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player ready...Kane County Board members Tuesday approved plans to build a $13.2 million multi-use facility at the Kane County Judicial Center campus in St. Charles.
Board members authorized the construction and issuance of bonds to pay for the project. The low bid for the work was awarded to Aurora-based R.C. Wegman Construction Co.
The new building will house the Kane County Coroner’s Office and morgue plus provide vehicle storage and maintenance space for the Kane County Sheriff’s Office SWAT team, bomb squad and the county’s Facilities Maintenance Department.
“It is the most stringently reviewed capital project in the history of Kane County. We have done our best to make sure we have squeezed every nickel through the process,” Kane County Board Chairman Chris Lauzen said prior to the vote.
The timing for the project is right due to low interest rates, he added.
Some of the “inefficiencies” in the current county Coroner’s Office and morgue were known, but some of the other inefficiencies related to the Kane County Sheriff’s Office concerning the storage of equipment for special units was not so well known, said Kane County Board member Drew Frasz.
“Hopefully in a year from now we will cut the ribbon on this facility,” Frasz said.
The 50,000-square-foot facility will be located southeast of the Kane County Juvenile Justice Center on the St. Charles campus. The sheriff’s office will occupy roughly 25,000 square feet on the main level plus 8,000 square feet on the second level.
“This was a tremendous collaborative effort between many county divisions and the County Board,” Hain told The Beacon-News.
Currently some of the sheriff’s equipment for specialized units is housed in buildings on the site of the former Kane County Sheriff’s Office and jail off of Fabyan Parkway in Geneva, where it is exposed to the weather, officials said.
“We will be able to vacate the Fabyan Parkway property, consolidate centralized services for citizens and improve our ability to deploy in a more organized and timely fashion,” Hain said.
Hain said the office will continue to diversify by having some emergency equipment in South Elgin and North Aurora. However, the main equipment will be housed at the main offices in St. Charles.
Kane County Board member Mohammad “Mo” Iqbal, D-Elgin, made a motion to lower project contingencies from 4% to 2% – the equivalent of an estimated $462,000. However, board members turned it down.
“I appreciate my colleague’s desire to make sure we maintain costs on the project but many of us worked very hard over the last few years to work collaboratively and work through issues,” Kane County Board member Angela Clay Thomas, D-Aurora, said. “We worked out our problems by coming to resolutions before coming to a final vote. I encourage us to keep doing that type of work and move these important projects that we invest so much time in through when it comes to a final vote.”
Frasz said the project contingency arrangement will allow staff to respond to unexpected construction issues that occasionally come up.
Linda Girardi is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.