Story posted Wednesday, October 28, 2009
U.S. Postal Service Petitions Against Local Rent Increase
By TOM ROBB Journal & Topics Reporter
Federal officials don't want any increases in rent over the next five years for Niles' U.S. Post Office building.
Niles Finance Committee members went into closed session last week to discuss an unsolicited lease renewal proposal recently sent to Village Manager George Van Geem from the United States Postal Service (USPS). The village owns the land the Post Office sits on across from village hall on Civic Center Drive.
The village approved double digit hikes in rent the last two times the USPS lease has come up for renewal, but village officials are staying mum on their thoughts about the current proposal.
The USPS currently pays Niles $10,000 a month for the land. The current five-year lease expires in 2011.
Rent on the post office land has been raised twice in this decade. In March 2001 rent was increased 16% from $7,125 to $8,246 per month and in March 2006 rent was increased 21% to its current level from $8,246 to $10,000 per month.
Federal officials offered the village an agreement that would see no increase in rent for the next five years and would also include an option limiting rent increases to one 4.2% hike for the following five years, according to village Finance Director Scot Neukirch. The issue was not resolved in the closed door meeting, Neukirch said.
Neukirch, Van Geem and new Finance Committee member and village trustee James Hynes would not discuss the village's position on the postal service's proposal.
Mayor Robert Callero did not directly return calls to the Journal regarding the lease proposal but responded by issuing a verbal statement through the village clerk saying the matter is in negotiations.
The village has leased the land to the USPS since the mid-1980's.
The Illinois Open Meetings Act allows public bodies to discuss real estate transactions in executive sessions closed to the public.
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