price!!! Dekalb county at it’s finest!
Me thinks this is just another clue that our local gov’t entities need to get back to the basics instead of getting involved in these type of projects!
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We are governed by morons