CROWN POINT | Although the Crown Point Community Library would prefer not to have to go to court, it received approval Tuesday morning to condemn a house just west of downtown to build a new library and media center.
"Our preference is to negotiate rather than to go right into court," said Lynn Frank, the library's director. "But if we need to, at least we have a resolution."
The approval from the County Council came shortly after Councilwoman Christine Cid asked if all other options had been looked at and ruled out.
Patrick Schuster, a Library Board member, said the library had looked at other locations, but the site at the corner of Joliet Street and Chase Drive was the only one the library could afford.
The library had two appraisals done on the property and offered the average of the two appraisals to the land owner, however, he did not accept the offer. Tuesday morning, the library was asking for council's approval to sue under the eminent domain law to have a judge set a price.
Frank said the library had been searching for a new home for the past nine years and has doubled the amount of items it houses.
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