Committee decides Elmhurst police station needs substantive upgrades

ELMHURST – Elmhurst's Public Affairs and Safety Committee decided at its Oct. 22 meeting that the city should make substantial improvements to the Elmhurst police station.

The decision to do more than keep the existing building essentially the same with bare essential improvements, such as performing electrical service maintenance, adding cameras to monitor prisoners' cells and achieving compliance with accessibility codes, follows the review of a space needs analysis of the Elmhurst Police Department that FGM Architects, a professional services firm with headquarters in Oak Brook, performed for the city.

Instead, the city is considering either renovating and adding an addition to the existing building to meet the space needs of the department or building a new police station somewhere else in the city on a parcel that would need to be 3 to 4 acres, based on the space needs analysis dated March 20.

The facility's construction was completed in March 1990, and it needs an additional 22,889 square feet to operate effectively, especially considering long-term growth, according to the analysis.

"The size of the building was dictated by the budget established by the city," the analysis stated.

City officials and staff discussed the issues involved and what improvements are needed at the Oct. 22 committee meeting.

One of the parts of the discussion was whether to keep the building downtown, considering limited space on the existing property and the higher cost of land downtown. The current station is at 125 E. First St.

Aldermen said they would prefer the station remain downtown but were open to other options if need be.

"Our downtown area is very nice in many ways, and the community kind of views police facilities now as a lighthouse in the community," Elmhurst Police Chief Michael Ruth said.

Ruth added having a police station downtown would contribute to the visibility of police officers in the community because of the squad car traffic that comes and goes just in the routine course of business. People in the community also meet in front of the police station to work out and make transactions, he said.

"We are very much community based in our policing efforts, and regardless of whatever is done, we would want to continue to maintain that," Ruth said.

The analysis outlined potential costs for the project, stating renovating and adding an addition to the existing building on the high end would be $22.9 million and another $1.5 million to $1.8 million if the department moves out of the existing police station during construction, depending on property rental rates and the amount of work necessary to accommodate. Building a new police station, according to estimates in the analysis, would be about $29.7 million.

If the city had opted for basic improvements, cost estimates for recommended work to be done in the next 10 years would be $3.5 million to $4.9 million, according to the analysis. These figures include items costing $829,000 to $1.3 million that have been judged as presenting "an immediate hazard" to the occupants of the building and should be addressed within the next year or two years, the analysis stated. The immediate hazards include items related to fire safety.

Levin said after the meeting that staff have been directed to look at land values of various places that could be considered if a new police station should need to built somewhere else in the city instead of renovating and adding an addition onto the current building.

The next Public Affairs and Safety Committee meeting is scheduled for Nov. 12.