Committee wants to trim DuPage capital costs

The DuPage County Board's finance committee is looking to shave some dollars off an already meager proposed capital improvement budget.

At $76.4 million, Chairman Robert Schillerstrom's proposed capital improvement plan is a drop in the bucket compared to more recent proposed capital expenditures. Last year, he wanted more than $200 million for a massive five-year capital outlay, but was rebuffed by the board.

Finance committee members said Tuesday they hope to trim the costs of Schillerstrom's plan even more because it calls for additional borrowing and no one's certain if the economy will pick up in time for the county to pay off those debts.

Committee Chairman Paul Fichtner said Schillerstrom's borrowing plan may have a better shot this year than last because of a federal stimulus program that covers 45 percent of the interest costs of the debt.

"Receiving a subsidy of interest costs is an added incentive for us to look at bonding," Fichtner said. "I've heard mixed reactions, so far."

The federal program will cut about $1.2 million a year from the county's cost of paying off the debt and lower its annual costs to $4 million a year for the next 30 years. But during Tuesday's meeting, members asked finance officials to return with variations to proposed projects that could reduce the projects' costs.

That included cutting one of the four emergency generators proposed in an $11.1 million project needed to provide backup electrical supply to the entire county government campus in Wheaton. The generators could provide enough power to the campus to continue emergency operations indefinitely as long as they are refueled every 70 hours, officials said. The proposal has been on the books since a lengthy outage in 2007.

The generators are part of a six-item, $38.6 million campus improvement package. The remaining $37.8 million would be spent on five road projects around the county.

The finance committee only discussed the campus items Tuesday. The other campus projects include $12 million for a new information technology system for all levels of county government, $3.7 million for renovations and moving the county's information technology division, $2.5 million for new fire alarm systems, $4.2 million for heating and air conditioning upgrades at the courthouse and $5.1 million for renovations to the kitchen at the convalescent center.

Built in 1964, the convalescent center kitchen was constructed to feed about 200 patients. Now with nearly 360 patients at the center, the kitchen equipment is outdated and the layout is inefficient, officials told the committee. It was supposed to be upgraded several years ago.

"We actually had it funded at one point through the state, but they sort of reneged on their funding," Schillerstrom said. "It and the equipment are very dated."

Schillerstrom is also suggesting the county borrow immediately for the campus projects and wait a few months to see how the economy is doing before borrowing for the road projects. The county board has until Nov. 30 to pass a new budget.