Agriculture Complex Approved for IVCC

An agriculture complex at Illinois Valley Community College took a major step forward Thursday with board approval of construction contracts totaling more than $600,000 for a storage and routine maintenance facility.
The 6,000-square-foot metal building will be located just south of campus on the site of the dairy barn that was demolished last December. It will house equipment leased to the Ag program such as tractors, planters and other implements.
The board approved the bids of Vissering Construction of Streator to construct the building for $521,100 and JB Contracting Corporation of La Salle to provide the electrical work for $63,653. Total construction costs of $613,990 include a 5 percent contingency.
In a related action, the board approved transfer of $66,190 to be added to the Capital Development Board trust account at Midland States Bank for the building’s construction.
The college has received over $300,000 in state support for the facility: $164,790 in deferred maintenance and $150,000 in Department of Commerce and Economic Development (DCEO) funding.
Phase II of the agriculture complex is a 6,800-square-foot Agriculture Center complete with a soils lab, classroom/computer lab, conference room, student collaborative space and more. The college hopes to have the entire complex complete by 2022.
In other business, trustees approved a tentative $12.5 million tax levy request for 2019, up less than five percent over the actual 2018 levy extension of $11.9 million.
“The estimated tax rate is .3642, a decrease of slightly less than one percent,” said IVCC Vice President for Business Services and Finance Cheryl Roelfsema. “Though our tax rate is estimated to drop, for homeowners this is less than a one percent decrease in IVCC’s portion of their tax bill and in almost all cases will be less than a $5 decrease.”
The estimated equalized assessed valuation (EAV) of $3.4 billion is 4.99 percent over 2018. The increase will not require a public notice or public hearing when trustees move for final approval Dec. 12.
IVCC levies taxes in all or parts of eight counties: La Salle, Bureau, Putnam, Marshall, Lee, Livingston, Grundy and DeKalb.