District will offer to buy village land

Years of discussion about the possibility of purchasing a piece of land the Cedar Grove-Belgium School District has been eyeing has culminated in formal action last week.

The School Board, after meeting in closed session authorized its attorney to create an offer to purchase land known as Calvary Field that abuts district property on three sides. Calvary Orthodox Presbyterian Church borders the land as well.

The 4.4-acre parcel is owned by the Village of Cedar Grove and has a baseball field on it. The village uses it for youth leagues.

The School district would like to buy the land and use it for its softball teams. Games are currently played at Heritage Park in Belgium and the district prefers playing all the games on its campus.

“That’s something we as a board have talked about many times,” board President Chad Hoopman said at last month’s meeting.

The district had met with village officials without reaching a resolution to purchase.

The village, Hoopman said, was to discuss the issue at its November and December board meetings, but nothing came of it.

Minutes from November’s Village Board meeting show that the Park and Recreation  Committee’s recommendation was to continue the existing agreement with the school district until 2021.

The school district has been paying to rent the land for softball games.

The village, Hoopman said, had acquired land to the west of its border with plans to develop it for a soccer field, but it won’t be ready until 2020 at the earliest.

The school district would examine additions to Calvary Field, such as adding restrooms and a fence, Hoopman said, but it won’t make long-term improvements unless there’s a plan in place to own the property down the line.

Hoopman suggested making the offer to purchase to convince the village that the school district is interested in buying the property.

“Short of doing that, I don’t know where this goes,” he said.

The district’s attorney will draft a document to give to the Village Board with the price. Supt. Jeanne Courneene was given authority to negotiate on behalf of the School Board.

December’s School Board discussion led to scheduling the closed-session meeting last week to address the offer to purchase.