Kendall County Times

Village of Oswego Committee of the Whole met Aug. 20.

Here are the minutes provided by the committee:

CALL TO ORDER

President Ryan Kauffman called the meeting to order at 6:03 p.m.

ROLL CALL

Board Members Physically Present: President Ryan Kauffman; Trustees Tom Guist, Kit Kuhrt, Karin McCarthy Lange, Karen Novy, Jennifer Jones Sinnott, and Andrew Torres.

Staff Physically Present: Dan Di Santo, Village Administrator; Jean Bueche, Asst. Village Administrator; Tina Touchette, Village Clerk; Jason Bastin, Police Chief; Jennifer Hughes, Public Works Director; Andrea Lamberg, Finance Director; Rod Zenner, Development Services Director; Joe Renzetti, IT Director; Kevin Leighty, Economic Development Director; Bridget Bittman, Communications Manager; Maddie Upham, Management Analyst; Steve Raasch, Facilities Manager; and Dave Silverman, Village Attorney.

PUBLIC FORUM

Public Forum was opened at 6:03 p.m. There was no one who requested to speak. The public forum was closed at 6:03 p.m.

OLD BUSINESS

There was no old business.

NEW BUSINESS

F.1 Public Works Space Needs Assessment Presentation

Facilities Manager, Steve Raasch addressed the Board regarding the Public Works space needs assessment. The Public Works Facility, at 100 Theodore Drive, was constructed in 2002. All but the eastern wall was constructed of brick. The eastern wall was constructed of metal to facilitate easy removal for a planned addition. The Village commissioned a master plan in 2009 for expansion of Public Works. The Village Board requested staff conduct a space needs assessment to determine the needs for the Public Works Facility over the next 20+ years. Williams Architects of Itasca, IL was awarded the contract to conduct the assessment. Staff had several meetings with Williams Architects and visited other public works facilities to determine the existing and long-term needs for the department. Key concerns include: 19 pieces of equipment are stored outdoors year-round and office space, lockers, and restrooms are inadequate to serve existing and future staff.

Board and staff discussion focused on how long have we known it was undersized; it was always known to be expanded, it was just a matter of when; space needs of 57,500 sqft is based on existing fleet, future fleet and size of each; 75% driven by fleet space; lockers, workspace, and miles of maintenance of the roads; a lot of shared space being built into the needs; admin and engineering offices; training room; lockers, storage and lunch room; facilities management area; shop to be used for facility group; preparing a report with more detail to be provided later;

whether 119,000 sqft is enough; comfortable with the numbers because of the projections of the fleet; option 3 provides for future expansion; can’t project the population in the next 40-50 years; can have unknowns and make adjustments; what year does option 1 and 2 get us to; vehicle storage until 2050, but nothing else; best approach is a phased approach; challenges; cost of doing several projects versus one large project; taking longer to build; hard to plan for costs; more unknowns; 2-3 phases; option 2 is a valid solution, but will still have inefficiencies; option 1 includes the buildout at Village Hall; can recommend all we want, but if not financially responsible then it doesn’t work; back area at Village Hall built out to include 18 office spaces; current Public Works (PW) facility can’t handle the staff load; loading of trucks; don’t have room to service and fix things; can’t wash vehicles; need more room to work; always potential to move the dog park when it was built; can move the dog park by the Police Department (PD), to Venue 1012, or to Hunt Club; dog park was supposed to have been at the PD initially; PW is more important; expanding or building another salt dome; could have two domes; IGA’s with the school district; under option 2, the current building will be used for vehicle maintenance bays and various shops; storage garage is 76 sqft; have limitations of the existing bays; phasing because of the costs; avoid having to bond the project; building projected needs in their entirety instead of 70% of everything; reserves at just over 100%; have a lot of capital needs; $15 million out of reserves still puts us above the 30% reserve threshold; option 2 without bonding; will know more about the ability to pay for option 3 after we bid out for the water projects; could add the PW facility on to the water project; would need to see what the impact will be on the water rates; can do option 1 or 2 immediately; would come back next summer about the water rates; need direction on which option; option 2 will cover current and future vehicle needs; engineering group would be on-site versus at Village Hall; prefer to see a strong relationship with PW employees and not separating them; current facility retrofitted to storage and workspace; would need to do some work on the floors; can easily phase from option 2 to option 3; can come back and give more options to the Board; possible to keep the current building and not have to demo it; option 2 would use the current building as a bay area and additional fleet; pre-cast would allow for expansion; would need to re build east and west walls of existing building; schematic design phase to be provided; can add labeling; costs include equipment to operate the building; fees for design and construction manager are included in the cost; want option 3, but can afford option 2; full design for option 2 and plug in numbers for option 3; suggest a schematic design for option 3; option 3 because we are so far behind and possible costs in the future; not interested in option 3 right now; maybe in 10 years; would like to see a breakdown of what it looks like; construction management company to help minimize interruptions; any concepts will maintain access except on the south side of the site. Board is not interested in option 1.

Discussion to be continued at the August 20, 2024 Regular Board meeting under Staff Reports.

CLOSED SESSION

There was no closed session.

ADJOURNMENT

The meeting adjourned at 7:25 p.m.

https://www.oswegoil.org/home/showpublisheddocument/7217/638612185551098104