Nauvoo to finalize city purchase of former school Tuesday

NAUVOO, Ill. - The Nauvoo City Council will finalize its purchase agreement for the former school Tuesday night.

In January, the council voted to purchase the school from the school district for $231,600. The city will not be official owners of the 1923 elementary school building until the end of the fiscal year in July.

"We are finalizing the purchase agreement with the school and should take ownership Aug. 1," mayor John McCarty said.

Last month, the city council was presented with numbers on how much it would cost to redo the former school as a community center.

David Leonatti of Melotte Morse Leonatti Parker Architects of Springfield, Ill., told the council it would take about $1.4 million to rehabilitate the building.

"Any of the rehabilitation can also be phased, so you only budget for so much to be done (in stages)," Leonatti said.

Leonatti also discussed possible phases. Turning the first floor of the original 1923 building into a new library would cost $322,000. Other phases included updating bathrooms to be handicapped accessible at $109,700 and updating the rest of the interior at $718,000. Exterior updates are estimated at $293,000.

"It's an older building. It has issues that have to be dealt with for continued use," Leonatti said.

The council decided to move forward with getting numbers for how much it would cost to build a new building after learning the estimated cost of rehabbing the former grade school may be more expensive than building new.

"This is just to get more facts and figures. We've guesstimated up to this point," McCarty said.

The town put forward $2,000 of a $10,000 gift to the city to hire a consultant to provide numbers on a new build.

The city is in the process of establishing a community center and new facility for the library and city hall. The council is hoping to raise funds to pay for either the rehabilitation of the former school building or the construction of a new building without a city tax increase or bond issue. Nauvoo hasn't had a large group facility since the Joseph Smith Academy, owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was torn down in 2007.

"The goal of this whole project is to get a new library, city hall and community center for the public in town without a tax burden to the city," McCarty said.

The council discuss the costs of a new building at its meeting in June.