DES PLAINES
Officials to weigh police, fire stations
Des Plaines aldermen will decide next month whether to set aside about $10 million in the 2008 budget to buy land for new police and fire stations.
At a City Council committee of the whole session Monday night, aldermen heard pitches from the city’s police chief and acting fire chief.
If the city were to issue bonds to pay for the new buildings, it could cost $88 million over 25 years, including construction and debt expenses.
Police Chief James Prandini said the 20,050-square-foot station at 1420 Miner St., which was built in 1974, should be replaced by a building of at least 80,000 square feet.
Prandini said closets have been converted into offices, the building lacks a conference room and police equipment is stored in lockup cells.
Depending on the cost of land, a new facility could cost $30 million.
Acting Fire Chief Art Zern said the city’s three existing stations can’t provide acceptable emergency response times. He supports building two new fire stations and remodeling a third for at least $15.6 million, including equipment and staffing.
In 2004, aldermen shelved plans to build an $11 million fire station at Lee Street and Prospect Avenue after residents voted in an advisory referendum against the project.
Details of the proposed buildings have yet to be decided.
Mark Shuman
CRYSTAL LAKE
College board likely to censure 2
Two McHenry County College Board members face censure by their colleagues for publicly opposing the college’s $26 million expansion plan at a Crystal Lake City Council meeting last week.
Four of the board’s seven members indicated that they would vote Thursday to censure Scott Summers, the board chairman, and Donna Kurtz, chairwoman of its Finance Committee.
“I want my leader to represent the vote of the board, not his private opinion,” Trustee Carol Larson said at a committee meeting Monday night.
Trustees, including Summers and Kurtz, endorsed a controversial plan this year to build a health and wellness center and a baseball stadium for a minor-league team. Summers and Kurtz have since had a change of heart, and were among the residents speaking in opposition to a change the college needs in Crystal Lake’s development regulations.
The change did not win enough votes from the City Council, which later tabled the proposal.
Trustees George Lowe, Barbara Walters and Mary Miller said they would join Larson in supporting the censure.
Tim Kane
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WHEELING
Airport agreement raises questions
The Wheeling Village Board wants to take another look at proposed changes in the procedures for selecting and dismissing the chairman of the Chicago Executive Airport Board after a trustee expressed concerns about putting too much power in the hands of the village president and the mayor of Prospect Heights.
The two suburbs share ownership of the airport, formerly known as Palwaukee Municipal. Each community has three representatives on a seven-member airport board and the chairman is selected by both.
Airport board members had proposed changes to the agreement that would make it easier for the Wheeling village president and Prospect Heights mayor to remove the airport board chairman.
But at a meeting Monday, Wheeling Trustee Dean Argiris indicated that the Wheeling Village Board and the Prospect Heights City Council should be involved in decisions about the chairman.
The proposed changes to the intergovernmental agreement were tabled pending discussion with Prospect Heights officials.
Graydon Megan