State and local officials meet with Gov. Quinn on Lincoln Estates' future

(Original article posted Thursday afternoon)

[May 15, 2009]  After 3 1/2 months of waiting for an opportunity, Mayor Keith Snyder, former Mayor Beth Davis-Kavelman, Sen. Larry Bomke and Rep. Rich Brauer were invited to the office of Gov. Pat Quinn for a face-to-face meeting Wednesday afternoon regarding the future of Lincoln Estates, formerly known as Lincoln Developmental Center.

The Lincoln Developmental Center was closed by Gov. George Ryan in 2002.

During his campaign for governor, Rod Blagojevich promised to reopen the center in some fashion, but he failed to fulfill that promise.

Davis-Kavelman and Bomke have been continually involved since then in trying to accomplish some kind of resurrection of the campus.

With a new governor in office, the push is back on to make something happen, and according to Davis-Kavelman, as well as comments made by Snyder in an interview on Wednesday, they are hopeful that Quinn will respond favorably.

Snyder said that the new governor spoke favorably about the city of Lincoln on the whole. Quinn made visits to the city as lieutenant governor, attending the funerals of two soldiers and also visiting Main Street Lincoln. Snyder added that the governor spoke highly of the Main Street organization.

Snyder said that he had offered an idea to Quinn that he thought the governor found very appealing. Snyder explained that the facility would be a perfect location for a computer backup bank. Many businesses and even state agencies are using off-site backups for their computer files. The purpose behind this is that if a catastrophic event were to occur, the off-site location would preserve important data. As an example, the city of Lincoln is 30-some miles from the city of Springfield. If a devastating fire were to occur in Springfield, it is not likely that it would travel up Interstate 55 and destroy the LDC campus as well.

Snyder and Davis-Kavelman both stated that Quinn was receptive to the idea of reopening Lincoln Estates in some capacity if federal stimulus or state funding could be obtained.

Davis-Kavelman said that she provided the new mayor with a two-page summary of the public hearing held March 17, 2005, in the city council chambers to gather ideas for uses of the grounds. The document listed then-interested individuals and groups who submitted their wishes to rent or be given rent-free square footage on the state-owned Lincoln Estates grounds for their individual economic and social purposes.

Snyder now has the two-page list of parties who expressed an interest in 2005 in using all or a portion of the LDC campus, and he would like to move forward with an open house of sorts. He said that he would like to invite interested parties to tour the facility and give them a chance to "dream" about what they could do with one or more of the buildings.

Both Snyder and Davis-Kavelman left the meeting with Gov. Quinn feeling that there could be hope for the future of the Lincoln Estates facility.

[By NILA SMITH]