Most St. Charles candidates don't favor moving police to Red Gate

The decision on where to build a new police station headquarters in St. Charles will now wait until after the April city council election. The four candidates in contested races have been outspoken about what they want for the future of law enforcement in the city.

The current city council already cast a preliminary 5-4 vote to build a new police station on property the city owns at Route 31 and Red Gate Road. Officials set a final vote this month, but discussions behind closed doors among aldermen and Mayor Ray Rogina resulted in a two-month delay of the vote.

Lukewarm feelings about moving the station to the edge of the city by the four aldermen may have fueled the delay. During an interview with the Daily Herald's editorial board just before the decision to postpone the final vote, Alderman Art Lemke indicated there is also sentiment about the city not having fully vetted other potential sites. Lemke was one of the four preliminary "no" votes on moving the station.

"We were asked by staff what we would like to have in terms of other locations," Lemke said. "A lot of us put together some suggestions. All of them seemed to be making some sense. So we were kind of surprised to see a hollow agenda where things were getting forced through. We have to be transparent. You can't do things by secret agenda. Probably, maybe, we have selected the best place. But let's look at what all of our options are and make sure we've really considered those. If you get in trouble as a government, it's because you put something on an agenda and not told people it's on the agenda."

Lemke, in a forum this week, said there is not necessarily an inherent advantage to the city already owning the Red Gate site. He said the city could sell that property to finance the purchase of a better site if the need arose. He pointed to the vacant Valley Shopping Center as a possible site that's still high on his list.

Lemke's opponent in the Second Ward is former mayoral candidate Jake Wyatt. Wyatt said the city needs to take some more time with the decision.

"I'm not too sure (Red Gate) is where the station needs to be," Wyatt said. "There is a need for a downtown police presence. The question is what's affordable."

In the Fourth Ward, David Pietryla agrees with Lemke that the Valley Shopping Center could be ideal. The focus should be in keeping the police station downtown.

"I did not agree with the placement of the station at Red Gate and Route 31," Pietryla told the editorial board. "At the city council meeting, there was a lot of talk about the Valley Shopping Center being off the table. If there really was a will for it to be on the table, it could have been on the table."

Pietryla said he's interested in hearing more discussion about possibly retrofitting an older building downtown into something that could host the police station.

His opponent, Lora Vitek, was more open to the Red Gate site than the other candidates during the editorial board meeting. She said there are extensive environmental contamination problems at the Valley Shopping Center that would increase the costs for the city if that became the site for the police station.

"Could there have been more due diligence about other sites? There's been a discussion about this for one to two years now," Vitek said. "At what point do you make a decision? I wouldn't say I'm opposed to Red Gate. There's always going to be another option."

At a candidates forum earlier this week, Vitek seemed to be evolving her view on the Valley Shopping Center.

"The Valley Shopping Center might be the most appealing option," she said. "Putting the station there might rejuvenate the area. That needs to be evaluated."