Who will pay for Island Lake's new village hall, police station?

A proposal to revamp Island Lake's village hall and build a new police facility and gymnasium could cost taxpayers more than $12 million.

That's if the village board agrees to move forward with the master plan recently unveiled by Burnidge Cassell Associates, design architects hired by the village.

Village officials say the more than 50-year-old village hall at 3720 Greenleaf Ave., a former grade school that is now also home to the police department, needs upgrading.

The $12.2 million price tag includes $4.3 million for a free-standing police station, $5.3 million to expand and remodel the existing village hall and $2.5 million for a new regulation-size gym.

It's hefty even by healthy economy standards, says Trustee Debbie Herrmann, who heads up the village's finance and administration committee.

"I just don't think it would be practical to tax our residents at the rate of $12 million for a new facility," she said.

Herrmann said she "highly doubts" the plan will be executed. She added, though facilities improvements have been talked about for years, the scale of the project outlined in the Burnidge Cassell facilities plan is way beyond what she had envisioned.

"It was never something that we thought we could do," said Herrmann, the seniormost trustee having been on the board 12 years. "I don't believe all of it is needed."

It's unlikely the village will be able to fund any of the projects without borrowing money from taxpayers, since village coffers have little reserves, village finance director John Little said.

"There's no money set aside for a project for $12 million," Little said. "Whatever money is there, it's designated for future projects."

The village has roughly $300,000 from impact fees in its general fund. There's not much else left after $6.5 million in annual expenses.

Trustee Don Verciglio said a new police station will soon become a necessity once the village's population exceeds 10,000 over the next couple of years.

"(By law) once you get over 10,000 residents, you have to provide separate cells for males and females," Verciglio said. "And we currently don't have that."

Verciglio said it would be great if the village could make all of the suggested upgrades, but realistically, it would have to be tackled in phases.

"We really haven't discussed the details of where the funding is going to come from because we just recently got the total cost," he said.