Glen Ellyn police move in to $13.5 million station

Glen Ellyn police officers bid farewell Thursday to their downtown headquarters of more than 40 years and publicly opened a $13.5 million station south of Roosevelt Road.

Officers spent their first day unpacking and settling into new workstations in the 29,000-square-foot building that construction crews completed two months ahead of schedule thanks to cooperative weather.

Since the 1970s, the department occupied a retrofitted space in the Civic Center, a former school that houses other village employees. The new building is designed specifically for the force of 40 sworn officers and their supervisors.

"Operations are going to change significantly for us in this building," Assistant Chief Bill Holmer said during a tour earlier this month ahead of the station's opening.

The village chose to move police to the site at the entrance of Panfish Park because of easy access to a commercial corridor along Roosevelt that generates more calls than the rest of town.

The building is more than double the size of the former, 11,000-square-foot station. It's also significantly safer, police say.

Investigators previously conducted interviews in rooms inappropriately located next to administrative offices on the first floor of the Civic Center. When police took suspects into custody, officers drove through a public parking lot and into a garage on a steep decline.

"It's just not a good setup," Holmer said.

Police now have gained a sally port that's "much safer, much cleaner, much larger," he said.

The move also will usher in a few changes at the Civic Center. Visitors will no longer have access to a front entrance round-the-clock. The building's hours of operation are now 8 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Monday to Thursdays, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Fridays and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays.

The police department also stopped selling yard waste and refuse stickers this week. Instead, homeowners can buy stickers at the village's cashier department at the Civic Center, Len's Ace Hardware or Jewel-Osco.

The village also has lifted restrictions that designated areas of a municipal parking lot for police vehicles, opening up roughly 40 spaces. Downtown customers can park for free in three-hour spaces in the lot on the south side of Duane Street between the Civic Center and the First United Methodist Church.