Some new revelations about the Jacksonville Development Center grounds were revealed last Monday night during the Jacksonville City Council meeting.
Ward 2 Alderwoman Lori Large-Oldenettel asked Mayor Andy Ezard and city officials if any progress had been made about possibly remediating the grounds. Oldenettel lives just blocks away on the north side of Michigan Avenue and says many neighbors have approached her this past week about ongoing concerns with safety hazards and the homeless population living on the grounds.
Yet another suspicious fire broke out on the grounds last month. This time it was in the Gillespie Building on August 18th. Jacksonville officials say that evidence of multiple campfires had been set inside the building and one person was arrested and removed from the building during the day-long fire suppression efforts that brought several challenges to first responders from both Jacksonville and South Jacksonville, including a lack of any working fire hydrants and the concrete barriers the state installed to impede travel on the grounds.
Mayor Andy Ezard says that Illinois state officials may finally be getting the message about the dangers encompassing the grounds: “One thing this fire did was that I thought it brought some attention to the state folks in regards to how it really is out there at the JDC. I know that the managing firm for the property, JLL was on site with their engineers during the fire and they had a firsthand look on what our first responders were dealing with as well as some of the folks they encountered in the buildings, as well as what has been taking place in those buildings. There’s multiple fire spots where you can tell that a small campfire has occurred. There is a residency taking place in JDC. We always felt that there were folks around the grounds, but I think this confirmed to a lot of them that people living in them are for real and it’s a little more than we anticipated. My hopes are that the state employees that saw this will take it up the ladder and say ‘Hey, we got some major issues in Jacksonville at the JDC.'”
Ezard says that the communication lines are more open now between all stakeholders than they have ever been in the past. Ezard says that a grassroots, citizen-led campaign may be starting, similar to what happened with the former Pillsbury Plant on the north side of Springfield. He says the city government remains in a precarious situation when it comes to pushing the issue: “If one good thing happens, it’s just getting the word out that something has got to be done here. It’s not fair to anybody. The state just can’t walk away from this. Now, we are in a particularly tough spot as a local unit of government because we don’t want to push real hard because we rely on the state for a lot of different things. I know that there are some citizens that have come forward that are getting pretty ticked off about it. I think there is a movement there that could potentially happen, which the more voices we have – the better it is. If anything happens, I would look back at this incident a few weeks ago and say maybe that’s the thing that propelled it. That’s at least my hopes right now.”
Ezard says pursuits of government grants and working “outside of the normal realm” of a city government on how to get the site remediated is underway. He says that the city has learned of plans for the site through JLL’s engineers after the fire last month. In turn, the city was also able to voice concerns about access to the JDC grounds for emergency services being limited. Ezard believes the concerns have opened the eyes to all involved and more movement can happen.
Citizens of Jacksonville and the area had the opportunity to weigh on what should happen with the site after a community survey was circulated by the Jacksonville Regional Economic Development Corporation and the City of Jacksonville last month. The survey ended on August 23rd. How the survey will factor into future site development is unknown.