Board to vote on withdrawing $3.5M loan

HUNTLEY – The Grafton Township Board will conduct a special meeting Monday that further could decide the fate of its $3.5 million town hall project.

Supervisor Linda Moore said last week that the township would be in default of its loan on the project if it didn’t make a Wednesday payment of $140,000.

But any payment also would have gone against a court injunction that originally had halted the building’s progress in April.

Aside from outstanding loan payments, at least $286,000 already has been spent on the project.

With the advice of township attorney Joseph Gottemoller, Moore called a special board meeting, where the board might take a vote on authorizing returning $3.5 million in loan proceeds with interest to date to Harris Bank in exchange for canceling outstanding debt certificates.

“Harris Bank proposed we just unwind the loan,” Gottemoller said. “When they did that, they sent over a letter in writing. We thought we should have a meeting as soon as we could.”

But given the pending litigation and the continual disagreements between Moore and the current township board, Monday’s meeting might not end in an immediate resolution.

Moore sought approval during last week’s board meeting to go to referendum with the $3.5 million project, but trustees disagreed.

Despite 109 registered voters who have signed a petition to request a referendum, Moore might continue to face obstacles in getting the project onto the February 2010 ballot.

The special board meeting will be at 9 p.m. Monday – a time Moore said all trustees would be available – at First Congregational Church, 11628 E. Main St. in Huntley.