Kendall County office moves to accommodate renovation delayed

The temporary relocation of some of Kendall County’s offices to the Kendall County Courthouse on John Street has been delayed for about two weeks while work continues ahead of the planned move.

The treasurer’s office, the assessor’s office, the planning, building & zoning office and the administration office were supposed to move to the Kendall County Courthouse this week to accommodate the start of a $9.9 million project to renovate the Kendall County Office Building on the Fox Street campus in downtown Yorkville.

The move now has been tentatively pushed back to the week of Jan. 20.

“This week, when we would have had people in those areas, the security cameras, access control and everything would not have been safe and up to standards for our staff,” Kendall County assistant facilities director/project manager Luke Prisco said in updating Kendall County Board members at their Jan. 7 meeting. “And so we had to make a call to kind of switch it up to two weeks from now.”

Prisco said the delay has its advantages.

“We will end up having everything much more put together than we originally were going to,” he said. “With this two week delay, we’ll be 100% complete and it’ll be very tidy for all the staff that will be coming in.”

Starting with the Jan. 7 meeting, Kendall County Board meetings have been temporarily relocated to the historic Kendall County Courthouse on the Fox Street campus, next to the Kendall County Office Building.

The project will include full renovations to the entire building, except the boardroom and the executive board conference room. The improvements will be paid for from the county’s fiscal 2024 building fund, with the remainder budgeted in the fiscal 2025 building fund.

The project is expected to be completed by January 2026. As Brian DeBolt, chairman of the board’s facilities and technology committee, had told fellow board members, the elevator for the Kendall County Office Building is not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act and is not safe.

“So that would be replaced,” he said. “The stairways would be replaced, which are now enclosed, with a glass atrium to bring natural light into those spaces. The third-floor hallway system would be removed, and the other two floors would be expanded by department for future growth of Kendall County. And by doing all this, it should take us maybe three decades down the road. As growth continues to come to Kendall County, we have to prepare in advance so that we have the spaces available as the population grows and the programs grow.”

All bathrooms in the building also will be made ADA accessible. Kendall County Board Chairman Matt Kellogg said the improvements will enhance public access.

“The majority of the public access will be on the first floor instead of people having go up and down stairs,” he said. “The elevator is antiquated to say the least.”

Kendall County Administrator Christina Burns talked more about how the project will improve public access, including having a public service window for the treasurer’s office and a reception area outside the County Board room.

“It will just be a more inviting atmosphere,” Burns said. “There will be a three-story open-air reception area. There will be better signage and better directions. People often don’t know where they’re going in this building.”

Also, as part of the improvements, the main entrance to the building will be moved.