Health department wants money to build

For the first time in its 50-year history, the Lake County Health Department is asking to borrow nearly $30 million for two construction projects to replace aging facilities.

The money will be used to build a new health-care center in Waukegan on the health department's Grand Avenue campus and a new animal care and control facility in central Lake County.

Construction could start in late summer.

The Lake County Board of Health recently gave its blessing for the projects, but the county board must sign off before the health department can borrow the funds.

Officials say the debt will be repaid through existing and anticipated health department revenues, without raising taxes for county residents.

"Our levy does not go up as a result of this," said Jerry Nordstrom, Lake County Health Department director of administrative services. "We're not going to be asking the county for any additional tax dollars to help pay for these bonds. We are going to pay off using our existing revenue sources."

The health department has $8.5 million saved up for the construction projects.

"We've tried to plan for these projects," Nordstrom said. "If we get unexpected revenues, we've tried to put them aside each year and not put them into operations. We don't expect we're going to need the $30 million in bonds because of the cash we have in hand."

The Grand Avenue project alone would cost roughly $27 million. It involves consolidating services from two existing buildings on campus, and several other sites, into a new, roughly 90,000-square-foot health-care center.

The price tag includes site improvements such as upgrading parking lots, razing the two buildings at 3012 and 3010 Grand Ave., and replacing an old maintenance garage.

The center would house programs such as behavioral health, community health, and a portion of primary care services, including a new medical and dental clinic.

"Right now, we are not providing medical and dental services on the campus," Nordstrom said. "It will help take some of the stress off the Waukegan and Zion facilities (that) are seeing a large number of people."

The facility will be designated a Federally Qualified Health Care Center, allowing the health department to collect more Medicare/Medicaid reimbursement.

Officials are in the midst of purchasing 2 acres to build the roughly 8,000-square-foot animal control facility at a cost of about $3 million. It would house more animals and be large enough to host pet immunization clinics.

Once it is built, the old facility off Route 60 would be demolished and the property sold, Nordstrom said.

The county board's financial and administrative committee will review the health department projects at 1 p.m. today at the county building, 18 N. County St., Waukegan.

The county board's committee of the whole will discuss those and other capital projects at 8:30 a.m. Friday in the conference room of the Lake County Division of Transportation, 600 W. Winchester Road, Libertyville.