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Fox River Grove plans new public works facility

After years of planning, Fox River Grove officials aim to build a new public works facility next year.

Residents can provide input at a Sept. 9 village zoning board meeting where preliminary plans will be unveiled for the proposed 10,000-square-foot facility at the northeast corner of Lincoln and Hillcrest avenues. It will house the village's 13 public works trucks, nine full-time employees and much of the equipment under one roof.

"It benefits the village by basically modernizing our current facilities and providing a space to help maintain the equipment, keep it covered, and also keep our crews together ... so we can deploy more efficiently," Village Administrator Derek Soderholm said.

Site work and construction of the new facility is expected to cost between $2.6 and $2.9 million, including construction of a new salt storage building. In 2010, the village borrowed more than $3 million for the project.

Officials initially sought a different site along County Line Road, south of Route 22, for the new building. But the village was embroiled in a lawsuit with neighboring property owners for several years. Ultimately, officials decided in 2013 to pursue other sites, Soderholm said.

Last year, the village purchased three parcels totaling less than an acre, across the street from its wastewater treatment facility off Hillcrest Avenue.

"One of the major reasons, outside of the lawsuit, for selecting this site was it's adjacent to one of our major facilities, and we can house a lot of our equipment in one location," Soderholm said.

Some public works equipment already is being stored in three different buildings and a parking lot at the wastewater treatment plant site. There also are public works offices spread among two buildings at the plant.

That aging public works garage eventually will be razed to make way for the future expansion of the treatment plant, Soderholm said.

"There are other buildings at the wastewater treatment plant; between that and the new facility, we should generally have everything under roof," he added.

The village currently does not have a salt dome and uses a portion of its wastewater treatment plant property to store salt.

"It's open to the elements. We try to keep it under tarp to prevent it from washing out, but when it does get wet it basically turns into rock," Soderholm said. "It doesn't lend itself to a convenient, efficient process in terms of loading trucks. What this new facility does is it allows us to have seasonal work equipment all under one roof. It's just a matter of rotating it in and out of the storage area."

The village's architect, Kluber Architects and Engineers, civil engineer, Engineering Resource Associates, and construction manager, Lamp, Inc., will present the project details on Sept. 9 and answer questions from the public.

Officials are hopeful the design work can be completed to go out for bids on the project this winter. Construction is targeted for early next spring.

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