INDUSTRY, ILL. -- Update 11/29/11  9:24pm

The community of Industry, Illinois has a big decision on its hands.

The community is trying to figure out what to do with the former school building.

The school district has offered to sell the building and the land to the village for one dollar.

Tuesday night between 50 and 60 residents showed up for a meeting to discuss what to do with the building.   
  
We spoke with Village Board member Scott Jones after the meeting and he told us that the overwhelming consensus among the people was to take the school district up on its offer and purchase the building for the one dollar price tag.

Jones told KHQA that one of the strong sentiments of this meeting was that the school building represented the hopes and dreams of many of community's parents and grandparents and now it is up to the younger generation to preserve their legacy for their children.

The next step is for the Village Board to vote on that plan.

That meeting will be on December 7th.

If the Village Board does agree to the purchase it will be 2 to 3 months before it gets physical ownership of the property.

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The school building in Industry Illinois has served the community since 1957 and this is year the first year no students were in attendance at the building after the Schuyler Industry School District decided to make some changes in where students attended classes. Now there are some community members that want to open a dialogue about what to do with the old school. Right now, the school district has offered the land and the building to the village for a dollar.

"I hope the community does take this opportunity to come out and hear the opportunity that is here for our village to take that will certainly benefit the community and just hear these facts and to share their voice if that's what they want to do," said community resident Christa Miller.

Miller attended school in Industry as did her parents and grandparents.

The building though does need some work though.. An architects estimate calls for a new roof at a possible cost of nearly 400 thousand dollars. And there is some concern about the monthly utility bills. But right now, some of the village residents want to gather as much input as possible from the community to see what they want down with the building.

Scott Jones is a village board member and he said, "It's not appropriate for six people to make this big of a decision of the entire community. The more public input we can get, the better off and a more informed decision will be made.

The actual building has several classrooms and a gymnasium that seats about a thousand people. There is 42,000 square feet of space that can be utilized if a decision is made about the future of the building.

There is a meeting scheduled for Tuesday night November 29, 2001 at 7:00 pm at the United Methodist Church in Industry.