Carpentersville board makes way for fire station rehab

Plans to renovate and expand Carpentersville's aging and overcrowded Fire Station No. 2 on the village's east side were boosted this week when the village board granted the project permits needed before work can begin.

The village board on Tuesday approved a special use permit to build a 2,100-square-foot addition to the facility at 305 Lake Marian Road.

Since the 4,500 square-foot structure is a public building that requires a special use permit to operate as a fire station, Village Manager Craig Anderson said a special use permit is also needed to expand the space.

"It will be larger than it has been in the past," Anderson said. "If we had demolished it and built the exact same thing, I don't know that we would have needed a special use permit. But we are changing the footprint of the building so we felt that we needed to do that."

Anderson described the project as an "extensive remodel and expansion."

"It is not a total reconstruction," Anderson said. "They will keep and use what they can and add on where necessary."

The project is expected to cost $2.2 million, and money from the village's cash reserve in the general fund will finance the improvements.

Construction could begin in early spring, Anderson said.

Built in 1959, the fire station was originally designed to store equipment and lacked space for fire department personnel. The building now houses five firefighters and a battalion chief 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Fire Chief John Schuldt said.

"There are four beds in a small area and a sewer floor drain is next to one of the beds," Schuldt said. "The shower facilities are almost nonexistent and there's one bathroom facility for men and one for women. When we have people living here 24 hours a day, we need a functional station."

The renovation and expansion will include a workout room, additional bathrooms and meeting space for staff. Schuldt said the northwest corner of the building has shifted, triggering a large crack to form along the wall and floor of the building.

Those cracks likely were caused 15 years ago when the fire protection district removed fuel tanks stored underground and failed to adequately backfill the land, Schuldt said.

Also built in 1959, Fire Station No. 1 at 213 Spring St. in the Old Town neighborhood underwent remodeling in 2000. The village's third station at 5000 Sleepy Hollow Road was built on the west side in 2001.