Around Ford County: Burwell Building rehab gets $5,000 boost; Roberts to condemn property; Paxton's Commandery Building has new tenant

Jeff D'Alessio, The News-Gazette, Champaign-Urbana, Ill.
·1 min read

Feb. 12—The Gibson City Restoration Association is getting an assist in its effort to spruce up downtown's 140-year-old Burwell Building.

Landmarks Illinois announced that the project was one of five statewide that would divvy up $23,000 in grant funding, joining Chicago's First Baptist Congregation Church, El Paso's Project XV Museum, Macomb's Western Illinois Museum and Middletown's Knapp Chesnut Becker Historical Society.

The Burwell project will receive $5,000, which is $3,000 less than the Gibson City Restoration Association purchased it for in 2019 and set out to rehabilitate.

The Landmarks grant is one of several the owners have applied for in its bid to revitalize the two-story, 10,000-square-foot building at 107 N. Sangamon Ave.

VILLAGE OF ROBERTS

Ordinance officer Ashley Viner informed the village board that the condemnation of the property at 246 N. Main St. will commence despite the property owner stating that cleanup has begun.

"Little, if any, visual evidence exists of the clean-up," Mayor Matt Vaughan reports.

Viner also told the board that a burned house on West Green Street has been sold and the new owner plans to tear it down, put gravel on the lot and park extra vehicles on the property.

CITY OF PAXTON

Illinois' top small non-daily newspaper is the newest tenant of downtown's Commandery Building. Ford County Chronicle co-publishers Will Brumleve and Andrew Rosten moved into their second-floor office in the 138-year-old building this week, along with the David B. Kramer Memorial Trophy they brought back from last year's Illinois Press Association awards banquet.

The public is welcome to stop by weekdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.