Joliet Park District Rescinds Lease, Township Still Mum On $8.6M Grant

JOLIET TOWNSHIP, IL — More than a week after Joliet was designated as the recipient of an $8.6 million grant to assist in housing asylum seekers, the Joliet Township Board will meet for the first time after city officials said the township did not have the authority to apply for the grant.

The township board will meet at 5 p.m. on Tuesday but has yet to even comment on the grant award, which has become a heated topic, especially for city officials who insist that Joliet will never become a sanctuary city. The topic of the grant is not listed on the meeting agenda, nor is any mention made of asylum seekers or where they may be housed in Joliet as part of the nearly $9 million award.

The township board announced it has moved its meeting to Bicentennial Park to accommodate what is expected to be a large crowd for the meeting.

Joliet Mayor Terry D’Arcy said recently that he had urged Joliet Township Supervisor Angel Contreras to withdraw his application for the grant that would cover the costs of bringing people from other countries seeking asylum status to the area. Instead, Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced that the city had been awarded the grant, which is the second largest handed out by the state, only behind a grant issued to the City of Chicago.

Now, ahead of Tuesday night’s Township Board meeting, the Joliet Park District had issued a statement saying that it is rescinding the lease to the township of the Hartman Recreation Center, which was set to go into effect on Oct. 1. Park District Executive Director Brad Staab said in the statement that the township misrepresented what the township would use the Hartman Center for.

“Until we saw a copy of the grant application and saw the Hartman Recreation Center listed as a Welcome Center, we trusted they were going to do what they said, which was use it for community events, a farmers market, and moving some of their offices from Jefferson Street, NOT a migrant welcome center,” the park district statement said.

“Further, it was a year ago the Joliet Township wanted to buy the Hartman Center but the Park Board wanted to lease it to them for 6 months first to make sure the community responded favorably. A 6-month lease agreement was set to begin Oct 1st. Once the park district learned that they were listed on the grant as a Welcome Center they rescinded the lease.”

Joliet Township Supervisor Angel Contreras has not issued a statement about the grant since it was announced by Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s office in late September. Contreras, who did not immediately respond to a phone message left for him by Patch on Tuesday morning, also did not show up for a pre-City Council meeting last week to answer questions from D’Arcy or from city council members, Patch previously reported.

Among the locations listed on Contreras’ grant application for asylum seekers was the Peter Claver Center, located at 172 S. Chicago Ave., which was one of several locations listed on the applications as Welcome Centers.

Additional locations included:

• 2100 Glenwood Ave., Joliet;
• 309 N. Eastern Ave., Joliet;
• 511 Collins St., Joliet (Hartman Center)
• 172 Chicago St., (the Peter Claver Center), Joliet, by October of 2023.

Since last week’s announcement that the City has been awarded the nearly $9 million grant, Joliet City officials have been contacted by D’Arcy. In a statement issued last week, Will County Board Chair Judy Ogalla supported the Mayor's recommendation that the grant application be pulled back.

"I am very concerned that the County’s Health Department, the Sheriff’s Department, as well as many other county departments can efficiently and monetarily support thousands of asylum seekers," Ogalla said. "In my opinion, it was extremely irresponsible for the Joliet Township to apply for this grant without notifying the City of Joliet and Will County."

Ogalla said that like D'Arcy, she had not had any conversations with Contreras about the township submitting the grant request and was not aware the request was being submitted by Joliet Township officials.

The mayor’s spokesperson, Rosemaria DiBenedetto recently told Patch that the city of Joliet government did not apply for the grant to house asylum seekers coming to Illinois from other countries. Rather, the grant went through Joliet Township government and Supervisor Angel Contreras, she pointed out.

"This has nothing to do with the city of Joliet government," DeBenedetto emphasized. "If residents have concerns about this issue, they should contact Supervisor Angel Contreras and other Joliet Township officials."