In an indirect kinda-sorta way I received a Thumbs Up from the Daily Chronicle. Actually the city council got the props — a bit premature, mind you — for approving the building of a new police station. But I’ll take credit where it isn’t due and mention that I’m on the finance advisory committee and participated in the special joint meeting.
Thumbs up: To the DeKalb City Council for choosing to build a new police station on West Lincoln Highway instead of adding on to City Hall. We applaud this investment in public safety. The DeKalb Police Department is long overdue a facility that meets its needs. The only fear now is that the city seems intent on building for today’s needs instead of tomorrow’s needs. If you’re going to build, do so with the future in mind while costs are lower. — Daily Chronicle
The kudos are premature. The city council did not approve anything. No motion was made or seconded. The issue was not listed as an action item on the agenda. The city council is not a consensus building body of government.
In general, consensus building bodies are subject to fewer legal requirements than traditional bodies responsible for the development of public policy. The agreements made by consensus building bodies are not official or binding. In this case Mayor Povlsen asked for a consensus vote of the city council and the advisory committee for the purpose of giving staff direction for presenting the issue as an action item as part of the FY11 budget.
For the purpose of the budget the new police station is on the agenda The financing of it should be. The mechanical requirements should not be. Even though a consensus among the city council was identified for locating it on W. Lincoln Hwy, due diligence and public consensus building is incomplete. To approve the location as part of the budget without due diligence is improper. It invites consensus building engineering and construction and that’s the most wasteful spending known to local government.
When asked for my consensus vote on the location I chose the current location.
- That location is more suitable for “revenue neutral” financing as defined by Tom Teresinski (2nd Ward) and supported consensusly by David Jacobsen (1st Ward), Brendon Gallagher (4th ward), Ron Naylor (5th Ward) and Monica O’Leary (7th Ward).
- Due diligence especially in a current independent traffic study has not been done unless and until questions on incoming/outgoing egress, pedestrian safety and cop cars getting on Lincoln Hwy in traffic jams for big football games and John Mayer concerts have been answered and verified.
The location should be removed as an action item for Monday night’s meeting.
The construction of a new police station is not a reward for our men in blue. If that’s the case then let’s give them a bonus they would enjoy and we could afford. The return on investment is increased public safety. I’m convinced, as are many others, that improvements and upgrades in facilities and technology are needed and will increase public safety.
The council should approve a budget for financing a new and/or newly equipped police station.
Teresinski and Gallagher are promoting “revenue-neutral” financing. They are very informed, trained and educated in finance. There’s is a conservative fiscal approach that can spawn creative, progressive public construction projects.
Old school thinking allows for adding 15% to the estimates provided by local commercial contractor, Steve Irving, on the recommendation of the architects who expect to be hired for the job. Is 15% horseshoe or hand grenade close to related professional fees? Has the architect been approved in public session?
Architects should not lead the financing of the project. Not when the formula for their pay rewards spending more. Not when its local government spending the limited and contracting revenues of its citizens.
Revenue neutral calls for financing the project without a tax increase. All of the aldermen appear willing to increase taxes or fees if necessary, including Gallagher and Teresinski. But their approach seeks minimalist measures for such increases. Both appeared comfortable, based on their preliminary calculations, on a $12 million cap on the construction project.
Good plan. Here’s why:
- This country is in a mess precipitated on the financing notion that good days always lie ahead so its OK to budget for them even if its more than you can afford right now.
- According to the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (2009) the annual median household income in DeKalb is $37,272. Of the 14,390 households in DeKalb 2,173 have an annual income under $10,000. Yes there are students. Many who are claimed as dependents and would not be reported. Many are retirees. A significant number are families.
- On the other end of the income spectrum, for food for thought, according to the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (2009), 604 households, out of DeKalb’s 14,390 total, make more than $200,000 per year. That’s compared to Sycamore’s 633 $200k and up households, out of 6,594 total. Rumor has it that those higher income types have been known to flee communities with high taxes. Chicago, for example, lost 6.7% of its population mostly to its affluent suburbs from 2000-2010. They headed west to escape from… high taxes.
If you want to contribute on letting the city council know what the public consensus on the budget, your taxes and.or the police station attend the Monday night Public Hearing at the city council meeting. Or, click here to let your aldermen and mayor know what your consensus is on the matters.
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5 Comments
Yes, what is IDOT’s response to this plan?
Can you have progress that is in any way “precious” if there has been a major failure of due diligence?
Schnuck’s is a good comparison.
Any chance of getting precast to keep the costs down and increase the likelihood that the place might still be standing in case of at least an F3? It would be nice to build something capable of withstanding an F5 but I think that is not really doable. Something that will not flood is necessary, too.
Precast is all dependent on the architects design of the building. Of course the squarer the building the better. It also needs to have a repetitive design with window openings and such to be cost effective Kay. I encourage the design to have a basement. There should be no concern for flooding at the Lincoln Hwy site especially when the retention pond is designed and built on the property(unless the city waives the need for a retention area just as they are bypassing a traffic study). They can leave the shooting range where it is. The mold and mildew problem can be abated and the sally port (garage) right above the shooting range can be closed to vehicles dripping water, snow, and ice thus eliminating the source of the water causing the mildew and mold. An updated and re-purposed ventilation system can be installed making the shooting range fully usable again.
If built, this new station must be able to be used a safety shelter, cooling center, and a warming center for the community. Precast flooring can be utilized for the main deck (sub floor) of the structure along with reinforced foundation to make the basement area ideal for a storm shelter. I also feel that the building should be a design/build project and of course “valued engineering” a very important part of the bid package when they do eventually go out. This would help keep material costs down and help keep the architect on track with keeping final costs down on the overall project.
Local bids would be highly encouraged but the bottom line is that all that bid must be qualified and lowest bids taken in the end. It is nice to see local workers get the job but we must not be handing over work if they are not the lowest bidder. All must come into this bid with sharp pencils and I mean, very sharp pencils.
Clearly it wouldn’t be good to have only one exit point from the station. However the police have an advantage that the rest of the property owners don’t have: they can completely shut down the highway if necessary. Perhaps having a gravel drive that goes out the back and over the tracks with a private crossing could be tacked on at minimal cost as a safety backup.
I will admit that having an updated understanding of traffic patterns in that area is good to have, but this cannot be used as an excuse to fire up the printing presses again for another round of studies. Identify the specific problem you want handled, get traffic engineers to give you a yes/no answer, and keep the precious progress we have alive.
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I was a member of the original citizens committee put together to provide a recommendation to the mayor and city council on size for the police station.
First, let’s clarify some points here. The committee was not allowed to discuss location as Chief Feithen informed us that the Lincoln Hwy. site was the site we were to use for the purpose of deciding on building size.
Second, we were not to discuss the architect as they architect was already decided on and that we were to listen and decide upon the architect’s recommendations especially to size needed for certain areas in the police station.
Many, many funding ideas were discussed but many of the ideas were instantly knocked down by Chief Feithen or Asst. City Manager Rudy Espiritu. In other words it is really fair to say that I felt that the committee’s hands were tied with respect to really deciding fair and equitable solutions.
My observations for what they may be worth.
1. Our police department is desperately in need of space within the police station to help perform their duties to the fullest.
(Remember now, that they the current station has only 17,500 square feet of space. Also to note that the space is a hodge podge of space NOT all originally designed for the purpose of police work)
2. One of Chief Feithen’s original complaints was the 911/radio dispatcher room. This room has recently been remodeled and added on and is now a state of the art facility. I believe that it is now one of three used in DeKalb County along with the DeKalb County Sheriff’s 911 center and NIU’s radio room. Many other communities have closed their radio rooms and consolidated with the County – maybe an idea for DeKalb down the road.
3. If a real architect that was truly tops at what they do was to be given 17,500 square feet to design and incorporate the needs for DeKalb’s police station, I personally feel that he would only require another 11 to 13,000 square feet to pull off a facility that would be beyond what the department requires. Properly utilizing this square footage and designing the square footage for police use only is very doable. I always have problems with architects who get paid on based primarily on square footage designed and the amount of construction costs (costs which of course grow with more square footage constructed).
4. No one can use the 17,500 square feet as a reference point to say that 17,500 square is too small. It is all in how that space is utilized. Is it actual usable space or just hallways? Is it a 300 square foot room with no wall space? Is it all windows and doors with no designated walk paths? Sometimes, basic is better. It is more efficient more of the time than not. Extravagance is the culprit many times in excess space that is good for nothing but added maintenance costs.
5. Those proponents for the bigger station of 56,000 square feet truly have NO clue on what 56,000 square feet is. Their only point of reference for this 56,000 is solely the ARCHITECTS recommendation (who by the way gets paid based on square footage). My point of reference for 56,000 square feet is Schnuck’s grocery store here in DeKalb. It has 53,000 square feet open to customers for shopping (additional square footage for storage etc that we can’t see). Go walk thru Schnuck’s, aisle by aisle, corner by corner, front to rear and you tell me what the heck our police are going to do with 56,000 square feet? Be smart not greedy, be practical and not dreamy, let’s use hard to find dollars with extreme prejudice, not like typical government does.
6. Smart use of dollars will give our police officer’s the police station they desperately need, smart use of dollars can also mean better equipment for their protection on the streets, better vehicles and radios for support, and maybe just maybe enough money to give the department an adequate number of officers to provide the level of safety this community requires and that the officer’s themselves would have for backup when needed.
7. Lastly, why hasn’t there been a traffic study performed for the Lincoln Hwy. location. Please do not tell me that there hasn’t been adequate time. First, I cannot believe that a study wasn’t performed before spending over $1 million for the location. Every developer that proposes a development or major building project in DeKalb is required under the current Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) to provide this study. I’m going to say that I might even think that the State of Illinois may require it due to Route 38 being involved here. What gives the city special exemption? One of the reasons for this study is for safety of drivers and pedestrians.
Also important to note. I asked during a committee meeting about the ability to provide a 2nd access to this Lincoln Hwy location. I suggested working with the railroad to provide a access to the rear by having a underpass built under the tracks to provide access to the south. The reply from then Public Works Manager Rick Monas was that this was not a feasible idea due to the complexity of working with Union Pacific and the costs involved. If this station is built, it is more than just common sense, it is a priority that a police station have more than one entrance/exit point. There is no room for discussion on this need.
It is a shame that it has taken over 16 years for the city council to try to remedy the needs of the police and their police station. I also wish to point out that current Alderman Dave Baker and current mayor and former alderman Kris Povlsen have both been involved with the council as long as this police station has been a question and have also been involved with the many times this topic has been shelved. Talk about not being able to get something of urgency resolved.