Take a look inside the renovated South Barrington village hall

South Barrington officials are ready to show off the results of a $3.3 million project that modernized and more than doubled the size of their 31-year-old village hall.

Village President Paula McCombie said much of the credit for the project belongs to William "Bill" Rose, who helped found the village in 1957 and stayed active in the community for decades. Rose had the plans for the expansion drawn up in 2008 and donated $400,000 toward its completion.

"Unfortunately, he died in 2010 and never got to see his envisioned dream," McCombie said.

Members of Rose's family will be on hand Saturday to cut the ribbon on the remodeled village hall that bears his name, McCombie said.

The village hall was built in 1984, when the village had just over 1,000 residents. South Barrington is home to nearly four times that many people today, McCombie said.

About $2.4 million went into the expansion of the building, which added a village board meeting room, a conference room and other public spaces. McCombie said the village board previously met in a much smaller space on the lower level of the building and would often have to conduct meetings on tables in the lobby.

The expansion also gave the village administration and police department an opportunity to reorganize within their own space. While the departments used to be crammed together, now the police department will occupy the lower level and the administration has the upper level.

Police Chief Thomas Rowan said the expansion meant a new interview room, a modern evidence locker, male and female locker rooms and a proper holding cell for the department.

"The other cell we had was basically a cage in the garage," Rowan said. "When the officers would bring people in they would think they were being punished. They'd say, 'Are you mad at me? Why are you keeping me locked in a cage?' And we had to tell them, 'No, that's the cell.'"

Another $470,000 funded renovations in the existing portions of the building. The village spent about $300,000 more on site work and $150,000 on other improvements such as technology upgrades.

McCombie said the village took several steps to be frugal throughout the project. Instead of hiring a decorator, she and another member of the village staff picked out carpet patterns and other colors, and most of the furniture was donated by Allstate before the insurance company demolished its South Barrington offices in 2012.

McCombie now has her own office with large windows looking out onto Barrington Road.

"It's nice because it gives me a nice view of everybody coming in, plus they can see me, and that's fine because I am very available to anyone who wants to talk to me," McCombie said.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony and grand opening takes place from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at the village hall, 30 S. Barrington Road.