BY DAVE PARRO
Obviously there's a lot that goes into buying a square city block and tearing it down to make way for a $50 million college campus. But it was starting to seem like Waubonsee Community College was going to let 15 already-deteriorating buildings in the heart of downtown Aurora crumble to the ground.
The college announced Monday that demolition work will start Friday for its new state-of-the-art campus. That's welcome news that came far too long after all the tenants had moved out of the old buildings on River Street.
While it's hard to criticize an institution making such a significant investment in downtown Aurora, WCC officials have been curiously vague about their plans for the site. They angered members of a downtown Aurora review board in January while seeking approval for demolition because they couldn't or wouldn't answer questions about important issues like size of the facility and parking. After currying so much favor with the public and elected officials when the project was announced in November 2003, it's hard to believe WCC administrators have dragged their feet for so long.
It's time to move forward and see what Waubonsee has planned for the block between Downer Place and Galena Boulevard. The new campus will be a major catalyst for downtown redevelopment. It just shouldn't have taken four years to get here.
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