Historic buildings, a salt dome and Evanston’s $3.4 million budget deficit were the prominent topics of discussion at a City Council meeting Monday.
Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl started the meeting by proclaiming May as National Preservation Month with the theme of “Celebrating America’s Treasures” before giving out awards for preservation and design projects in Evanston.
“Historic preservation in the 21st century is not about keeping old buildings frozen in time,” said Garry Shumaker, who announced the awards and is the chair of the Evanston Preservation Commission. “Rather, it’s about managing and documenting changes affecting historic changes and historic districts for the benefit of current and future generations. Some would say old is the new green.”
The architects and contractors behind the renovations of the Evans Scholars House, 721 University Place, and Harris Hall, 1881 Sheridan Rd., on Northwestern’s campus received awards along with 10 other projects. Although not all the historic features of Harris Hall could be saved, its preservation was one of the driving forces behind its redesign, said Dan Weese, the architect who oversaw the project.
“Maintaining and enhancing the most essential characteristics was definitely what we were after,” Weese said. “The building is prominent on the campus. The preservation of at least certain aspects of it was one of the reasons we were hired; that was part of the job description.”
Later in the meeting, city officials discussed the possibility of constructing a new salt dome. Director of Public Works Suzette Robinson presented four different locations, including the Ryan Field parking lot, and two different designs hoping for the council to make a decision about the construction of a new dome to replace existing over 20-year old dome at 2020 Asbury Ave. The city shares the use of the current dome with NU, District 65 and District 202. NU contributed $78,000 in 2008 towards the construction of a new dome, said Robinson. However, aldermen questioned the placement and suggested the city look into more locations, as well as consider landscaping to make the dome less obtrusive.
“I see no further lights, and I don’t think we’ve solved it for you at all,” Tisdahl remarked.
City Manager Wally Bobkiewicz concluded the meeting by presenting a list of suggestions to cut the city’s deficit after reaching out to citizens in the Engage Evanston sessions last week, and announcing a plan to produce an inventory of available city services to investigate ways of improving efficiency.
City staff would look at all city services and score them based on attributes and relevance to the city and council goals. Bobkiewicz will also meet all city employees in small groups to ask for their input.
“I don’t know when your staff is going to have time to do anything,” said Ald. Ann Rainey (8th) before requesting more information.
Some of the 175 suggestions proposed by Evanston residents in the sessions include requiring NU to collect trash after football games, increasing NU’s athletic tax and sharing the use of NU facilities. The city has already begun to collaborate with the University, citing the recent partnership to purchase natural gas, Bobkiewicz said.
“In general terms we’ve been talking about opportunities to work more closely together with NU on these services for some time,” he said. “I think that those discussions are going to pick up and intensify over the next few months as we look for more concrete opportunities that we could work together in January next year.”
