Carol Stream police planning temporary move to Glendale Heights Civic Center
Carol Stream police will run some of their operations out of the Glendale Heights Civic Center during a roughly $19 million project to expand and update Carol Stream's village hall.
The department's traffic, special operations and investigation units will move in early March to a former dispatching center in the Glendale Heights municipal complex at 300 Civic Center Plaza.
The lease between the neighboring towns is just one of the logistical undertakings needed to relocate all Carol Stream village business ahead of a project to build an addition and remodel the 1970s-era building that also houses the police station on Gary Avenue.
The rest of the police department's divisions - including patrol, records and administration - likely will move with other village employees to an as yet undetermined site.
With a limited supply of available office space in Carol Stream, officials expect to rent a warehouse that would be reconfigured into a temporary village hall.
The village hopes to keep all the costs associated with the relocation to about $1 million. Roughly $18 million would pay for designing, constructing and equipping a renovated village hall with a three-level addition.
The village has enough money in cash reserves to pay for the project without taking loans, financial planners told trustees last month. At the same time, the board expressed support for a slightly larger building footprint than previous proposals.
The size of village hall is now expected to increase to 68,750 square feet from 40,400 square feet. Itasca-based Williams Architects also is fine-tuning designs for the exterior, Assistant Village Manager Bob Mellor said.
All village employees are set to vacate the building in mid-March before crews begin demolishing a portion of the facility's main level. Construction of the addition and the remodeling could be complete by the end of fall 2018.
Trustees and village commissioners, meanwhile, will hold their meetings out of the Carol Stream Fire District's board room at the headquarter station on Kuhn Road.
The village's 18-month lease with Glendale Heights takes effect March 1 and costs a "token" $10. The agreement would extend for 30-day periods for up to four months unless Carol Stream gives 60 days' advance notice that the village won't need more time.
Glendale Heights Village Administrator Raquel Becerra approached Carol Stream about using the Civic Center space after hearing about the renovations. Carol Stream police also will use the Glendale Heights jail.
"We're just very grateful and thankful for the village of Glendale Heights that they offered us to use that," Mellor said.