Sterling approves agreement with church

BY JOSEPH BUSTOS SVN REPORTER jbustos@svnmail.com STERLING - When Abiding Word flock's new church is constructed at the corner of Lynn Boulevard and Sixth Avenue, the church will have to help pay for some of the infrastructure. The City Council Monday approved an annexation agreement with Abiding Word Christian Center for a 33-acre site where the congregation is building the new Abiding Word Church. The city annexed the land last year. Under the agreement, Abiding Word must set aside 5 acres of the land for a storm water detention pond, pay the city $82,740 to help build the pond and pay $5,647 to connect sewer to the church. The city estimates the storm water detention pond will cost $390,000. The Green Ridge subdivision has contributed to the project. Future developments will help pay for the cost of the detention pond, City Manager Jay Wieland said. "It will help us alleviate some of the problems we have downstream ...," Wieland said. Under the annexation agreement, the city will build the detention pond and extend sewer out to East 28th Street (Crane Road). The council awarded D.R. Gilbert & Sons, of Rochelle, the bid to
construct the sewer extension for roughly $140,000. The city budgeted $200,000 for the project. The sewer also will open the area to the north for future development. To help with future developments in the town, the City Council appointed Eric Larson and H. John Stauter to the Plan Commission at its Monday meeting. The two new members are replacing Marvin Shearer and Bob Reitzel, two long-time commissioners who recently died within a month-and-half of each other. Larson, who's term will expire in June 2010, will replace Shearer, who died on March 31. Stauter will complete the term of Reitzel, who died on May 8. The term expires in one year. Ten people applied to be on the Plan Commission. "It shows that people are truly interested in what goes on in the city," Mayor Amy Viering said. The two were chosen based how they would work within the current structure of the Plan Commission, Wieland said. The City Council also voted to expand the number of people on the Industrial Commission from three members to seven, in order to include more perspectives on the commission. The commission will include city manager and the chairperson of the Greater Sterling Development Corp. , but they would be non-voting members. The commission will now include the Mayor, an alderman, a business owner, a representative from an educational institution and a representative who is a current tenant of the Small Business and Technology Center, also known as the incubator. The council was happy to know that the commission will include a diverse set of views. "All to often I hear industrial development takes place leaving schools in a vacuum," Alderman At-Large Skip Lee said. "I think this involves them."