A Northbrook Village Board committee has taken the first step toward possible construction of new police and fire stations and a village fleet repair facility.
A board committee recently ordered Village Manager Rich Nahrstadt to seek prices from consultants for reports describing how much space state-of-art new buildings would require.
“We’re not looking for palaces, like two I’ve seen go up in neighboring communities,” said Northbrook Trustee A.C. Buehler, a member of the ad hoc facilities committee.
He said “the palaces” he referred to are the 121,000 square foot Wheeling Public Works building, built in 2008, and the 84,000 square foot Glenview police station, built so big in 2006 that the Glenview village government later moved in, too.
Trustee Bob Israel, chairman of the committee, said that he envisioned the process to build new buildings to be similar to the way the village plans for its flood-control projects: decide on whether they’re needed and affordable, put them on schedules, and build them when the money is available, and when other issues, like land availability, are solved.
“The tank at Wescott Park was on the books for years,” said Israel, an engineer who served for years on the village Stormwater Management Commission before being elected to the Village Board in 2011. That $10 million, 7.5 million-gallon underground flood control vault was completed last year.
Committee members said they were aiming mostly at learning about replacing the fleet garage, built in 1956, and the police station, built in 1974. The main Fire Station 11 at 740 Dundee Road was not a first priority, but was seen as a possible replacement for the fleet garage, and under that scenario, it would be gone, too. So its replacement size is also being studied.
The fire station is not exactly new, either: it dates back to 1971, with a 1988 addition to add offices. There’s been talk of replacing it for about 20 years, but officials said some of its problems, such as windows, driveways and backup power, have been solved through remodeling and repair.
Officials have said the main sources of trouble are at the other two facilities, included in tours attended by committee members in recent months.
“I was there when the tower ladder was there (for repairs), and it couldn’t get in there,” said Trustee Kathryn Ciesla, referring to the 11,250 square-foot fleet garage at 1227 Cedar Lane, just east of Village Hall.
In addition to the size concerns, the building – added on to in 1967 – needs a new roof within three years, plus tuck-pointing of the facade, according to village staffers. Officials say there are no fire sprinklers, and it has no heat in the basement, and no locker room or washroom facilities for women.
Trustees discussed rebuilding the fleet garage in 2001, but backed off, not just because of the estimated cost – a then-low $2.5 million – but also, they said, because of the cost of replacing some of the giant hydraulic lifts that can pick up fire trucks. That issue, Village Manager Rich Nahrstadt said, is less of a factor now, with the improvement in transportable above-ground lifts. The village bought six of them April 25 for $67,000, when one of the big hydraulic lifts at the garage failed after 25 years of service.
The police station has short-term needs that the committee said might have to be handled long before a larger structure is addressed. Its jail and prisoner-intake areas need remodeling to make it safer for prisoners and officers, according to the department.
Longer-term needs include bringing together related functions that are now spread throughout its 42,000 square feet. Locker rooms are reportedly undersized, and no washrooms serve the detectives’ interview rooms. Pipes and floors are deteriorating, according to officials.
In 2014, a police station replacement was estimated by the department at $17 million.
“It’s a nonstarter,” Trustee Michael Scolaro, head of the village administration and finance committee, said then. “There’s no way we’re going to spend $17 million on a new police station. We’re going the wrong way, getting a punch list like it’s nobody’s money.”
Scolaro is retiring this month after three terms. Trustee Kathryn Ciesla, the third member of the committee, suggested recently that one way that police space issues could be solved is not by looking to buy land, but by constructing an addition cantilevered over the large parking lot to the east of the building at 1401 Landwehr Road.
If the fire station is used for a new fleet garage, it would have to be replaced somewhere close to where it is now. The committee briefly discussed the possibility that land for a new Station 11 could possibly be pried away as a concession from the developers of the nearby Green Acres Country Club, who will meet with Northbrook leaders this month to talk about their plans. Nahrstadt said that was premature, adding that discussions with Farpoint development about building on the 125-acre parcel might take years.
Committee members also discussed the possibility of dual-use buildings, combining, for instance, the fleet garage with the police department. And Ciesla suggested that the village could seek a partnership with an adjoining village for fleet maintenance.
That concept was discussed four years ago by Northbrook Village President Sandy Frum and Glencoe Village President Larry Levin.
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