By WMBD TV

MCLEAN – The Village of McLean Board of Trustees had another heated meeting on Monday to discuss the old water tower.

The nearly 90-year-old water tower was decommissioned in 2017 after a new one was built to better fit the community.

In November, it was decided that the water tower would be taken down after the board accepted a quote from Cliff Littwiller. Monday’s agenda had the item “Water Tower – Litwiller Contract.”

The board discussed if they should have village attorney Mark Mcgrath draft a contract between the village and Cliff Litwiller to remove the water tower. According to the board, since Litwiller is not an engineer in addition to attorney fees there is an approximate cost of $1,700 to hire an engineer for specifications.

Lonnie Kirby made the motion to move forward with a contract draft plus the $1,700 for the engineer. Colton Gordon seconded it. Kirby and Gordon were the only two who wanted to move forward.

“It feels like it gives the village time to think through this whole process and make sure the plan actually makes sense,” said Jeff Hake, VP of CORE of McLean.

The Community Organization for Revitalization and Expansion or CORE of McLean is in the application process to get the tower registered as a historical site.

While members of CORE are grateful for the delay, some residents want the water tower gone.

“The opportunity has presented itself to give us a great price to get that down and eliminate a future burden for our future taxpayers, our current taxpayers and even for the CORE group,” said Charles Denham. There’s no more future burden for them to try to maintain that through grants. Grants are horrible to try to get right now.”

Denham suggests that after the water tower is removed, CORE can still use the space for other projects. CORE will have a chance to present a proposal that will include assuming all responsibility of the tower at January’s meeting.

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