State-of-the-art Hanover Park fire station to replace 38-year-old predecessor next winter

Help is on the way to Hanover Park firefighters currently working out of a cramped and outdated 38-year-old station that doesn't accommodate all the equipment they might need.

And help is also on the way to village taxpayers, as the $9 million cost of the state-of-the-art fire station that broke ground Thursday next to the Sonya Crawshaw Branch of the Poplar Creek Public Library will come from money already saved.

There would have been nearly $4.3 million in interest to be paid off over 20 years if the village had had to take on debt through a bond sale, officials said.

"Our taxes will not increase from this station," Mayor Rod Craig said at the ceremonial start of construction.

The 14,000-square-foot station on the way to 2355 Schick Road is expected to replace the 4,000-square-foot station at 3855 County Farm Road next winter.

Both buildings are designated as the village's second station, but the new one will better match the facilities at the existing station to the north at 6850 Barrington Road, Fire Chief Eric Fors said.

The forthcoming station will comfortably accommodate seven people, while the one it's replacing uncomfortably accommodates five, he added.

Among the old station's other inadequacies are its lack of space for fire apparatus and storage, no clear gender separation of facilities for the staff, and a bunk room and workout room that are one and the same.

Discussion of and planning for a new station has gone on for a long time, Fors said.

"Now that it's coming to fruition, we're very excited about this," he added.

Furthermore, the new site will be much more accommodating to future expansion and changes than the old one as it serves the community for decades to come, Fors said.

"Let us remember that this is not just a building, but a testimony to our commitment to safety," he told the audience at the groundbreaking.

For Craig, the improvement is another step in a process that began during the late 1990s to transition the fire protection district that served the community into a municipal fire department run by Hanover Park.

Officials hope the old fire station can be sold for some kind of commercial use. But those plans are in their infancy.