The TribLocal has an article about Glenview trustees concerned about the final cost of the new Glenview FIre Department headquarters Station 6.
Glenview trustees have expressed concern about the rising cost of the village’s new downtown fire department headquarters.
Officials originally estimated the building at 1215 Waukegan Road would cost about $5.44 million. But at a recent village meeting, the project’s developers warned that the price may rise about 15 percent, or about $816,000, over the initial estimate because of the expansions and additional architectural features that were recommended to be added to the designs by officials at previous meetings.
The new fire station is slated for the site of a former police station. It’s needed because a four-story development now under construction forced one of the village’s fire stations out of its previous location at 1815 Glenview Road. While the new headquarters is under construction, a temporary fire station opened at the intersection of Glenview Road and Roosevelt Avenue earlier this spring.
Village trustees approved a conditional use ordinance, final site review and preliminary subdivision approval for the fire station on Oct. 1. Crews started to put up construction fences around the site on Monday, preparing for the demolition of the former police station building. But the project’s budget isn’t scheduled to be finalized until a November trustees meeting. Because of the holdup with finalization of the project, Glenview Fire Chief Wayne Globerger said he expects the construction to finish a couple of months behind the original target of June or July of 2014.
Some trustees questioned the need for an expanded fire station, which added about $375,000 to the project, and said they’d like to stick to the original estimated budget cost.
Trustee Deborah Karton reminded officials about the importance of the look of the building that would be in the downtown area, for which officials spent a long time developing a vision and a plan.
Glenview Fire Chief Wayne Globerger said his goal is to make sure the building is functional. He explained that having an expanded fire station, which would have space for three additional bunks and an extra half bay, helps the department prepare for different future scenarios. He mentioned a possibility of consolidating the nearby Fire Station 13 with the new one.
The issue of the building’s “street appeal” is affecting the cost.
Globerger said that there has been some talk among village officials about possibly moving the village campus next to the recently built Glenview Police Department headquarters at 2500 E. Lake Ave.
This idea is still being discussed but could affect the exterior design of the new fire station, he said. At the moment, the village hall looks very different from the village trustees’ vision of what downtown Glenview should look like.
“We’re trying to get pricing both ways,” Globerger said. “… The question is how fancy do they want the outside of the fire station to look?”
Previous posts on the new fire station are HERE, HERE, and HERE.
