Officials from the City of Countryside and the Greater La Grange Area YMCA will work together to explore building a shared recreation facility and municipal center on property owned by the city, under a memorandum of understanding approved unanimously tonight by the Countryside City Council.
The parcel, located directly north of City Hall on the southwest corner of East Ave and 55th St, was purchased from the United Auto Workers by the city in 1999.
"We've always talked about what we were going to do with it," Mayor Robert Conrad said at tonight's meeting. "It was kind of my idea to venture off with the YMCA.
"I think this is a great opportunity for the city," he said. "It would give us a building to give our residents somewhere else to go, something else to do. I think it is something we should really look into and try to move forward with."
Alderman Michael Smetana cautioned residents not to view the agreement as anything more than a starting point for discussion, stating that he already was "starting to get some emails [from some residents who] think we are way beyond this memorandum of understanding [and that] we are giving the property away. That's not the truth."
"We're not giving this property away," Conrad concurred. "We are going to work diligently with the Y to do what is best for the city and the residents of Countryside—provide them with a place for recreation and, just like it said in the [Suburban Life] paper, it may be an opportunity for us if we need some type of open town-hall meeting, just be a nice facility that everyone can utilize, and that's it.
"We are agreeing to agree and we want to move this forward," Conrad said. "We think it will be a great addition to the city of we can put this all together."
The YMCA has been searching for a site on which to build a new complex to replace its Rich Port facility in La Grange, which closed last year.
A proposal to build a major residential and commercial development on the site of the former Rich Port site, called La Grange Place, is now being reviewed by the La Grange Plan Commission.
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