09/21/1999 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Special Council Meeting 9-21-99 Page 3 nobody has ever said to us from across the street, not you guys, if you have a problem with this, let's talk about the problem. We have just been told "get over it." So, if it is in the paper tomorrow that you have approved the purchase, a lot of people will consider it done. Council President Marquardt asked if there were any further comments from the audience. There were none. Council President Marquardt said we have been looking, considering, discussing the Church for some time, probably about 1 1/2 - 2 years now through various media and discussions. We have talked about land swaps and a number of things with the Church. Our primary focus in doing this has been and always been to preserve the corner of the Village for the aesthetics and character of the Village. He thinks that is still our primary interest. We have been discussing this for some time, we will be discussing it in Executive Session and we will come up with same kind of decision likely tonight. Mayor Rinker said he doesn't have much to add because Council President Marquardt has stated it succinctly. Historically, this was kind of dropped into our lap; we had not been even aware until, he thinks it has been close to 3 years now, of any decision being considered in the Church about a desire to move. When we learned- of the fact, it immediately struck a number of us that this would have a significant impact on the corner. So, as Council President Marquardt has indicated, he thinks the biggest motivator for us has been that this can be such a substantial change at the heart of our community that it is a little spooky to consider that somebody else could have control over that. That being the case, and if you polled Council members individually I think you would probably get different perspectives without question, but in general, I think that if we achieve consensus it is going to be because we feel more comfortable being in a position as the Village government of having a say in what eventually can happen at that corner if we have a direct ownership interest. We had tried to see if we could work the land swap that Council President Marquardt talked about. We had contemplated land in the northwest part of town. We worked hard to see if there could be a way that would keep the Church within the Village and give us that sense of security at the same time. We explored a lot of those options. Ultimately, there are internal decisions that your Church membership has been making and will make. I cannot speak to those who will perceive what the Village does as being the final say in its being a done deal. On the contrary, this could all change on Saturday with a vote of no confidence; if there were not a.vote in support of the move. That is how it has been presented to us. So, whatever we decide is dependent upon what the Church ultimately decides about its own destiny. We understand that it is a very sensitive issue because of the history, because of the connection. He won't even begin to speak to that other than he has been made aware of that in a number of different ways from a number of the people who are here tonight and others. The fact of the matter is, if we do nothing, he thinks the scenario that could play out is far worse than if we do something. Council has to make some decisions collectively. What actually happens there is something that Council will probably have an opportunity to decide in the future on more than one occasion. There is no provision that says this cannot be rented out to somebody else. The provision is that the Church remains in there because if a decision is passed to move, physically, mechanically, that is a long drawn out process for the Church to make the