New fire station in works on Milwaukee Avenue
The Lincolnshire-Riverwoods Fire Protection District is moving ahead with plans for a new fire station on Milwaukee Avenue in Vernon Hills.
Pending approvals by the Vernon Hills village board, plans are to break ground this spring on the satellite station at Milwaukee Avenue and Woodlands Parkway to open about a year later.
It will be the second new station to go online since a successful referendum request about 10 years ago that allowed the district to increase its taxing authority. The district currently operates out of two stations -- the Riverwoods station at 855 Saunders Road that opened in 2001, and the original facility at 115 Schelter Road in Lincolnshire.
About 20 percent of the land area in Vernon Hills is in the district, which stretches north to American Hotel Register and west to the Deerpath Farms subdivision.
"There's a lot of new growth in our fire protection district in the village of Vernon Hills," said Fire Chief Fred Kruger. "We still had the dilemma of improving fire service to the north."
That led the district in late 2006 to purchase nearly 3-acre parcel in the Corporate Woods Business Park. The new station would have two apparatus bays and would be manned 24 hours with an engine and ambulance.
Kruger said it currently takes about eight or nine minutes to get to W.W. Grainger, the primary business in the district along Route 60. The new location should cut that response time to four to five minutes, he said.
The estimated price of the station, including the land, is about $5.5 million. The Riverwoods facility cost $2.3 million.
"The great news about this is we'll have a fire station in each of the major municipalities we serve," Kruger said.
For the Riverwoods station, the district borrowed the money and repaid it within three years. A similar plan will be used to fund the Vernon Hills station, although a referendum request to staff the facility may be necessary in the future, according to Kruger.
"Our plan is to do as much as we can with the budget dollars we get now," he said. "It's our intention to budget and try to hold the line."
Kruger said the district responded to just fewer than 3,000 calls for service in 2007, up from 2,400 two years ago. Calls for service increased 10 percent from 2005 to 2006 and 13 percent from 2006 to 2007, he added.
The facility will include a public meeting room that will hold about 50 people that will be available for use by local groups.
"We're a public service agency, we're not just (available for) emergencies," Kruger said.
Vernon Hills trustees regarded the plan favorably Tuesday during an informal discussion and it has been sent to staff for a more detailed review.