Elburn expected to break ground on new police station in 2024

– Years of planning since 2017 when Elburn Village President Jeff Walter first took office is coming to fruition as a groundbreaking for the new $10 million police station is expected in the summer 2024. “We are moving forward on our police station. … We’re hiring an architect, getting final drawings and we have a general contractor hired,” Walter said.

“We bought six acres next to the water tower by the Blackberry Creek subdivision for $25,000 at a tax sale,” Walter said. “It was a bargain. We knew years ago we needed a new police station. We have been undersized for a long time.” Voters did not approve a referendum for a new police station, but Walter said the cost was within the village’s bonding power, so they will sell bonds to pay for it.

“The police station is 1,150 square feet is tiny and in a town our size, it’s way behind the times,” Walter said. “Our breathalyzer is in the same room as our clerks – it’s behind their desks. We don’t have a booking room. We have a little room with a bench with handcuffs on it.” Elburn’s population is 7,200, but is growing, as it has issued 100 new building permits this year, mostly for houses, Walter said.

More population means more police. “We’re not the small town we once were,” he said. The new police station is expected to be completed sometime in 2025. The current Village Hall Police Department space will be remodeled to provide more space for administration and building and zoning, he said.

The new police station will have a multi purpose room for training and for relocating the Village Board meetings. Also on the drawing board is more space for Public Works, as a space needs analysis showed the need for a larger building. The village owns two acres across the street from the current public works building, which will become a location a salt dome and a full storage building, he said.

The village will be in its fourth year of spending $1 million on road improvements, focusing on Blackberry Creek and in the north part of town in 2024. “Our roads were in bad shape,” Walter said. “During the economic turndown i(n 2008 09), we didn’t spend much money on anything because we didn’t know what would happen.”.