Failure of a proposal to purchase a building to house a proposed community center left the city council searching for a way to garner more input and support from the community.

As a result of Monday’s decision, the city also is left searching for other potential sites.

Last Monday, the DeKalb City Council voted down a measure to buy a building at 158 N. Fourth St. by a vote of four to three.

“They voted against the purchase of the building,” said Sue Guio, Community Services Planner for the City of DeKalb. “They haven’t voted against the concept. They’re still looking for more information on the partnership that’s working on that. They still have an opportunity to revisit the issue.”

Michael J. Gonzales, director of NIU’s Center for Latino and Latin American Studies, couldn’t attend the meeting because he was teaching a history class, but expressed disappointment with the vote.

“From what I read, it appeared the council wanted more input from the community and were concerned with the identity of the center,” Gonzales said.

He added if council members have any questions about the proposed center, there were several community groups they could turn to for answers, including Conexion Comunidad, the Interfaith Network, the Pleasant Street Association and several organizations associated with the university.

“I have been in touch with at least one alderman who voted ‘no’ and he asked for more information from the partnership,” Guio said.

Third ward Ald. Steve Kapitan pointed out that the Community Development Department memo Guio drafted to bring the council up to date on the center was distributed to the council members just before the meeting, leaving aldermen little time to digest it.

“Input from the community at large I think would be important to the (proposed center’s) grant committee,” Kapitan said.

According to the memo, the group behind the proposed center is soliciting names from the city council for people to sit on the Community Advisory Committee, but Kapitan found it frustrating that the memo did not disclose who already is sitting on the Partnership and Grant Committees.

“We wanted to discuss the ownership and operations of the building, who would control the building and how the operation would be funded,” Kapitan said.

He also expressed concern about who would hold the ownership of the building.

“I’m skeptical that Conexion Comunidad would be the appropriate organization to retain ownership of the building, because their mission is to serve the Latino community,” he said.

Kapitan’s ward has a higher Latino population than any other in DeKalb.

“That is a very fine mission and an important one in this community, but any community center should have a broader mission,” he said.

Kapitan added he wants the broader community to welcome Latinos and would like to see Latinos reach out to other groups in the community, but fears an exclusively Latino center, or even a center that was perceived as being exclusively for Latinos, would lead to balkanization.

Guio noted the issue could be revived as early as April 22 if one of the aldermen who voted against purchasing the building chooses to bring it back.

Guio traced the impetus to create the proposed community center to Conexion Comunidad and city government findings that Latino residents of DeKalb could benefit from the resources of a community center.

“There were two joint meetings of the Cultural Affairs Commission and the Human Relations Commission with individuals who dealt with outreach to the Latino community that were held at city hall and Kishwaukee College while Bessie Chronopoulos was mayor,” Guio explained.

Chronopoulos said her administration found a lot of people with low and moderate incomes were under-served by city government.

Services the center would provide include ESL courses and child daycare. People who perceived a bias against them on the part of the city or county government, or from a private party also could receive assistance through the mediation of an ombudsman provided by the center.

Guio said the building at 158 N. Fourth Street would be perfect for these services with its stage, gymnasium, kitchen, classrooms and offices.

“It should allay the fears of people who point to the general fund and worry we shouldn’t be buying a building when we can’t hire new cops, that the money is already available and doesn’t come from the general fund,” Guio said.

Guio explained the funding for the center would come from a Community Development Block Grant through the Housing and Urban Development office.

“We can only use this money to buy a building,” she said “We can’t use this money to hire cops.”

Guio said the city has applied for two federal grants to purchase the facility and operate the programs through Kishwaukee and NIU.

Combined, the grants may be worth up to $800,000, she added.

Additional funding from the state may be in the center’s future for purposes other than simply purchasing the building for the center.

‘We’ve heard from state officials who said they thought they could channel resources into the center,” Gonzales said.

“If we are going to go in the direction of a new program it needs to be done well, it needs to be done openly, it needs to be done only with the support of the whole Community,” Fifth ward Ald. Pat Conboy said.

Gonzales said he just hopes the council doesn’t drop the issue after voting down one proposal.