Rolling Meadows takes first step to buy land for fire station
Rolling Meadows aldermen have taken the first step toward purchasing land for one of two proposed fire stations - at a higher cost than original projections.
The city has proposed closing the aging downtown Station 15 at 3111 Meadow Drive and building a new one at 3201 Algonquin Road, where the former Woo Lae Oak Korean restaurant has stood vacant for three years. Aldermen voted 4-2 in a first reading vote Tuesday to authorize spending $1.3 million for the 77,195-square-foot site owned by Judicial Drive Property Holdings, LLC.
A final, second reading vote is scheduled for Sept. 26.
The city's other firehouse, Station 16 at 2455 S. Plum Grove Road, would be replaced with a new station at a still-undetermined location to the east, under the fire department's relocation plan. Aldermen have been meeting in closed session since January to consider about a dozen sites for the two new stations.
The relocation plan aims to improve response times and reduce fire risk throughout town, but critics have said the estimated $9 million cost to do so is too much. And, it appears, those numbers could rise due to the costs to acquire property.
Alderman Joe Gallo of Ward 4, where Station 15 is located, cited an earlier study that projected it would cost $1 million to buy properties for both stations, and now the city is prepared to spend more than $1 million on just one. Gallo voted "no" on the land purchase.
"I think it's time we reassess our move forward, get a budget in place, practical numbers with expectations, a time frame for the project and be able to communicate that back to the community as well," Gallo said.
Ward 5 Alderman Robert Banger, Jr., who voted "yes," said the property cost doesn't fit the budget, but those early numbers were just estimates.
"Once we started looking around and kicking these properties around in closed session, I think the scales fell off our eyes and we realized that the land acquisition price was actually an estimate," he said. "It was quite a low estimate and I think we were all shocked about that."
Alderman Laura Majikes of northeast side Ward 3 also voted "no," while Aldermen Mike Cannon, John D'Astice and Tim Veenbaas also voted "yes".