Village Pursuing New Public Works, Remodeled Police Department Facilities

Village Board members gave hesitant support last week for a $17 million construction project that would build a new facility and expand the . 

Woodridge Public Works and the Police Department currently share the 40,000-square-foot building at 1 Plaza Drive, next to the and . 

More space is needed for both departments, officials told the Village Board Feb. 9.

Moving forward on the construction aligns with the village's Town Center planning process, which will decide the community's priorities for the 44 acres of land purchased from District 99 last year. 

The first community meetings about the land will be held at the start of summer, and the process is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year. 

While the new 4.5- to 5-acre Public Works facility could potentially go in that space, Mayor William F. Murphy cautioned some residents' fervent interest to keep the space as is. 

Short-term vs. long-term solutions

Village Board members and Murphy were presented with both the long-term building solution as well as some short-term solutions to provide more storage for Woodridge Public Works. 

Under the current plan, Woodridge police would expand operations to the entire 1 Plaza Drive facility. The police department currently uses 17,000 of the 40,000-square-foot space. 

Meanwhile, Woodridge Public Works would get a new facility to tackle several of its current storage needs for things like salt and equipment. The facility is currently planned to be 72,000 square feet. 

The village also considered five mini-projects to tackle the storage woes, including a $110,000 permanent salt storage facility (including $200,000 in grant funding). 

Murphy was the first to voice his thoughts. The village had pushed back building new/expanded facilities recently because of the downturn in the economy. That was appropriate then, he said. It isn't now. 

"It will be more costly to Mr. and Mrs. Woodridge in the future if we do not proceed," Murphy said. 

Village trustees voiced support for the project but hesitated at its $17 million price tag. A previous project to remodel the police department to house a consolidated dispatch center came to $13 million. That project was abandoned when the village chose to transfer dispatch services to DU-COMM to reduce costs. 

Construction on the project could start by 2014, with completion estimated in 2015. 

$17 million price tag 

Of the $17 million, the village would pay $2 million from its capital fund and $15 million from bond issuance. The $1,130,500 debt created would start with a partial payment in FY2016 and the first full payment in FY2017.

Village Board members considered two ways of paying the debt. One option would raise the tax levy, increasing the average taxpayer's property taxes by $80, from $251 to $331. Another would be to raise the village's sales tax by mid-2017. 

Village trustees and Murphy favored the sales tax scenario. Trustee David Pittinger voiced concern that a higher sales tax might drive business to nearby communities. Village staff argued that with the increase, Woodridge would still be lower than Bolingbrook and Downers Grove's current sales taxes and would be in line with Darien and Lisle's current sales taxes. Those sales taxes might also increase in the next five years, as well, officials said. 

Village Administrator Kathleen Rush said because of the Towne Centre planning process, Woodridge staff had time to look into the cost for construction further. 

"We have different ways we can slice the apple," Rush said. The village has goodwill relationships with consultants who can give feedback without compensation, she said. 

"We can refine the numbers and sizes and talk to people about current construction costs," Rush said. 

Police "continue to struggle" with current facility 

The Woodridge police department needs to expand its current facility for specific space needs and to become compliant with state code, Police Chief Ken Boehm told the Village Board. 

"We continue to struggle but always try to make the best of our accommodations," Boehm said. "We strongly feel the need to provide a modern, professional police facility." 

Boehm listed what he said was a brief list of challenges the department faces. They are: 

• Booking and holding cells, the foyer and public and private restrooms and locker rooms are not compliant with American Disabilities Act 
• Holding cells are not compliant with Department of Corrections code because their only design have limited privacy issues 
• One holding cell was converted into "much-needed" storage 
• Sally ports do not support safe handling of multiple prisoners, offer storage, or accommodate more than one squad car or larger vehicles 
• Limited storage space for evidence 
• Limited working areas for evidence technicians, who currently work on whatever table space that is available 
• Employee locker rooms are severely overcrowded
• Tactical and detective units share one area
• There are two interview rooms for 12 people working, so it's difficult to accommodate multiple officers bringing in people to interview/interrogate
• Internet investigations have suffered because of lack of privacy
• There's a lack of IT support and work spaces were not designed to support servers and other technology 
• There is no space to hold all-department meetings
• There is limited space to hold trainings and community meetings 
• The department uses the firing range of Illinois State Police District 5 for training but has to travel 30 minutes each way
• Indoor parking of the police fleet is needed to better protect and maintain technologies in police squad cars 

Murphy suggested using other police departments' firing ranges to reduce costs on the expanded police facility. Boehm said this has been looked at before but was not successful because of costs associated with maintaining the firing ranges. Murphy suggested offering to pay costs to use the firing ranges. 

Of the 40,000 square feet facility, 9,000 square feet is proposed to be used as a garage.