Mayor gets OK to make library deal
By Kitty Conley kconley@post-trib.com September 18, 2012 1:36PM
The houses adjacent to Crown Point's new library were torn down on Monday, September 17, 2012 to make room for a parking lot. | Scott R. Brandush~Sun-Times Media
Updated: September 18, 2012 1:36PM
CROWN POINT — The Board of of Public Works and Safety on Sept. 12 gave Mayor Dave Uran administrative authority to work out an agreement on the issue of the Crown Point Library’s desire to tear down three buildings and put in a private parking lot directly east of the law offices of Austgen and Kuiper.
The law office’s front door is at the northeast corner of Main Street and Robinson Court, just north of the soon-to-be-completed library.
The parking lot is planned to extend from the attorneys’ property line to East Street on the north side of Robinson Court.
Uran said, “The library is getting close (to opening) and I had a chance to talk to Dave Austgen, and one of his concerns was the use of Robinson Court. ... He does not disagree with parking he just wanted to cut back from six to four spaces on the street.”
Uran told the board that Austgen has been very cooperative. Uran will be working things out with Austgen and with the legal and engineering departments.
Library Director Lynn Franks was in the audience and asked that the library be included in the talks.
Uran asked City Attorney David Nicholls if they could add the library to the talks. “No,” Nicholls responded, “I prefer to keep it the way it is.”
Austgen has been a supporter of the new library from the beginning.
The reduction from six to four parking spaces on Robinson Court would allow better line-of-sight for drivers exiting Austgen’s private parking lot. It exits onto Robinson Court and will have to meld into traffic moving west on the narrow, soon-to-be one-way street.
Austgen said he and the mayor have talked about a number of issues. This could be the end to the lawsuits regardingthe parking lot project that Austgen filled against the city, the library, and DVG engineering firm.
