Geneva voters appear to have shot down the city’s ask to issue $59.4 million in bonds to pay for a new police station.
With all precincts in Kane County reporting, unofficial results showed 34.38% of voters in favor of and 65.62% of voters against the city’s pitch as of around 10 p.m. Tuesday, according to data from the Kane County Clerk’s Office.
As of Tuesday night, 6,112 ballots had been cast that weighed in on Geneva’s referendum question, of 15,757 registered voters who were faced with the bond measure, per the Clerk’s Office numbers. The county’s overall voter turnout rate for Tuesday’s election was just under 23% as of Tuesday night.
Tuesday’s bond measure asked local residents whether they supported the city issuing $59.4 million in bonds to help pay for the construction of a new police station on a city-owned property adjacent to the city’s Public Works site on South Street.
The city had initially been planning to put a public safety facilities bond referendum question to voters in last April’s election, but the measure was pulled from the ballot after the city discovered a calculation error that would have doubled the projected property tax payment.
But the City Council later revisited the idea, and in December moved to officially put the question to voters. The city has since offered tours of the current police facility, and held community meetings to inform residents in advance of the election.
Geneva’s current police station is located just off the Fox River at 20 Police Plaza. The building previously housed the police department, fire department and Tri-Com Central Dispatch, but the latter two entities have since gotten their own facilities.
Earlier this year, the city adopted a facilities master plan that identified a new police station as a top priority. The city has noted issues like a lack of office space, flooding, sewer back-ups and a partial roof collapse at the current police station.
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The new station was set to include an indoor firing range and indoor parking for all vehicles, officials said previously. Excess funds from the bond sales not used on the new station were slated to be used on other public safety-related projects — like Fire Station 2 on the city’s west side, which has also been identified as a priority project.
“Last night’s vote motivates all of us to regroup, refocus and re-engage our community to develop a path forward,” Geneva Mayor Kevin Burns said over the phone Wednesday morning. “Our police department’s needs remain acute, and I am confident that Geneva residents will come together and devise a plan to achieve the goals of a new, modern, sustainable police facility to serve the fundamental needs and expectations of generations to come.”