The city of Danville announced Wednesday morning that it has acquired the Old National Bank building and property, located at 2 East Main St. It went to auction earlier this year and the city won with their bid of $446,500 plus closing costs.
Though the city has purchased the building, which currently houses Old National Bank, the bank has a standing lease with the old owners until 2029.
The city is “working diligently to determine the final arrangements regarding the bank’s continued presence in the building,” according to the press release, dated Monday.
The purchase comes as a “strategic investment” which the city intends to utilize as the new Municipal Building. Along with Bresee Tower and the old courthouse annex building, the city plans to have the current municipal building, located on the northeast corner of Main and Walnut, demolished in 2025. The city estimates they will have fully moved into the new building by late 2026 or early 2027.
The decision to acquire the Old National building comes in response to a litany off issues with the current building, including “severe roof leaks, cracking walls, HVAC failures, and the need for a new elevator system,” alone which the Mayor estimated at Tuesday’s city council meeting would cost the city at least half a million dollars.
RC Management Tenant brings “120,000 flies” to council meeting
Sabina Therenceil stepped up to the podium at the city council meeting on Tuesday night armed with two plastic containers full of flies she claimed to have trapped in her Section-8 apartment, which is owned and managed by RC Management.
“Over the past month and a half, I’ve been forced to live with over 120,000 flies, which I brought for you to see and smell,” said Therenceil, setting the containers on the table alongside the podium to the shock of many in the room. “Because of RC management and Vermilion Housing Authority, I’ve had to live in these uninhabitable and illegal conditions because one of Danville’s most powerful landlords neglects his properties, his landlord obligations, and our rental agreement, which the Vermilion County Housing Authority refuses to help me with.”
Thorenceil went on to say she had come representing more than a hundred other RC management tenants with similar complaints of negligence.
“I’m here to shine a spotlight on the urgent and deplorable housing conditions in Vermilion County,” she said before repeatedly requesting the city to host a Town Hall meeting so that tenants may address their concerns openly.
“I would like you and the community to know that we take this seriously. In fact, we have just implemented recently a rental inspection program. We’ve hired two rental inspectors and that’s the only thing that they will do is inspect rental houses,” said Mayor Ricky Williams, Jr. “Over the next four to five years, they will inspect every house and before that they will also be inspecting based upon complaints.”
Williams went on to explain, along with Alderwoman Tricia Teague, that a new ordinance has recently been passed that would charge landlords with the responsibility of paying to help their former tenants move should they retaliate with and eviction order when a tenant files an official complaint with the city.
Williams also directed Therenceil to reach out to Sandra Finch, the city’s Human Resources Administrator, should her calls to the Vermilion County Housing Authority go unanswered, as Therenceil is renting a Section-8 apartment which, according to several aldermen, cannot be inspected by a city inspector as it is a federal property.
Thorenceil insisted she had followed all the proper channels and her pleas had been ignored.
“We have gone above and beyond in this area,” claims Adam Stuhr, owner of RC Management. After having looked through Therenceil’s account, he claimed that her complaints had been addressed and there was still a standing work order with a third-party pest control company that should be dealt with by now or very soon.
Stuhr went on to say that he believes the complaints from other tenants references by Therenceil in her city council speech are simply disgruntled former tenants who were evicted for non-payment.
“We evict for nonpayment of rent per month probably 45 to 50 people, so every month there’s 45-50 folks who don’t like us because we had to evict them because they didn’t pay rent,” he said. “So when you can’t pay your rent and we throw you out, now we’re slumlords and we didn’t fix anything in the property.”
Stuhr said the company employs 10 maintenance men and they are always hiring more people, employees who close out at least 60-80 work orders every day, he said.
Stuhr also pointed out that Therenceil and any other Section-8 tenant with complaints that have not been addressed may request a special inspection from the Vermilion Housing Authority anytime, and he estimated those are inspected within a few weeks, at most.
The Vermilion Housing Authority couldn’t be reached for comment by press time.
New Danville Rescue board gives brief update on plans to reopen both homeless shelters
The previously named Vermilion County Restoration (and before that, Danville Rescue Mission) announced a rebranding and new structural plans at the city council meeting on Tuesday night. Due to poor management and a lack of funding sources and volunteers, as well as continued issues with the buildings, Cowen said, both shelters had to close earlier this summer.
“While our name has changed our foundation remains the same. Christ is still at the center of everything we do. However, we have recognized the need for greater structure, stability, and sustainability, which has led to significant improvements in organizational changes,” said Board President Christopher Cowen.
Cowen went on to say that the board — all with less than six months of experience with the orgaqnization — have worked hard to come up with a new framework and set of guidelines for their eventual re-opening of both the men’s and women’s shelters in Danville.
As far as plans to re-open the shelters, Cowen said the board is committed to providing a clear and transparent accounting of the resources they have used and their concrete plans, pending funds raised, at a media day they will be hosting in September.
In order to qualify for grants from the state, said Cowen, the organization must have a shelter that’s been up and running for six consecutive months, something they intend to meet by opening the women’s shelter while they continue raising funds to renovate and improve the men’s shelter, which they said needs substantially more work.
“Our focus is on the women’s shelter and so we have some internal deadlines — October or November, before this weather gets out of hand, we want to have things in place.”
In other business, the city council voted to approve their intergovernmental agreement with Vermilion County to demolish Bresee Tower and the old courthouse annex building.
Next, the Vermilion County Board will have to approve the agreement. Once that is completed, they will issue requests for bids to abolish the buildings. Mayor Williams estimates the buildings could be demolished in about nine months.