Dolton buying Pope Leo XIV's childhood home in village, price uncertain
The Village Board at a special meeting Tuesday voted unanimously to move forward on buying the house at 212 East 141st Place, and said there are plans to buy an adjacent home.
Mayor Jason House told reporters after the meeting he hoped the village could close on the purchase in a couple of weeks, but that the final purchase price is still up in the air.
House said that the chance to buy the home is a 'once-in-a-lifetime opportunity' and a 'historic movement moving forward' for Dolton.
'We can either seize the moment and move it forward or we can let that moment to go an investor,' House told the audience.
An auction of the home by New York-based Paramount Realty USA is scheduled to close by 4 p.m. Chicago time July 17, according to Paramount's website. A reserve price of $250,000 is set for the home. The auction was to close last month but was extended.
A resident filed a federal lawsuit seeking to block the village from using taxpayer funds to buy the home, but a judge recently said Dolton could proceed with plans to secure the property through its current owner.
Robert Francis Prevost lived with his parents and sibilings for many years in the home, and it's become a tourist destination since his election as pope. Dolton has had to have police regularly patrol the neighborhood.
Before the Village Board vote, residents said they were concerned about the money being spent considering the village's financial condition, with a massive backlog of unpaid bills and streets that are in poor condition because the funds are not there to repair them.
The Rev. Ryan Reese, a village resident and pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church in Lansing, said board members 'have a difficult situation figuring our the finances of the community' and that 'we need to make sure the funding (the village has) is spent wisely.'
Reese said there are numerous infrastructure issues facing the village, such as the condition of streets.
'I'm not sure this is the first priority,' he told trustees before the vote.
Resident Mary Avent, recently elected as a trustee in Thornton Township, said that she too is concerned about the state of village finances and not just the initial outlay for the home but also ongoing maintenance costs.
'With the state we're in, my concern is, do we have the money?' she asked.
Prevost lived in the home from his birth in 1955, and his parents lived there until they sold it in 1996.
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