Even though the Ottawa City Council placed on a file a 5-year lease agreement for IVCC to move into a Centrue Bank building last night, it wasn’t without hesitation.
Commissioner Dan Aussem says the cost of turning the bank into classrooms keeps going up. He says the city’s costs are up over a million and a half dollars when they wanted it to be a million dollars at most. Aussem also pointed out that annual costs built into the lease will lessen the return on the city’s investment. The college is expected to pay around 650 thousand dollars rent to the city over the 5-year agreement.
The council decided to try and schedule a working meeting with the IVCC board next week before officially approving the lease. IVCC President Jerry Corcoran was at the council meeting and thanked the city for their partnership during the public comment part of the meeting.