Building project squeaks by forest board

It passed by the narrowest possible margin, but one vote was enough for the Lake County Forest Preserve District board to approve the construction of a new $23 million operations and public safety building.

The roughly 104,000-square-foot facility will be built in the Fourth Lake Forest Preserve near Lindenhurst. It will serve as the headquarters for the district's ranger police force, habitat restoration and construction crews, the Youth Conservation Corps and other operations.

Many of those departments now are based at the Lakewood Forest Preserve near Wauconda or other sites throughout the county.

Officials hope work will begin this summer and be completed in 2010.

The plan passed 11-10 during a special board meeting on Feb. 15. Board President Bonnie Thomson Carter didn't vote, as is her tradition, and Commissioner David Stolman was absent.

Voting "yes" were: Anne Flanigan Bassi of Highland Park; Carol Calabresa of Libertyville; Mary Ross Cunningham of Waukegan; Terese Douglass of Grayslake; Susan Loving Gravenhorst of Lake Bluff; Angelo Kyle of Waukegan; Larry Leafblad of Grayslake; Stevenson Mountsier of Lake Barrington; Audrey Nixon of North Chicago; Carol Spielman of Highland Park and Michael Talbett of Lake Zurich.

Voting "no" were: Steve Carlson of Gurnee; Ann B. Maine of Lincolnshire; Judy Martini of Antioch; Pam Newton of Long Grove; Diana O'Kelly of Mundelein; Brent Paxton of Zion; Robert Powers of Round Lake Beach; Robert Sabonjian of Waukegan; Suzi Schmidt of Lake Villa; and Randy Whitmore of Wadsworth.

The project's cost was one of the factors that prompted opposition. The project initially was expected to cost $10 million to $12 million, but officials announced in September that it would be more costly.

Maine suggested cutting space for the ranger police out of the plan as a way to save money.

"Sometimes costs do need to be deferred," Maine said. "While public safety is important, it can still function at a more than adequate level without having that new facility."

Sabonjian said the district should look at acquiring an existing building to save money, rather than constructing something new.

"Architects are ingenious people," he said. "They can come up with solutions."

Gravenhorst disagreed.

"We have been deferring," she said. "I just think we have to bite the bullet."