School District in wait-and-see mode

After mailing the Village of Cedar Grove an offer to purchase a 4.4-acre piece of land, the Cedar Grove-Belgium School District is waiting for a response.

The district is seeking to buy what’s known as Calvary Field, which is surrounded by district land and Calvary Orthodox Presbyterian Church. It sent the village an offer to purchase the land in February.

The village tabled the issue at its March monthly meeting.

 The land has a baseball field that the village uses for youth leagues. The school district would like to use it for its softball program, which travels to Belgium for games at Heritage Park.

Cedar Grove is developing athletic fields on land west of the village, but they won’t be ready until at least 2020, School Board President Chad Hoopman said last month. 

Village President Mike DeHaai responded to Supt. Jeanne Courneene’s inquiry about the purchase offer last week.

“The village had questions about utilization of Calvary Field and how their needs could be accommodated during the time of the village’s sports field project they are undertaking. I reassured Village President DeHaai the district would work with the village in utilizing the Calvary Field as long as needed and that communication would be key from the district and the village in identifying field needs during the village’s field construction project so that plans could be made accordingly,” Courneene said.

The next Village Board meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday, April 8.