Glen Ellyn wants input on potential fire station renovations

Glen Ellyn trustees have hired a design firm to draft conceptual renderings for possible renovations of the village’s downtown and satellite fire stations.

As part of their evaluation, the project team and village staff will hold an informal, community listening session next week at Kingsbrook Glen and Taft Avenue.

The public input meeting will take place at that corner, just down the road from Fire Station No. 62 and Panfish Park, about a month after trustees approved a contract with a LaGrange-based firm to prepare schematic designs.

“There might be an addition option at both locations,” said Megan Harte, a principal with 845 Design Group.

Glen Ellyn’s tradition of enlisting volunteer firefighters goes back more than a century. Contracted paramedic services are now housed in the two stations, which were not originally designed to be occupied around-the-clock, Glen Ellyn Public Works Director John Hubsky told the village board in a memo.

The satellite station was originally built in the early 1970s along Taft Avenue, south of Roosevelt Road. The existing training room is “severely undersized,” and bathrooms do not meet ADA requirements, according to FGM Architects, a firm that completed a previous assessment of space needs. Due to the lack of additional storage areas at station No. 62, the volunteer fire company is forced to take up valuable apparatus bay space for storage, FGM noted in their report.

845 Design is expected to develop a more comprehensive plan and budget, Hubsky said in his memo.

“How do you move forward with either of the stations, independently and concurrently?” Hubsky said at an October board meeting. “Because if you're making a bunch of changes at station 62, then maybe you don't have to do as much at 61.”

845 Design will provide two proposed design schemes for each station — or four total — along with cost estimates.

Officials agreed to pay the firm $83,805 for those deliverables. An additional $11,000 was listed as an optional cost for a plat and topographic survey at Station No. 62 “that may be necessary for helping determine possible and best courses of action given the complexity of the flood plain associated with the parcel,” according to the board memo.

Village Trustee Steve Thompson said he wants a “check mark” next to that item.

“I want to understand the flood plain. I want to understand drainage issues. I want to understand the stormwater. I want to understand all that before I say, ‘Yes, this is our plan,’” he said.

The village attorney said no further board vote is needed to execute that option for a survey. FGM also recommended additional site investigations at the Taft Avenue station. The firm also listed a number of building code and accessibility issues with the downtown fire station at Main Street and Pennsylvania Avenue.

“It's just a tight site, and there's some constraints and elevation issues, perhaps. So there's still some things that we’ve got to dig into further,” Village Manager Mark Franz said.

One potential option is to move administration to the Taft Avenue station, to give the downtown station more flexibility.

The listening session is set for 3:30 to 5 p.m. Monday, Nov. 17. Those unable to attend can contact Vic Sabaliauskas at (630) 547-5209 or vsabaliauskas@glenellyn.org to share their feedback.