Schaumburg trustees want new village hall on current site, new police station closer to it
Schaumburg trustees on Tuesday directed the village staff members to begin developing a plan to build a new village hall on the current site and build a new police station at a different site farther east.
The police station location that received the most favor was the village-owned property on the west side of Plum Grove Road, which connects internally with the village hall campus on the southeast corner of Schaumburg Road and Summit Drive.
However, Trustee Brian Bieschke and Mayor Tom Dailly asked Village Manager Brian Townsend to not yet rule out the possibility of a site closer to the Woodfield Mall commercial district.
"I think it would be better to have our police closer to where the action is," Bieschke said.
But Trustee Mark Madej suggested the Plum Grove Road site would already be closer to Woodfield than the current 47-year-old police station next to Schaumburg High School without abandoning the village's residential area.
But among the various options to renovate, rebuild or relocate, all were in agreement that a two-story village hall should be built from scratch on the 50-year-old present site at 101 Schaumburg Court.
"I just love this location of village hall because it represents Schaumburg," Trustee Esha Patel said.
Trustee George Dunham agreed that Schaumburg's municipal campus - which includes the Al Larson Prairie Center for the Arts, a pond, and enough space for the annual Septemberfest - is unique in the suburbs.
"It's a jewel," he said. "I think it would be a major crime to jettison this piece of property and go someplace else."
Despite consultants' warnings about annual inflation in construction costs, Dunham added that Schaumburg has always been better for not being rushed into decisions prematurely.
Trustees also suggested that the cost of temporary facilities for the village hall staff during a future reconstruction could be saved by building the new police station first and then using the old one as the short-term village headquarters.
They recommended Williams Architects of Itasca be paid $60,000 more to further refine the options they chose and present an even more detailed study in December.
A new village hall is currently estimated to cost $55 million and a new police station about $110 million.
Both current facilities have been deemed undersized and inadequate for present and future operations.