Des Plaines eyes new public safety center
For more than a decade, Des Plaines has talked about building a new north side fire headquarters. More recently, city officials looked at construction of a new police headquarters.
Now, city officials say, they would like to construct a public safety building for police, fire and 911 communications. And a new city hall adjoining the public safety complex is a possibility, City Manager Jason Bajor said Wednesday. Much of the discussion has been in closed session and concepts are still evolving.
Plans for a fire station on Central Road had included a new fire headquarters. But at Tuesday night's city council meeting, Bajor said the fire headquarters portion of the project was dropped because of the new public safety complex idea.
Police now operate in a building adjacent to city hall, 1420 Miner St., while fire operations are centered at the River Road station. The 911 nerve center is at city hall. City hall and the police headquarters opened in 1974 as architectural twins.
In closed-door meetings, the city had been discussing buying the old Masonic Temple and adjacent Choo Choo restaurant along Lee Street for a new police headquarters. Talk behind closed doors now has switched to creating a public safety building.
"We talked about added features. As the details became more apparent, we saw we had an opportunity to address our needs but do so in a way that's more cost effective," Bajor said Wednesday.
A new public safety building would total about 70,000 square feet of space in three or four stories. That would more than triple the size of the current police station, while the new city hall would be about the same size and height as the current 60,000-square-foot structure, Bajor said. There is no cost estimate yet.
Bajor declined to identify the property the city is eyeing for the municipal complex. He did say he expects the city to finalize a purchase by the end of the year.
The property between city hall and Lee Street includes 1440 Miner St., which has four storefronts and apartments above, and the Masonic Temple, 1460 Miner St., which includes storefronts and a theater.
North of the Masonic Temple is The Choo Choo, 620 Lee St., a city landmark popular with children for serving its diner food on a toy train. Des Plaines officials are considering physically moving the restaurant to another location in the downtown, or finding a new downtown space.
The Central Road fire station was planned as a 25,400-square-foot building costing $8.3 million. Now, the station planned at 877 E. Central Road would be 14,000 square feet at a $5 million cost.
Fire Chief Randy Jaeger has mixed feelings about the idea of lumping in the fire headquarters with other public safety services. This new building would only house fire administration.
"I'm not really thrilled about it. I do think fire administration belongs in a fire station so we can keep in touch with day-to-day operations," Jaeger said. But he added that he backs it "if that's what it takes to get it built."
Efforts to build a new fire station began in 1991. Fire officials have envisioned a station on city-owned property at Central Road west of the railroad tracks for more than 20 years.
On Tuesday night, aldermen debated the price tag of that new station. After two hours of discussion, officials voted to hire FGM Architects of Oak Brook, but they also added a caveat to ask the firm to tweak its proposed $304,500 fee to try to save money. The contract to design the new Central station will likely return to the city council on Sept. 15.
A public safety complex seems to have some traction among aldermen.
"You keep them all together and hopefully you'll cut costs," said 2nd Ward Alderman Marty Moylan, a member of the public safety committee.
Other towns also pair their public safety departments. Des Plaines' neighbor Mount Prospect houses its fire and police headquarters together. Elk Grove Village is building a new public safety building next to its village hall, and bringing its fire administrative offices to the village hall's lower level.