Sycamore allots $10.5M for new fire station in 2025 city budget

SYCAMORE – A year and a half after city officials were first pitched the idea of a new fire station, Sycamore City Council approved $10.5 million for the new construction project.

Sycamore Fire Chief Bart Gilmore said he’s happy the department’s campaign for new digs has reach its conclusion, and is appreciative of the public support he says they’ve received.

“I think we’re excited because we’re going to be in a better facility that’s healthier for our employees,” Gilmore said. “It’s in a better location for responding to our calls. It’s just going to be a really good situation overall.”

The new fire station will be built on about 6.3 acres of land donated by Ideal Industries south of the corner of Borden Avenue and South Prairie Drive.

Until Dec. 2, the city had approved funding for portions of the project.

In October, the Sycamore City Council awarded an $800,000 contract for construction managing services for the project. Earlier in 2024 the city entered into an $86,920 agreement with Oak Brook-based FGM Architects for the preliminary design and concept plan.

Funding for the full fire station build had not been until now allocated for in the city budget.

Now that it is, Gilmore is excited to get firefighters out of what he’s called at times inhospitable conditions in the increasingly dilapidated Fire Station No. 1, at 535 DeKalb Ave.

“These guys have slept through subfreezing temperatures because our furnace would go out,” Gilmore said. “Now we’re going to have modern heating and modern cooling. No more portable air conditioners. Just a better overall working environment.”

Sycamore’s fiscal 2025 budget

City Manager Michael Hall said he and other city officials worked on the fiscal 2025 budget, which amounts to $26.6 million, for more than three months before the City Council took a final vote.

“We started in September and then department heads in October, we discussed the budget,“ Hall said. ”We had City Council members look at it in October, we handed out [a draft] at Nov. 8 [City Council meeting]. So there’s been quite a lot of discussion looking at the budget. I think that it meets everything, and includes a new fire station.”

The new fire station will be funded through $8 million in bonds, $2.5 million from the city’s general fund and $220,000 in interest income, according to the city’s budget.

The budget vote included approvals from seven of eight City Council members, with 4th Ward Alderperson Ben Bumpus as the lone naysayer.

Ahead of the vote, Bumpus asked Hall if he could present the City Council with an overview of the anticipated overall tax burden for taxpayers in the city of Sycamore. Hall said he couldn’t.

Bumpus referred to neighboring City of DeKalb, which has taken steps to lower its residents' property tax bills. Bumpus said he believes some residents have expressed concerns to him regarding their impending 2024 property tax bills due to the Sycamore School District 427 in the spring.

A Shaw Local analysis of the school district’s plan for its 2024 property tax levy showed residents might owe hundreds more in the spring depending on the value of their home.

“I just think there is so much news about the tax situation in Illinois, in DeKalb County, in Sycamore,” Bumpus said. “I just still have that lingering concern that we have some open items on this topic, for voting for a levy, that it gives me pause, it gives me concern.”

State law requires city officials to approve a budget before setting a property tax rate, however.

The budget that was approved was nearly identical to what City Council had previously discussed, minus what Hall called a “calculation error.”

“There was a calculation in there for the IMRF,” Hall said. “Employees contribute 4.5% and the city contributes 6.47%, and in our calculations it said the city was paying both portions, and actually we changed that.”

By catching and fixing the error, Hall found that the city had $137,000 more dollars than anticipated.