Land Bank Gifts Property for Fairbury Water Treatment Plant
By Gordon Hopkins
The South Jefferson Land Bank has gifted the property at 119 West C Street to the City of Fairbury to be used for a proposed water treatment plant.
The city has struggled with quality and quantity of available drinking water for years. The acquisition of this land is a single step in the construction of a treatment plant that will address both of those problems.
The SJLB board voted to gift the land, located on the north side of Third Street, at a meeting on Wednesday, February 11.
Fairbury City Attorney Kurth Brashear of Rembolt Ludtke LLP, who also serves as attorney for the land bank, advised the board that policy, “Allows the land bank board of directors to approve a gift if it’s in the best interest of the land bank, and if it is a unanimous vote by the voting members to do so.”
“The City of Fairbury pays all operating costs for the land bank, so it is paying significant consideration in that sense,” noted Brashear. “Obviously the city has determined that a new water treatment plant would be in the best interest of many of the residents of the land bank. And so, there are certainly sufficient grounds.”
The board voted unanimously to approve the gift.
The following week, on Tuesday, February 17, the Fairbury City Council voted unanimously to accept the gift.
