DuComm to improve and move into DuPage's former youth home
A 911 dispatch center that serves 45 police and fire agencies in DuPage County is planning to move into the county's former youth home by fall 2018.
DuPage Public Safety Communications, known as DuComm, on Wednesday approved an intergovernmental agreement with the county to improve and lease the former DuPage Juvenile Detention Facility at 420 County Farm Road in Winfield. The lease is for 25 years.
DuComm has outgrown its existing facility in Glendale Heights. Officials say the future location on the county campus will meet DuComm's space and technical needs after getting a roughly $15 million facelift.
"We're taking an underused property and turning it into something that's going to be an asset to the community," said Dave Brummel, chairman of DuComm's board of directors. "It's going to be a state-of-the-art facility."
County board members are praising the deal with DuComm because it gives them a long-term tenant for the youth home, which was closed in January 2012 when the county started sending its youth detainees to Kane County.
Most of the building is occupied by DuPage's Office of Emergency Management, DuPage's Emergency Telephone System Board and the sheriff's work release program.
A nonprofit school that was renting space moved out in 2014. Now roughly 25,000 square feet is available.
"This is a very important development here on campus," said Gary Grasso, a county board member who also serves as chairman of the Emergency Telephone System Board. He said the agreement with DuComm "shows how government can work and consolidate and bring efficiencies" to the county.
As part of its plan, DuComm will renovate more than 16,000 square feet and construct a roughly 13,400-square-foot addition.
Construction is expected to begin soon, but the move won't happen until fall 2018.
"It will take a while to build a 911 center," said Brian Tegtmeyer, the executive director of DuComm.
The roughly $15.8 million for the project is coming from a variety of sources, including a $4 million capital contribution from the Emergency Telephone System Board and roughly $4.3 million from DuComm's cash reserves.
In addition, DuPage will borrow $7.5 million for the project. The county will repay the loan over a 15-year period with money from DuComm's lease payments.
"DuComm identified the need for a new building over six years ago," Tegtmeyer said. "It has been working on a variety of options. This is the best option we came up with and a great partnership with the county."
Tegtmeyer said DuComm in the last decade has nearly doubled the number of agencies it serves. It's one of the largest consolidated 911 centers in Illinois.
In 2015, DuComm processed more than 1.1 million phone calls and more than 600,000 police and fire/EMS incidents, according to its website.