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Aurora Beacon-News
September 5, 2002

Hastert looks to buy house northwest of Plano

Still in Kendall: Old house still on market while negotiations on new property continue

By Mike Norbut
STAFF WRITER

YORKVILLE ó It looks like the pride of Yorkville might be leaving town.

U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert is interested in purchasing a property northwest of Plano, Hastert spokesman Brad Hahn confirmed Wednesday. Hahn declined to provide specific details, citing security reasons and saying negotiations on the property were continuing.

"I know it's not closed," Hahn said. "It's still an 'if.' It's not a 'when.' "

While Hahn declined to provide further details, the group Citizens Against the Sprawlway, which opposes the proposed Prairie Parkway, said the home that has caught Hastert's eye rests on 192 acres along Little Rock Creek in northwestern Kendall County. Hahn would not confirm the size, but said it is a larger property.

The Hasterts are still working to sell their current home, a single-story ranch house on Route 34. The riverfront property was put on the market in July, and a Realtor description of the property lists a sale price of $849,900. The house, which Hastert bought in 1986, the year he was first elected to Congress, is on five to 10 acres.

Hastert's three-bedroom, nine-room house includes traditional rooms as well as a basement, recreation room and sun room. Hastert built a nine-car garage on the property where another house owned by the speaker once stood. The other house, where Hastert's father once lived, was damaged by fire in 1995.

Opponents to the Prairie Parkway, the highway designed to connect Interstates 88 and 80 through Kane, Kendall and Grundy counties, found Hastert's pending move ironic. Hastert, one of the chief supporters of the 36-mile outer-belt highway, is moving to a "rural sanctuary" similar to ones that will be cut up by the highway if it is built, said Jan Strasma, spokesman for Citizens Against the Sprawlway.

"This lifestyle is worth preserving, and it looks like the speaker recognizes that," Strasma said.

Hahn said the argument voiced by outer belt opponents was not relevant.

"What does any of this have to do with the transportation needs of this region?" he said. "This is a project that is vital to this region and one (Hastert) has supported for 16 years. The fact that a property has caught his attention over the last few months is a completely separate issue."