TIF grant to pay for half of improvements
By NICK VLAHOS
For The Weekly Post
ELMWOOD – A former doctor’s office in downtown Elmwood is being converted to another medicinal purpose – this one for the mind and soul, perhaps.
The Elmwood Center for the Humanities is scheduled to open sometime next spring at 120 W. Main St., according to its primary organizer. Elmwood-area resident Bill Seipel said the center is to feature an art gallery-museum, arts-related classrooms and a coffee shop.
“I want to see this turn into a place where somebody can go in the daytime and appreciate the art that’s on the wall, or if they see a program they’re interested in signing up for and they want to learn how to paint, they can sign up,” he told The Weekly Post. “Or if they want to go have a cup of coffee, they can.”
Seipel also addressed the Elmwood City Council when it met Oct. 8. The council voted to give his not-for-profit group a $4,377.22 tax-increment-financing grant to cover half the cost of improvements to the building. A new awning and an exterior paint job are to be among the updates.
The humanities-center board purchased the building Aug. 5 from Urbana-based Carle Health for $0, according to deed information released by the Peoria County Clerk.
The building had had housed various doctors’ offices since the 1970s but was empty the past few years, according to Seipel. The software developer also is on the board of The Palace Theater, which is next door.
A possible expansion of the theater into the doctor’s office proved impractical, Seipel said. That led to the arts-focused alternative use.
Seipel is joined on the humanities-center board by his brother Dan Seipel, a software developer from Metamora; KiLee Lidwell-McFerren, principal of Lincoln Elementary School in Canton; Lindsay Powers, a Dunlap High School art teacher; and Ritchie Savage, a sociology professor at Bradley University in Peoria.
The gallery-museum is to feature different exhibits each quarter and be open from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. most days, according to Bill Seipel. The classrooms might feature instruction in painting, creative writing, crocheting and music.
Seipel envisions the center as a small-town, permanent version of the annual Peoria Art Guild Fine Art Fair – a place for local and regional artists to display their work. An outdoor arts fair like the Peoria one also is on the wish list.
Coffee-shop hours might be 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., according to Seipel. That is the only for-profit aspect of the center.
“Anything you can buy in Starbucks will be available here, hopefully,” Seipel said. “This is meant for the community. This is not for the inurement of anybody specifically.”
In other business, the council selected Gerri Pettit as the winner of the Citizen of the Season Award for summer. Alderman Kenny Blum cited Pettit’s work with the local Meals on Wheels organization.
Blum also said four municipal-funded lights were authorized to be placed above the alley along Main Street between H&H Industries, Inc., and David Vaughan’s insurance office. The four gooseneck fixtures purchased from H&H have been mounted on its building.
The lights are designed to benefit customers of the theater, among other uses, according to Blum.
“When the movie lets out, a lot of people access that (alley) to the parking lot, and it’s dark,” he said. “These lights are pretty cool.”
The $3,708 cost is to come from the city marketing budget, according to Blum. The city is to own and maintain the lights.
