SUBMITTED PHOTO Belvidere Republican
Rendering of the new Belvidere Cemetery Annex from the architectural office of Ollmann, Ernest, Martin, Belvidere.

 

By Bob Balgemann

REPORTER

Fairgrounds Road is one of the main entrances to the city and soon it will showcase a new building, designed by the local architectural and engineering firm of Ollmann, Ernest and Martin.

The new office will serve the Belvidere Cemetery, final resting place of numerous people of historic significance and site of the Pettit Chapel, designed by renowned architect and interior designer Frank Lloyd Wright, and built in 1907. The chapel is on both the National Register of Historic Places and the Illinois Register of Historic Places.

It was built in memory of Dr. William H. Pettit, who was born and raised in Belvidere. After obtaining his medical training at Hahnemann College in Chicago, he practiced medicine in Cedar Falls, Iowa, for 27 years until his untimely death in 1899. Wright was commissioned by his widow, Emma, to design the chapel in his memory.

Design of the office will be in the style of the chapel, one of few ever built by Wright.

Attorney Mike Schultz provided background on the matter.

He said the cemetery association was one of the oldest organizations in Boone County – Belvidere. It was established by special legislature authority in 1847 and it’s been in operation ever since.

Currently, the administrative office is located just south of the property. Of that building, he said, “It’s not large enough, it’s not modern, it’s not very convenient.” It would be better, he said, to have a nice place to host families looking to plan their own burials, or a loved one’s burial. It would be nice to have a modern facility with modern amenities.

In addition, a newer building would allow the association to better highlight the Pettit Chapel, be more welcoming to the public and be easier to find, he said.

Right now, he said the cemetery association consists of six separate parcels, two of which are in the city but the others are in in Belvidere Township. He was there with two other association officials and said, “We are here tonight to ask that the annexation agreement be submitted to the full city council, to have the other parcels annexed in. The parcel on which the association wants to build the new office is off of Fairgrounds Road. It will be a one-story building, about 1,700-square feet in size. It will be a real benefit to the community.”

City Attorney Mike Drella said he found a typo in the annexation agreement, stating the cemetery association would not have to pay a $5,400 annexation fee. Actually, the amount being waived was $540.

He also mentioned some other fees that were being waived such as the one for tornado siren planning and capital improvements, well site/reservoir planning and improvements, sewer system planning and expansion, each being $50 an acre.

A charge he described as a big ticket fee was for school impact, which didn’t apply to the association because it didn’t plan to build any residences. But sewer fees and connection fees would not be waived, he added.

There were no questions from aldermen, or discussion, and no one asked to speak during the public comment portion of the meeting.

The committee voted unanimously to recommend approval of two ordinances. One was to approve and forward to city council the annexation agreement, the other was to forward to city council an ordinance annexing the property. Those documents were on the agenda

Well repairs

The process of repairing Well No. 4, one of those unexpected expenses that occur every year, is underway.

Public Works Director Brent Anderson informed aldermen at the end of the July 27 Committee of the Whole meeting that well “went down, unfortunately, and our initial inspection indicates we will have to pull it out of the ground to determine what the repairs will be.”

That preliminary inspection proved to be correct, finding that the B Phase of the three-phase service was dead, requiring the well to be pulled from the ground. Three bids were received to do that work, ranging a low of $7,950 to high of $8,900. The committee subsequently voted to recommend awarding the contract to the low bidder, Cahoy Group in Durand. The other bids came from companies in Waupun, Wis. and Elburn.

City council was expected to accept that recommendation at its Aug. 17 meeting.

 

 

 
 
 
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