Streamwood plans to replace oldest fire station, public works facility

Streamwood officials may soon undertake a plan to replace the village's 47-year-old Fire Station 1 and similarly outdated public works headquarters with new facilities by spring 2021.

The need to replace these buildings was identified by a comprehensive study of all the village's infrastructure a few years ago, Streamwood Village Manager Sharon Caddigan said.

Both projects are planned to be done simultaneously and funded by an estimated $20 million bond issue, which the village board might authorize near the end of the year, she said.

Because the village will pay off its existing debt this fall from the police station that opened in 2007, the net impact on taxpayers from the new bonds is expected to be nil, Caddigan said.

The new bonds are expected to be paid off in 20 years, officials said.

The current Fire Station 1 at 1204 S. Park Ave. is planned to be demolished and replaced by the new, larger building on the same site. It will also become the new location for the fire department's administrative offices currently housed at Fire Station 3.

All three fire stations have inadequate space for storage and the decontamination of equipment, Fire Chief Christopher Clark said. But additional space is expected to be made at the other two stations that opened in 1992 and 2002 by relocating some of their operations to the new station.

Many things have changed in the firefighting industry since Station 1 was built in the early 1970s, including the addition of female firefighters, Clark said. Like many newer fire stations, Streamwood's proposed facility is designed with individual bedrooms and bathrooms, which in part help adapt to the changing percentages of male and female firefighters.

The short-term impact of housing today's personnel and equipment in two stations instead of three is expected to be challenging but manageable, Clark said.

Another unavoidable impact will be to the response times in the area primarily served by Station 1, he said. But Streamwood's other stations will be closer to that area than the next nearest fire station in Bartlett.

The village hopes to open the new Fire Station 1 by March 2021, while the upgraded public works facility at 565 S. Bartlett Road would follow by that June, Caddigan said.

Unlike the fire station, the public works upgrade will lend itself much better to being done in phases, she said.