[Peace] $6 million clock

[Brian Dolinar]

$6 million for clock tower
pennies for justice
Indeed, what time is it?

BD
[image: The News-Gazette.com]   Champaign County courthouse's clock tower
gets support By Paul Wood
<http://www.news-gazette.com/news/reporter/pwood/> Friday
August 24, 2007

URBANA – The county courthouse will be getting a 130-foot clock tower,
visible from Interstate 74, after a contentious Champaign County Board
meeting Thursday.

The clock tower will be the same height as that of the original 1901
courthouse. Board members mostly thought restoring the courthouse to its
glory days was a good idea but didn't like having a sales tax pay for it.

The $6.8 million to repair the exterior of the old courthouse, tear down an
unsafe tower and rebuild it will be paid for largely through the county's
quarter-cent public safety sales tax.

Volunteers have raised $850,000 in donations specifically for the clock and
bell tower and expect to raise more, said longtime tower backer Bruce
Hannon, who came up with another $175 in his committee's piggy-bank change
Thursday night.

Most of the debate was over whether the improvements met the standard of
public safety or were, in opponents' terms, "aesthetic improvements."

Champaign Republican Brad Jones questioned whether donations might dry up
now that the county is committed to the project. He argued that the clock
tower height did not contribute to public safety.

Urbana Democrats Tom Betz and Jennifer Putman argued that the restoration
was always part of the plan for the public safety improvement of the county
courthouse, showing literature from the campaign for the 1998 creation of
the sales tax, which pictured the tower.

"We're not doing this for the purpose of preserving an antique," Betz said.

The courthouse is a living building and its tower an integral part, he
added, with its justice role a secular American analog to the cathedrals of
Europe.

But Mahomet Republican John Jay argued that the restoration's purpose was
primarily aesthetic.

"The history's not going to be there," he said. "It's a new bell tower."

Urbana Republican Steve Moser said the tower, and the years of volunteer
work to raise money, are an achievement for the county.

"I'm proud my fingerprints are all over it," he said.

Facilities Committee Chairman Steve Beckett, an Urbana Democrat, said the
tower will be a boon to the community, a symbol visible from I-74.

Champaign Republican Scott Tapley said he would vote "to pay the bills" but
was concerned that a tax conceived as temporary had a way of becoming
permanent.

The vote was 20-5 for the tower and renovation.

Voting no were Republicans Ron Bensyl, Chris Doenitz, Kevin Hunt, John Jay
and Brad Jones.

Also Thursday, this time on a unanimous vote and as expected, the board
approved a lease for the old county nursing home to a police agency.

The Illinois Law Enforcement Alarm System will use Homeland Security funds
to convert the home into a training center, making improvements and repairs
to the building as a large part of the deal.


-- 
Brian Dolinar, Ph.D.
303 W. Locust St.
Urbana, IL 61801
briandolinar at gmail.com
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