Palatine fire station's final cost $150,000 under budget

Not much in government has as sweet a sound to officials as these two rarely heard words: under budget.

The Palatine village council relished the news Monday after learning the final project cost of the new Quentin Road fire station totaled about $153,000 less than expected.

“This was a very well-managed project,” Village Manager Reid Ottesen said.

Due to the sizable stash of remaining funds, the council approved spending nearly $9,000 on the purchase and installation of an exterior monument sign featuring metallic copper and a faux stone finish.

“Everybody wanted to see it, but we wanted to make sure we came at budget before we had this expenditure,” Ottesen said.

The 8,700-square-foot station at 1215 N. Quentin Road cost about $2.9 million when all was said and done. It opened during the summer.

The village benefited from a favorable bidding climate in the wake of a sluggish construction industry. Officials also decided to make cosmetic changes and scale back the maximum number of firefighters working at the station to reduce expenses.

Palatine Mayor Jim Schwantz lauded Batallion Chief Mike Freese, saying his vast construction knowledge, guidance and stewardship benefited taxpayers.

Fire officials said the new station was necessary to improve service to west and northwest Palatine, where response times were pushing six minutes.

After it opened, the village closed its Dundee Road fire station, which the department essentially inherited from the Palatine Rural Fire Protection District in 2001 after Palatine annexed a portion of the district's territory. It now houses Palatine's Masonic Lodge, an arrangement the village agreed to after taking over the organization's former facility to accommodate the Palatine Road expansion project.