Mount Prospect emergency center to open by end of the year.

Mount Prospect is expected to ask for a $10 million loan next week, which will partly pay for an emergency operations center that's expected to be open by the end of the year, village officials said.

The majority of the loan will go toward a new fire station. The center, the station and a revamping of the public works department are being treated as one project since they are all intertwined, Mayor Irvana Wilks said.

The emergency center, which will be used primarily during major storms, will be built as a 4300-square-foot addition to public works building at 1700 W. Central Road.

The center is expected to cost about $1.6 million. The public works building refurbishment, which includes a fire engine maintenance area, will cost about $1 million and the new fire station accounts for the rest of the expense, which will total $14.5 million, said Dave Strahl, assistant village manager.

The village will take out a 20-year loan out for $10 million this year. Next year, it'll taken another loan for about $2.5 million. The rest, about $2 million, will come out of the village's reserves, Strahl said.

The emergency center would come equipped with a kitchenette, sleeping areas and meeting rooms, Wilks said.

The center is being constructed partly because of the storm that hit the village in 2007.

Some parts of the village were without power for days, basements flooded, streets were blocked by fallen trees and village officials were unable to communicate with residents.

After an internal audit, the village determined it should improve its communications in a disaster.

The center is being constructed as part of the public works building because during a natural disaster that department is usually the busiest, cleaning up for weeks in the aftermath, Wilks said.

The new fire station will be built on Kensington Road, but the revamped public works building public will be reconfigured to include a fire engine maintenance area. Currently, fire engine maintenance is done at the old Kensington Road station, which is being replaced because it is too small.

Since all the projects tie in with the public works department, the village is treating it as one project as far as financing is concerned, officials said.