The bottom two feet or so of the deep end of the otherwise empty pool holds amber-colored ice with a lone beach ball resting on top of it. Mold covers the high ceiling in the dining hall while the floor below has buckled. During the Polar Vortex winter of 2014, pipes burst in several structures, including dorms and the admissions building.
“There was an issue with the utility companies, an error in transferring bills that led to shut-offs that led to the damage,” Elgin building operations worker Glen Dettman said during a recent tour of the Fox River Country Day School.
Dettman also noted that, for a time, vandals were breaking into some of the buildings, damaging property and tagging walls with graffiti. Homeless people occasionally sought shelter in the empty halls, too.
In August, the city moved police officer Greg Lynch into what was the headmaster’s home on the campus. Lynch, part of the city’s Resident Officer Program of Elgin, said he enjoys living in the big home with his dog.
Warmer weather means more people wandering back — sometimes those just curious to see the property, other times youths who may or may not be up to mischief or worse.
These are just some of the more obvious issues seen or mentioned on a recent tour of the 11 buildings that make up the campus of the empty Fox River Country Day School, now owned by the city of Elgin. The school closed in 2011.
The city is reviewing two proposals from potential buyers of the campus: one from a Chinese businessman who wants to turn the spot into an exclusive, nonprofit boarding school; the other from a Barrington businessman and his nonprofit group, which hope to use the school property to open a “holistic treatment center.” Both offers for the site are $100,000.
In April, 2013, in a complicated deal, the City Council approved an intergovernmental agreement involving the Illinois Tollway Authority that divvied up the land where the Fox River Country Day School is located on Elgin’s far northeastern side between the city, the Kane County Forest Preserve District and Max McGraw Wildlife Foundation, which is adjacent to the school.
The tollway authority covered about $2.6 million of the purchase, with McGraw kicking in $600,000 for about seven of the 50 or so acres — called the lowlands — that are closest to McGraw’s property and which are next to a unique fen. That fen and a total of about half the site is now forest preserve land. The remainder of the land, called the uplands, is the city’s and includes the school buildings.
Late last May, the City Council decided to seek requests for proposals from parties that might be interested in leasing or buying its portion of the property, which is in Dundee Township off Route 25. The proposals for a school and holistic center were the only ones received.
In May, Councilman Terry Gavin cautioned that there probably would not be anyone offering a high value deal for the site, while Councilman Toby Shaw said that the goal for the taxpayers of Elgin should be to try to offload the property.
In November 2013 the council had also sought proposals and only received two responses. The Elgin Charter School Initiative, with its hopes to start the Elgin Math and Science Academy, offered a plan to use some of the buildings and a graduated payment structure for renting the facilities. Elgin Academy intended to use some of the property for summer programming and possibly for housing foreign students.
In March, the council tabled consideration of the proposed lease with the Elgin Charter School Initiative and left the matter in limbo. Since then, the initiative’s plans for the Elgin Math and Science Academy were rejected by District U46 and the state.
City staff members noted in May that of the campus’ 11 structures, all need roof repairs or replacement except the Neil Building and a silo, with the tally for all the roof work estimated at a $1,001,800.
That month, the council decided to advance a job order allowing more than $600,000 of the work on the gym and pool building, the administration building and a dining hall. However, that money has not been spent.
According to information provided by the city, in 2014, Elgin’s utility bills for the property totaled $548.52 to ComEd and $3,137.59 to Nicor.
Annual bills for two water meters totaled $690 each. Because of a leak, another meter used $5,315.12 worth of water, with the city estimating that would have been $690 without the leak. A fourth meter used $1,387.25 worth of water — an amount city staff estimated would have been $243.66 without the water leak.
Thus, according to information provided to the city in the proposal from those behind the boarding school plan, the cost of repairs, renovations and other work to the day school buildings, roads and infrastructure would be between $5 million and $6 million. Those behind the treatment center proposal have claimed that tab could be between $6 million and $9 million.
In one example, the boarding school proposal notes that the admissions building — which was designed in 1928 by John Van Bergen, who worked for Frank Lloyd Wright — is “in need of numerous repairs due to both deferred maintenance as well as water damage.”
“We anticipate the main floor can be used while we begin work on the water damage, replacing the existing boiler system and the issue of mold. It will also require exterior window replacement, roof replacement, stucco repair and energy efficiency upgrades,” the document notes.
It adds, “We recognize that, because of its architectural significance, both the exterior and interior work will need to be carefully designed and repaired by contractors qualified to perform historic renovations. In addition to utilizing our working capital we intend to seek specific grants for restoring historic buildings.”
