DeKalb County plans to use $1M in state funds to improve Voluntary Action Center facility

SYCAMORE - DeKalb County government officials said they plan to use a $1 million award from the state to improve the home base of the Voluntary Action Center in Sycamore.

The money was awarded to DeKalb County recently by Gov. JB Pritzker’s Rebuild Illinois program and will be funneled to the county through the Illinois Department of Transportation. The funds are meant to improve infrastructure across the state, and county officials said they’ll use it to revamp the TransVAC facility. It houses the Voluntary Action Center of DeKalb County, which oversees public and medical transportation throughout the county’s rural areas and the county’s Meals on Wheels program.

“With the age of the current TransVAC facility, this will help TransVAC expand and modernize its workspace to help improve our service delivery,” DeKalb County Board Chairman John Frieders said in a news release.

The TransVAC facility, 1606 Bethany Road in Sycamore, has been operating out of the same building since 1988. Officials said that throughout the past 30 years, need for space has grown with the addition of new vehicles, staff and technology to help execute route trips.

Mike Neuenkirchen, vice president of operations at Voluntary Action Center, said the planning discussions for the development of the project are in the beginning stages. Next steps include talks between TransVAC and county government officials, he said.

“We are looking into several options around how to configure our current site to accommodate additional square footage or repurpose existing space,” Neuenkirchen said in the release.

Any work planned for the facility will need to be approved by the DeKalb County Board.