Despite public concern voiced at Tuesday night’s meeting, the city council intends to pass a resolution on Dec. 17 to close parts of Seventh Street, so the university can extend the campus with the completion of the new Doudna Fine Arts Building.

As a result of private property restraints on north Seventh Street near Lincoln Avenue across from campus, Seventh Street will close for pedestrian use starting at about the steam plant and will reach the Tarble Arts Center.

For the parts of Seventh Street that are left on the furthest ends of the street next to campus, the north segment near Lincoln Avenue would most likely be turned into a one-way street going southbound.

Cougill said he wasn’t sure what the university planned for the south end of the street near Andrews Hall

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Andrews Hall.

The section of Seventh Street that the university wants to close is valued at $480,000, however, the university does not have the funds to cover it. So in order to pay back the city, the money would be converted into semester hours of the current year’s price. That would equal 4,426 semester hours and the city would have those hours to cash in for the inflated price of semester hours for 10 years.

In that 10 years the city could ask the university for any number of those hours at a time.

Through this plan the city could benefit from the inflation of semester hours at Eastern, that would act as interest, and the university would not have to come up with $480,000 right away but still be able to pursue with the Doudna building’s plans.

Instead of cashing in those semester hours, the city instead will use the money to send six to seven Charleston students, no matter the age, to Eastern with full-paid scholarships per year.

In this way, the city could improve their relationship with the university by giving students free tuition hours.

So over the 10-year period of time, the city would be able to send about 40 Charleston students to Eastern and still have some money left over. The semester hours left over would be given out to city employees to learn specific education such as computer or technology skills.

The public complaints stem from the university side of the bargain, however. Two residents expressed concern Tuesday that with the payment plan proposed the city will never see any of the money for closing the street because the current budget setbacks most likely will not bounce back.

Cougill said he expects the council to pass the resolution at its next meeting on Dec. 17 so that the university can take the plan to be approved by the Board of Trustees at their next meeting on Dec. 20.

Also Tuesday, the council passed an ordinance allowing Cellular One to use the cellular communications tower that is located at 1611 Redbud Road on Illinois Route 16 between Charleston and Mattoon. The company intends to improve its coverage by using the city’s tower.