The Aurora City Council at its meeting Tuesday is set to consider two facility improvement projects totaling roughly $1 million.
One project would replace the roofs of two downtown city buildings, including the fifth floor of City Hall, while the other would renovate a room within the Aurora Police Department headquarters building to expand the department’s digital forensic program.
Last Tuesday, the Aurora City Council’s Committee of the Whole placed both items on the upcoming Aurora City Council meeting’s consent agenda, which is typically reserved for routine or non-controversial items that are all approved with one vote instead of needing to vote on and talk about each individual item. The Committee of the Whole did not specifically discuss either of the two projects.
However, both were discussed and recommended for approval at the City Council Infrastructure and Technology Committee meeting on June 23, where they were were first publicly proposed.
Currently, the Aurora Police Department’s digital forensic equipment is located within what Aurora Police Lt. Tom McNamara described as a “very small storage closet area.” The proposed project would move that equipment to a new room, currently an under-used conference room, that would offer the correct amount of space for the equipment and workstations, he said.
The $312,503 buildout would convert it into a room capable of handling the electronic equipment, plus would install a small server room and cubicles where forensic investigators can work, according to Chief Public Facilities Officer Jim Birchall.
McNamara said the police department currently has one digital forensics investigator, is hiring for another and will be requesting a digital forensics analyst position through the 2026 budget process.
Digital forensics is important because nearly every investigation these days includes extensive digital data from cellphones, laptops and even vehicles which now have built-in computers, according to McNamara. He said the digital forensic program has expanded over the past several years, so while the small space originally worked for the needed equipment, the program has now outgrown that original space.
Construction of the project would cost $185,990 and be completed by Carmichael Construction, and the rest of the cost would be in furnishing the room. Asset forfeiture funds are expected to pay for the project.
“It’s not cheap, I agree, but it’s the right equipment for the job,” McNamara said.
The other proposed project looks to replace the roofs of the fifth floor of City Hall, at 44 E. Downer Place, and the Development Service Center, at 77 S. Broadway, for a price of $687,300.
After a series of leak repairs, both roofs were evaluated in 2024 and found to have significant deterioration, according to a staff report about the project.
Both roofs will be completely torn off and replaced, Birchall said at the June 23 meeting.
Since there are so many city departments and divisions located within the Development Services Center, the project will “clean that building up for many years to come,” according to Birchall. He said the fifth floor City Hall roof replacement is important because the city recently invested $1.5 million in the building to upgrade City Council chambers and remodel the building’s fifth floor.
Equipment that is no longer needed on the Development Service Center’s roof will be removed, Birchall said, leaving a clean slate for whatever the city may want to do there, including installing solar panels. The City Hall roof has I-beams that run across it but “really don’t go to anything,” so those will also be removed, he said.
The roof replacement project is proposed to be completed by Bennett & Brosseau Roofing of Romeoville, which offered the city the lowest price for the project while meeting all requirements through a competitive bidding process.
Core samples taken of the City Hall roof found asbestos, which made the project more expensive, Birchall said.
Ald. Ted Mesiacos, 3rd Ward, who is a professional architect, suggested that in the future the city should go out to bid for roof replacement projects in late fall or winter rather than the spring, as the prices are likely higher in the spring.
rsmith@chicagotribune.com
