Hortencia Almazan has spent 30 years on Herkimer Street in Joliet, first as a young Mexican emigre living with 10 brothers and sisters in a small house and then in a neighboring home as a mother of three.
Now, Almazan and her family may be forced from the only American neighborhood they have known.
Joliet High School District 204 has filed suit, notifying Almazan, her mother and three other homeowners that the district plans to take their properties through its powers of eminent domain. The district wants the land for future expansion of Joliet Central High School.
The legal maneuver surprised and saddened Almazan, who emigrated from Zacatecas, Mexico, when she was 12.
“I can’t imagine life anywhere else except right here on this block,” said Almazan, who lives next door to her 67-year-old mother. “I was raised here. My kids were raised here and we have lots of good memories of our lives here. I don’t know where we would go.”
Almazan and the other Mexican immigrants who live on Herkimer Street are worried about their futures. But they also are angry at how District 204 officials have handled the matter.
Almazan said that about 5 p.m. on a recent Friday she got a hand-delivered letter from the district’s attorney notifying her that “a client” wanted to buy the two Herkimer Street homes she owns. The letter offered to pay Almazan $44,000 and $60,000 for the homes and gave her until 11 a.m. the next Monday to accept the deal “at which time the offer will be withdrawn.”
Nowhere on the letter was District 204 identified as the “client.” The letter also did not mention that a lawsuit would follow.
“I didn’t know what it was and I had no intention of selling so I ignored the letter,” Almazan said.
Unbeknownst to the homeowners, though, the Joliet school board voted at noon that same Monday to file suit in Will County Circuit Court. Almazan said she found out about the legal action Monday afternoon from a local newspaper reporter.
“I think it was a little sneaky,” she said.
District 204 Assistant Supt. David Sellers defended the district’s actions and said the legal filing was a typical first step when a government entity plans to buy homes through its eminent domain powers. He said district officials did not identify themselves on the letter, at the suggestion of their attorneys.
“This was the approach recommended by our attorneys,” he said. “This was simply the mechanical process that sets in motion the negotiations.”
Sellers said the district already has offered to pay 10 percent more than fair market value for the properties and has offered to give homeowners three years to move. “We are not interested in pushing anybody out of their home,” he said. “We want a smooth transition and we want to operate in fairness.”
District 204 officials are in no rush to expand Joliet Central High School. Right now, the school is large enough for its 2,400 students. But if enrollment trends continue, Central will be out of space in a few years. Sellers estimates enrollment will climb to 3,000 by the 2006-07 school year.
For nearly a decade, district officials have been eyeing Almazan’s home and all the other property bounded by Herkimer, Collins, Cass and Jefferson Streets. They had hoped to buy the homes as they went on the market. But their snail-like plans were foiled a few months ago when a private developer bought three homes on Collins and bulldozed them to make room for a video store.
Sellers said the district now fears a developer might go after the homes on Herkimer. If that happens, the district would find itself in a bidding war over the homes. When the district filed suit, it effectively gave the district first rights to buy the houses and froze the price at the current fair market value.
“It is in the best interest of the district, from an economic perspective of our taxpayers, to not compete with a commercial developer for these residential properties,” Sellers said.
