Naperville public works building debuts

After a decade of planning, Naperville's new multipurpose public works center has finally opened its doors and at 213,500 square feet, it's tough to miss.

"I entered the building from Jefferson. I think we're half way to Quincy from here," Mayor George Pradel joked Wednesday as the city celebrated the grand opening of the $25.2 million facility at the intersection of Fort Hill Drive and Jefferson Avenue.

The building replaces the public works center near the downtown train station and will house a variety of operations under one roof.

"It's a great facility for the residents of Naperville in that it allows public works to operate more efficiently and we don't have to make multiple trips to different locations to pick up tools, equipment and materials to get a job done," said Dave Van Vooren, director of public works.

The department is responsible for maintenance of roads, parking lots, storm sewers, parkway trees and city buildings. The new facility will house roughly 110 employees.

"In many ways they are our unsung heroes in terms of providing service to the community," said City Manager Pro Tem Robert Marshall. "They're out there providing our leaf pickup right now, brush pickup, and they're out in terrible weather providing services to our residents in terms of snow removal and salting our roads when we have ice storms."

The city broke ground on the facility in June 2007 and Van Vooren said the project came in both on time and under the original $27 million budget.

The building includes offices, storage space, areas to receive and load road salt, a fuel island, garage for city vehicles, maintenance garage, mosquito testing lab and sign shop. It also has a control room that will allow workers to dispatch snowplows, track their whereabouts and monitor conditions around the city through security cameras.

Other departments are also making use of the facility. The city clerk has storage space for archives, the police department has an impound parking lot and the fire department has space to store a reserve fire engine and ambulance.

Naper Settlement is also using about 23,000 square feet of climate controlled, secure space to help it store some of its artifacts, a collection that has grown to more than 33,000 items. It currently leases off-site storage space and uses every available inch at the settlement, said Executive Director Peggy Frank. The new storage space will give the settlement room to grow.

"It will allow us to do something we've not been able to do to date and that is to properly store artifacts and collection items in the proper environment and appropriate housing so they're not jam-packed into boxes sitting on top of each other but given the proper support and environment in which they will survive for hundreds of years to come," Frank said.

While the city is providing the space in the building, the settlement has secured grants and donations to pay for a custom-made mobile storage system. The settlement plans to transfer artifacts into the new space in February or March.

In constructing the public works facility, the city included numerous environmentally friendly features and is applying for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification. The building has energy efficient heating and cooling systems, a roof that reflects sunlight, skylights, an insulation shell, motion sensitive lights and water faucets and native plants and grasses.

Tours of the new public works facility will be available to the public in the spring.