(Editor's Note: Please see the accompanying sidebar on pages 4-5 of the six options for the future uses of St. Paul's as they were presented by Trustee John Mauk at a recent Estates POA meeting and as they appeared in the Estates POA and EPOA newsletters.)

Disappointed with the Village Facts recently mailed to residents about St. Paul's, both the Estates and Eastern Property Owners' Associations (Estate POA, EPOA) condensed a presentation Trustee John Mauk recently made on the issue. From that presentation, both POAs created a detailed newsletter about St. Paul's and mailed it to their respective residents prior to this Thursday's St. Paul's forum in the middle school auditorium at 8 p.m.

EPOA President James Carney thinks the current Village Facts failed to incorporate any positives and negatives attached to the various options currently on the table for the historic building's future. "It was nothing more than a rehash of the Village Facts that was put out in 2000. It was the same format and contained the same information and we didn't find it to be legible, readable and informative for our residents," he said.

Carney noted that the EPOA, "for probably the last 18 months," had been asking their trustees to publish a comprehensive Village Facts on the St. Paul's issue because it's probably the most important issue in the village.

"We've asked them at every meeting we've had. They promised us that the trustees were going to produce a Facts," he said. "When it was produced, we were very disappointed with the quality of the document that went out."

Crediting Estates POA President Jon Schwieger, who condensed Mauk's presentation, made at the Estates POA's fall meeting, Carney said, "At the joint conference meeting, we discussed that presentation and John [Mauk] made it available to all the property owners' associations if they wanted to read it, distribute it or do whatever they wanted with it."

After Carney evaluated Mauk's presentation, he sent it to his POA board, who then reviewed it. "We felt that, in keeping with our duties of informing our residents in the East, the most beneficial thing we could do was make it available to all of our residents," Carney explained.

The newsletter was mailed to all residents of the East, which makes up approximately 40 percent of the village's population, earlier this week. Many readers might have received it at this time.

Estates POA directors asked Mauk to give the presentation because the latest Village Facts was not ready for the Estates POA's only fall general members' meeting. "This is not a replacement for the Village Facts, which gave a good listing of events leading to the present and a good listing of the costs of the alternatives being considered by the board of trustees," Schwieger noted.

However, Mauk's presentation provided a "more detailed explanation of the composition of the alternatives and provided positives and negatives of each so that Estates members could get a balanced understanding of the alternatives," Schwieger said, adding that, as always, only a small percentage of the Estates POA membership attended the fall meeting. Estates section residents also received a copy of the newsletter by mail prior to this Thursday's forum.

During the Nov. 6 village board work session, trustees discussed what direction the forum would take and those slated to sit on the panel. Mauk disagreed on the number of consultants or "experts" expected to speak. "I don't think we'll be able to make this presentation in one night," he said. "I don't see the need for Frank Fish, the library consultants and the real estate appraiser being there. I think the people want to know what it's going to mean for the individual taxpayer."

Trustee Gerard Lundquist, concerned about the forum's two-hour time frame, thought it prudent to attach time limits to each presentation. That way, residents will be given ample time to ask questions - possibly the most important aspect of the evening. "Two hours is not a lot of time, especially when you have professionals well versed in their fields speaking," Lundquist said.

Trustee Robert Rothschild, however, thought his fellow board members were attempting to reinvent the wheel. "John's [Mauk] presentation at the Estates POA meeting got to the crux of what we're talking about. His presentation was very well-received," he said. "We need to put a presentation on the table and John already did that."

Advocating that Mauk make the presentation at this Thursday's forum, Rothschild reminded fellow board members that Trustee Peter Bee, chair of the board's Public Use "P-Zone" Committee, made a presentation last month at the high school with his committee and consultants. "I think the same thing should be done," Rothschild said. "It's quite appropriate for the chair of the St. Paul's Committee to make the presentation. There's nothing there that's for or against anything - it just lays out the options."

Mayor Barbara Miller, however, thought it would serve the public best if the experts spoke. "You need the experts. The trustees should sit back and listen to the experts and residents," she said. "There's wisdom in sitting back and listening to residents and they should get their answers that evening, unless of course follow-up is needed."

Mauk - who still believes that one person rather than a panel of consultants should give the presentation - told Miller that he wasn't "pushing" himself to do the presentation, just reiterating that having so many people speaking could break up the forum's presentation.

Nevertheless, Village Administrator Robert Schoelle, Jr. agreed to add time limits to each of the consultants' presentations, ensuring enough time be allotted for a question-and-answer period.