No rush to decide Geneva City Hall space question

Geneva aldermen Monday told city administrators they can defer working, for now, on a council goal of getting more office space for City Hall workers.

The topic was informally discussed at one of the council's special, informal fifth-Monday-of-the-month committee meetings. Nothing was voted on.

Doing something about City Hall has been a council goal annually since a space study was done around 2006. That study said the city needed twice as much space. The consultant recommended adding on to the building; building a new City Hall; or buying the adjacent Geneva Public Library and moving some operations there.

Alderman Ron Singer asked if another space study should be done. City administrator Mary McKittrick said that wasn't needed. The number of people working at City Hall has remained about the same since 2004, at 25 people. Another five people work in the Finance Department offices in the former fire station across the street. And the recommendations likely wouldn't change, she said.

"So this is an issue that is not burning, in some sense," McKittrick said.

But, she said, "we have utilized every inch of space" and need more room for storage and would find it more efficient to have all the administrative-type departments under one roof.

Alderman Dean Kilburg suggested adding on to the public works building at 1800 South St., at least for storage. The city already stores some items there. He also noted that needs may have changed, as office workers now do a lot of communicating by email. Alderman Chuck Brown said at Fermilab, where he works, many people use Skype to talk to each other.

"This thing is all being done backwards," said Alderman Tom Simonian, saying the council should first decide whether more space is needed, and how much money to commit to that, before talking about various buildings.

The library is considering purchasing the former Sixth Street School from Kane County and building a new library there. In 2011, the city obtained a right of first refusal on the library building at 127 James St.

"The library has always been it. The reason we are still hemming and hawing is due in part that we don't know what they are doing," Alderman Craig Maladra said.

Colin Campbell suggested the city also consider leasing or buying the former DuPage Library System building at 127 S. First St. Batavia Enterprises Inc. recently bought it. Campbell said he toured it last week, and thought it was big enough to accommodate city offices. The city could then sell City Hall to the library, he said.