Carpentersville’s government center is a relic of the late 1970s, complete with the original boilers, village officials say. Space is at a premium and the police department’s holding cells antiquated.
The Carpentersville Village Board took the first step toward resolving the situation this week when it hired an architectural firm to put together a conceptual plan for a new village hall and police department. Both are currently located in a sprawling building at 1200 L.W. Besinger Drive.
Board trustees awarded an $800,000 contract to Dewberry Architects Inc. of Elmhurst after reviewing bids and going with the one that was $89,000 less than the cost estimated by the village.
Dewberry will launch its work with a kickoff meeting in November. The process, which includes a needs assessment, design creation and construction cost estimate, is expected to be done by September 2025.
Carpentersville had an evaluation done of the current village hall and police department a few years ago, Village Manager John O’Sullivan said.
“The analysis simply came back saying, ‘You don’t have enough room,’” he said.
It also determined that the cost of renovating the existing building “would probably be as much, if not more, than trying to build something from scratch on the same property,” O’Sullivan said. Tthe village owns an entire block with open space behind village hall so new construction space is available.
Over the years, the village made repairs and minor renovations, but it’s been piecemeal, he said. He’s not sure when the last work was done but there’s not much that can be done for their square footage constraints without more space.
“If I want to hire someone else in HR, I honestly don’t know where to put them,” he said.
Customer service areas are on two different floors and the police records (department) is located down the hall from the police station, he said.
“The boilers are ancient and creaky. The PD is absolutely breaking at the seams. There’s no room for conferences. The holding cells are antiquated. There are a lot of things that should be updated and upgraded,” O’Sullivan said.
Beyond that, the building itself isn’t very inviting, he said.
“I think the board has had enough of it. They want to figure out what we can do,” he said.
When Dewberry completes its work, it will present the village board with options and cost estimates for a new building, he said.
No decision to move forward will be made until then, and it’s possible the board could say it’s too expensive and decide to do nothing, O’Sullivan said.
If trustees want to push forward, how to fund the new building is something else the board will need to consider, he said.
With Carpentersville’s finances are sound, no new debt taken on in eight years, and previous bond issuances being paid off in a few years, the new building could be funded by issuing new bonds without increasing property taxes, O’Sullivan said.
Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.
