Sheriff candidates differ on need for new public safety facility

A still sluggish economy has stalled McHenry County's plans to build a new public safety building for its sheriff's office, emergency 911 facilities and disaster response agency.

An election night win by Republican sheriff's candidate Zane Seipler could kill them altogether.

Seipler, a onetime sheriff's deputy challenging incumbent Keith Nygren in Tuesday's Republican primary, has made the proposed public safety building a part of his campaign, saying it is an unnecessary use of taxpayer dollars.

"We can make do with what we have," said Seipler, a 36-year-old Woodstock resident seeking his first elected office.

"We just completed a renovation of the sheriff's offices in the county courthouse. It was all upgraded. There are no constraints as far as space."

The renovations, completed in 2007, were part of nearly $6 million in county courthouse improvements that included the addition of four courtrooms and upgrades throughout the building. For the sheriff's office, it meant a new training area, additional office space and other upgrades.

Nygren, seeking his fourth full term as sheriff, agrees his department could manage without a new building. But the county's criminal justice system cannot, he said.

"This is going to be thrust upon us," he said. "The sheriff's department is going to be forced out of the courthouse as the county continues to grow. They are planning for us to vacate the courthouse as courtrooms take up more space."

The "they" are the McHenry County Board, which in 2008 listed new public safety and health department facilities as its top choices for buildings on a proposed county campus adjacent to the courthouse. Each building would cost about $10 million, according to early estimates.

"The county board probably would have voted to go ahead and do this already if not for the economy," said Nygren, 63, of Hebron.

The sheriff, however, does not agree with Seipler's stance that his personnel do not need additional space. For example, he said, the department has had to expand into an unused part of its former jail to make room for some staff. And if it is inevitable, Nygren said he wants to make sure he and his staff have a role in the building's planning.

"Nobody is expecting a Taj Mahal and nobody needs that," he added.

Seipler concedes the ultimate decision on a public safety building rests with the county board, but said if elected it is not something for which he will advocate.

"Right now, I don't see it as something that's going to happen in the next four years," he said.